Hello everyone, My name is Jamison and this is my first post on here. I'm normally a Ford guy but thought i'd give Chevy a chance.

I recently bought a 1996 Camaro Z28 LT1 6 Speed for my wife. When i went to pick it up it started right up and ran....then started popping out the exhaust.......To make a long story short, i still bought the car cuz the engine was was quiet and the body was nice. I figured it would be a easy fix and she'd be on the road. I replaced the opti and it ran ok but lacked power and sputtered a bit.
Well, the whole summer's gone and she's only drove it a handful of times and half of those times she was broke down.

This thing is so intermitant that i can't really pin point what's going on. For some reason when it acts up the tachometer drops to zero and sometimes stays on zero while its running fine. I just reved it up and it cut out and died and wouldn't start again.......i went inside for 10 mins and came back out...fired right back up but tach was still fluctuating. Should i be looking at the coil or ignition control module? Is the tach ran off the coil? If the ignition control module is bad how hard would it be to wire in a Spare MSD 6A box that i have?

Stuff i replaced:
Optispark, Plugs, wires, ground strap (from head to fender well),Crank position sensor,fuel filter, starter (lol).

Someone please help!!!

 

Any SES light going on? If so, get it scanned for OBD II codes.

 

check engine light is intermitant as well.

Had it scanned at Advanced Auto

I'm getting codes P0100, P0372, P1361, P1371

 

P0100 Mass Airflow Sensor, insufficient signal activity

P0372 DI High Resolution Signal Circuit Fault (opti) could be distributor wiring/connectors

P1361 IC Module Control Control Low Voltage

P1371 DI Ignition Low Resolution Circuit (opti)

What kind of opti did you buy?

 

No kidding, I just used a Remaned Opti and it lasted two months and putts out on me.

Where are you located?? If your close to anyone they may be willing to come give you a hand.

 

Check the plug wires. Plugs ever been changed? Lt1s love to eat plug wires/melting.

 

Check the opti harness. The tach signal is sent from the PCM. An MSD box is in addition to the ICM-it does not replace it.

 

I checked/ removed and cleaned the opti harness. It looked fine. (I'm no expert though) all the connections were clean and i put dielectric grease on the plug termianals.

So are you saying the tach signal runs through the opti harness too? If not what harness? could i possibly have a faulty PCM doing this? I also unlpugged it and used dielectric grease as well. Just about every sensor and connection has bee checked cleaned and greased. Damn, i love this car but its almost on its way out the door.

One more question: Is the ground strap supposed to be attached to the head even if its made of aluminum? Should i be grounding it staight from the block to the fenderwell?

 

I checked/ removed and cleaned the opti harness. It looked fine. all the connections were clean and i put dielectric grease on the connectors.

So are you saying the tach signal runs through the opti harness too? If not what harness? could i possibly have a faulty PCM doing this? I also unlpugged it and used dielectric grease as well. Just about every sensor and connection has bee checked cleaned and greased. Damn, i love this car but its almost on its way out the door.

One more question: Is the ground strap supposed to be attached to the head even if its made of aluminum? Should i be grounding it straight from the block to the fenderwell?

 

I got the opti off ebay it was a new one. I'm in Howell, Michigan

 

That may be your problem

 

Wow, your about what two hours or less from me. I was just up to Saline to pick up a parts car.

107 miles to be precise and 1 hour 51 min. So with my driving 1 hour 30 min

Dont give up, I went threw the same thing when I got my Lt1 I wanted to give up too but held in there and the car runs great now.

My guess would be you got a Bad Opti in the first place, just get a GM Performance Opti from Summit and you should be good.

 

seriously, why did i pick a chevy with a optispark for my first one? I think this car may have ruined it for me!!!!!!!
I've owned it for 5 months and wasn't able to put but 3,000 miles on it

 

The dashboard tach gets a signal directly from the PCM to operate it. The PCM gets position information from the opti.

The braided ground strap goes from the coil stud to the LH chassis. The battery cable ground goes to the block on the RH motor mount.

 

The wierd thing is....if i baby it, i could prolly drive the car for a few hundred miles without any issues. If i turn it off and try to restart it after driving it for a long ride...... It may start right up but, if it don't start right up it will sit there and idle but sputter and fart and try to stall......as soon as i try to rev it up...it will cut out and try to stall. When i let off, it goes back to idle.
If i drive it aggressive....it may only run good for 20 mins and cut out and die. When i try to restart,,,it will just crank and do nothing for 10-30 mins.
Is it possible i'm having a coil or ICM problem? Or do u feel its the opti or the harness?

One thing I did hear the catlytic converter making noise today though.

**UPDATE** I checked the fuel pressure.... 45 psi when i turn the key forward..then it quickly beeds down to zero.... With the car running @ idle its got 37 psi and i noticed it to drop a few psi when i rev it up to around 3,000rpm. Isn't there a problem there? I thought it was supposed to have constant pressure around 45-47psi?