My car has now been sitting thanks to running issues once again.

When I first bought the car, it would run for ten minutes and then die. I replaced the opti-spark distributor, cap, rotor, FPR, ignition control module, coil, spark plug wires, water pump, serpetine belt, and the main wire going to the opti-spark distributor.

All of this was replaced at the exact same time and ever since then, my car has never ran better. All of this was replaced, roughly, 5,000 miles ago (if that).

Although, about a month ago, I just got done putting a full tank of Fast Lane's gasoline in my car (my car was on empty) and the following day, my car did not want to run or stay running.

A few things that I have found are:

- Sometimes, the car will run for an hour.
- Sometime, the car does not want to start in the mornings.
- Sometimes, the car will want to run for only 5 seconds... If I'm lucky.
- Every time the car dies it will either do 1 of 2 things.
1) Not start
2) Start
- Everytime it starts right back up, it runs great but then eventually dies again.

The problem seems to be that I'm not getting enough fuel pressure or something in that area but i know for a fact that I am.

When the car is running & is about to die, it usually drops down to 500 RPMs really fast and then jumps back up to, roughly, 1,000 RPMs. After anywhere from 10 seconds to 10 minutes, the car will do it again but this time it will die. After the car dies, it sometimes starts right back up or it will have the "security" light on the dash causing me to not be able to start it for almost three minutes, or the car will just crank and crank and crank with no start.

I have fuel pressure and the fuel pump is priming. I'm not sure if this is spark related because sometimes when I try to start it, it wil just crank and every now and then it will seem as if it catches and starts but then it just goes back to cranking.

I'm sorry about the long post but the is an issue that is extremely hard to explain and also needs to get fixed as soon as possible!

 

Any ideas anyone?

 

where are you in MO? sounds like it could be a whole bunch of things. hard to say without more info. the fact that you get a security light sometimes leans me towards that.

 

My car was doin the same thing a few months ago and i cleaned my mass air flow sensor off with parts cleaner and its ran fine ever since

 

you could have got a hold of a bad optispark mine did some of the same things when it went out or it could be the security but that wouldnt kill it after it was running

 

You haven't done any diagnosing that I can see. When it won't start, what is the fuel pressure (tested with a gauge) and is there spark? Some monitoring with a scanner could also be useful.

 

maybe the fuel pump is on its way out, or fuel filter clogged? you need to narrow down wether or not its fuel or spark issues. that will make diagnosing it alot easier...

 

Sorry for the delay in post but I have narrowed it down to thinking that maybe it's the spark...

I just replaced the fuel filter a day or two after it started dying randomly and the fuel pump is running perfectly. I did, however, take off the spark plug wire on the driver's side (1st plug) and put another spark plug in to check for spark & when I went to crank it, my father watched and the car took a minute or two to start but when it did, my father said that the spark plug was sparking when it started, but barely & when it was cranking, the spark plug didn't spark at all.

So I started thinking that it's the opti, once again... So I had my father order me a MSD opti yesterday and he just now got it today. So once I get home from school & work, I'm going to put that on and see where that gets me.

Anyone know of any easy ways to instal the Opti, other than taking off the water pump, serpetine belt, cooling fans, radiator, harmonic balancer, etc., etc. because I've done it before and I know that it's a lot of work. I just want a way that is slightly easier.

 

you dont have to remove the radiator

there is no easier way to do it other then removing all the other stuff u mentioned

 

go to Shoebox's site and look at the diagnosis entries.
http://shbox.com/page/index.html

 

You keep saying the fuel pump is working perfectly. Unless you have attached a test gauge and read the pressure, you don't know. But, it sounds like spark may be your problem. Check your coil wire.

 

Okay guys, sorry about the delay in post once again but I finally found out the problem.

My father got me a MSD Distributor and we just put it on. While we were putting the distributor in, we also managed to find three vacuum leaks and one was the "breathing vent" for the opti

Started the car up last night and wow, it sounds and runs so much better and soooo much cleaner/meaner.

So, incase you all were wondering, a new distributor is what fixed my problem and I would highly recommend MSD.

Thanks for your time, opinions, and help.
-Mike O.