I'm hoping someone here has had the same problem and can steer me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance from a frustrated Old Guy.


SAT I was driving my 97 LT1 (77K) home and the engine cut out. Lucky i was only 2 blocks from home and was able to coast it home and into the driveway.

I tired to restart the camaro and the car cranks but it sounds like it it running on 2 or 3 cylinders then dies. I let it sit for 15 mins try to recrank same thing... let it sit 30 more mins same thing. I have a small Odyssey Battery so it's low almost dead... I make a call get some friends to come over and push the Camaro in the garage and borrow a charger.

SUN after church.

I put a fuel pressure gauge on it to checked the fuel pressure and with the ignition key on i have 43-44 psi.

I have a MSD 6a so i unplugged it.. cranked engine still not running. But the motor kinda tries to run. like it is running on 3 cylinders then dies.

I pulled #1 wire from the plug get a long screw driver in it and place it close to the header to see if i actually have spark. I get my neighbor's son to step on the clutch and crank the ignition.. Yes I have spark.

So i have Fuel, Spark, Air and a non running car....

My Camaro has 77K still has the original Opti and fuel pump.

 

My old 93 bird did that.Had it towed to the mechanic and it was the map sensor.I don't know if the 97 has one,but mine just died and I could start the engine,but it ran like I broke something inside,so i shut it down and and it towed to the mech.Hope this helps.

 

Maybe that spark is on one of the cylinders that you say feels like it is firing. Did you try others?

I'd begin with scanning for codes.

 

Thank you for the replys

Shoebox #1 was the easiest to pull and check from the top. I'll have to push the car out to check the others from under the car... but that will have to be for the weekend.

Borrowing a Friends scan tool this evening. Hopefully it will show something.

 

The fact that the fuel pump primes and produces 40+ psi does not mean you have fuel. The PCM will kill the injectors if you have a problem with the cam position signal from the optical sensor in the distributor, or if the ignition control module has failed. Both of these will set codes, but neither will turn on the SES light. If you truly have spark, you shouldn't have these codes.

Additionally, it isn't unheard of for the screws that hold the distributor rotor on the distributor to come loose and let the rotor flop around, resulting to random, incorrectly timed spark.

 

Injuneer - I plan to scan after work today...

 

Scanned the car .... No Codes.

Injuneer - you said if I truly have spark then I would not have these codes. Any suggestions?

I may take the ICM out tomorrow and bring it to parts placed to get checked?

Glad this is not my daily...

 

All LT1's have a MAP sensor, but only the 93 uses it to calculate the mass air flow, operating in speed-density. 94 and up use an MAF sensor for that purpose. If the MAF sensor fails, 94 and up will default to speed-density using the MAP sensor input.

All years use the MAP sensor as a measure of engine load, as one axis of the ignition advance table (rpm is the other axis) and the boundaries of the long term fuel correction cells. A 93 will have a serious problem if it loses the MAP sensor, 94 and up will not.

 

Sounds like ignition. Testing the ICM is a good first step. Shoebox also has a method to check the coil. After that it comes down to looking for spark at the coil wire and each plug.

If you get it running, check the fuel pressure under load.

 

I'll test the ICM and coil. Not looking forward to crawling under the car but it will be done. I purchased my Camaro new in 97 and given that everything is 17 years old... may just start replacing stuff...

 

Update from last post... I did check the ICM and it passed... I had a friend come over and we checked the regulator... when the car would try to run it did maintain 43 psi... I had a friend that changed to an MSD opti years ago and asked him why he changed his... He said that it was running fine then just decided not to or was running on half a motor... he said the MSD opti fixed that but he did go thru 3 of them and told me to stick with a Delco unit.

So i bit the bullet and changed the opti, water pump, belt tensioner, radiator, radiator hoses, low coolant sensor, heater hose & front seals for the water pump and opti...

1 saturday to remove all the old stuff, 1 saturday and part of a sunday to put all the new stuff back on.... I cleaned myself off, said a quick pray to the 'car gods' turned the ignition key... and my Camaro started!!! gave it a quick rev then shut it off... I didn't put coolant in yet... but it runs and I am extremely happy that all the days of work did fix the problem...

I pick up a set of Torx sockets and pulled the cap off to see what was up inside of the opti... before i took the cap off i spun the shaft and could hear the bearing... the shaft also had noticeable side to side play... for some reason i shock it and i heard some rattling... When i took the cap off this is what i found...



Injuneer called it and i would not have believed it if i didn't see it for myself...

If anyone wants to see my write up and photo's. I did it on my Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/alfred.yee....4778726&type=1

Big Thank You to all that posted.

 

Hopefully you put some loc-tite on the screws in the new unit before you installed it.

 

I opened the old opti after i put everything back on...

I'm still waiting for 2 hoses and haven't put any coolant in yet... i'll have to get a set of small torx screwdrivers for the rotor screws. Not looking forward to taking it apart again but it will be worth the piece of mind..

Question: can the cap be removed with out removing the opti from the car?

 

last post for this thread

I removed everything off the front of the engine again (air pump, water pump, harmonic damper, opti cap) and used red (there was blue on the screws when i removed them) loctite on the rotor screws.

FYI You can remove the opti cap with out removing the opti as long as you have the crank hub positioned with the arrow on the hub pointed up. But when you get to this point it's only 3 10mm bolts that hold the opti in place.

Thanks again for all the comments.