Hello,

just got my car going again after two years. The engine is an LE2 with a purpose built shortblock to support it.

I just took it on its first break in run yesterday, running up and down the throttle and it ran great. Got it in the driveway to change the oil got the kids some lunch and when I came out to start it to pull it up the ramps it would not fire.

I noticed a small coolant leak from one of the water pump bolts (it did have sealant on it, go figure) but it was barely making a quarter sized puddle.

I scanned it and there are no trouble codes at all.

If I turn the ignition the fuel pump primes, everything looks normal. If I crank too long the engine floods so there is gas.

Apart from the problem everything seems AOK, I started and stopped the car a few times on its first real trip and it started right up. now this.

My first thought goes to the opti, but can it go bad with no trouble codes and barely any coolant on it? It was going really strong during the drive. The opti itself was a low mile unit that I put a MSD cap and rotor on with the rebuild it was airtight when I checked it before install and span freely with no binding.. My only guess is that perhaps the drip just had time to sit and with no vacuum through the vent lines built up in the opti..

My next thought is module or coil.. it is a stock module with an MSD coil. I haven't had time to test these..

The puzzler to me is just simply that it was running great, all the way up to 6800rpm, comes home and sits and then loses all spark and won't start..

Any ideas? Anything I am missing? It has been a long road with this car juggling this plus kids, job and wife and this just plain bites.

 

Got spark?
May have lost the opti or a connection shook loose.

 

When you lose spark, you can almost guarantee that its because of a loose or broken connection somewhere.

 

No spark at all.. all the connections yesterday looked good, I will doublecheck them.. I would of thought if the opti was losing a connection that a code would set however, and I have no codes to speak of.

 

Could have blow the fuse that controls spark. Same thing happened to dhirocz.

 

EDIT.. see below.

 

So thought I had it, replaced what looked like a burned fuse and it started right up and ran great.. went to autozone got out got some rags and the like and went to start her up and same thing, no spark..

replaced the module and coil and it did nothing... got fuel and pressure, got ecm, no trouble codes, got voltage.. Ideas??? Best I can figure is the opti.. could be the ecm I suppose.

She now sits at Autozone, I have hopes that tomorrow she will start again like she did today and I can drive it home..

What do you all think?

 

Ok, let her sit at autozone all night and she fired up after a bit of cranking.. on the way home I had symptoms I hadn't before, low idle, rough running at 15-25krpm.. No break up at high rpm however, or none that I could tell.. she stalled just as I was going into my driveway and I managed to start her back up once and that was it.. Now no starting again..

I am guessing that this is the opti, even though I have no codes.. Does that sound about right? Anything else now that I know it is not the module or coil?

thanks.

 

My opti did that when I first bought the car. It ran till it go hot then shut off. It would let me drive a mile or two at a time before it would die, then I would have to let it cool before trying again. Took me a long time to get home from school that day.

 

Ok, scanned it one more time, no trouble codes set today.. checked the plugs, no fouling to speak of.. when I crank she gets fuel.. would this suggest the high voltage portion is screwed up? I am wondering if I should get a new opti or perhaps get a delteq since I am getting no codes from the lo or hi res section..

opinions?

Thank you very much!!!

 

Unless you know FOR SURE what is wrong with the opti, I would not spend the money on the delteq then realize you need a new opti anyway.

 

Any progress? Have you verified that the water pump is no longer leaking?

What year is the engine/PCM (info that needs to be added to your "signature"), and how are you scanning it?

Which fuse did you replace?

 

Progress yesterday! First both modules I had were bad..

since I jumped that hurdle I returned the autozone module and bought a delteq system (since I was going to upgrade anyway), and figured if I recieved the proper signals to the opti box that the opti was still ok since scanning revealed no trouble codes and everything seemed ok.

so the delteq checked out ok and after hooking it all up I realized that when I primed the car a few times fuel was coming out the vaccuum port on my fuel pressure regulator.. Bingo!

My brand new aeromotive fpr was screwed after 20 whole miles... What a pos.

went and got a stock fpr, checked the fuel pressure again.. Now she runs great. Problem solved. Bad module, bad fpr..

So many new things on the car I never figured that they may also be the culprits.. not too happy about my nice shiny and broken regulator.. that is going back!


Will update the sig, I scan with LT1 Edit..

Thanks for all the help!

 

Thank you for pointing out the problem with the Aeromotive AFPR. There are posts showing one failure after another, yet at least one individual attacks me every time I point this out.

The evidence is clear to anyone with an open mind. Hard to understand how a company that builds killer fuel system components can continue to sell an LT1 AFPR that fails repeatedly.

 

My aeromotive fpr failed after a few thousand miles too. The diaphram ripped and it was sucking fuel in through the vaccuum line. feel free to add me to the list.
Kory