If you are loosing any coolant,could be the water pump.It leaks down onto the opti,Might check for leaks there.My02.The water pumps go out on high mileage cars.Heat shields can absorb electric from the plugs and cause this(remove them).But to keep things simple,might replace the coil wire first and see if this helps.They sell them(or used to) by the 6 pack.Hope this helps.My02.(Taylor over the valve cover wires?).

 

FYI, Just wanted to let you know that my knuckles are still healing lol. The only one I really had a hard time with was the passanger side front plug...after I pulled the alt out though it was a lot easier.
Too bad it didn't fix the problem.

Fatdog- I replaced the coil wire when I did the rest of the cables. I left two of the three heat sheilds on... not sure why but I guess I figured that they were there for a reason. I'm not loosing any coolant though...granted there is a leak coming from somewhere, but it's not the water pump, at least I don't think that it is.

97- I have been trying to find those kits but haven't really come up with anything on my searches. How much do those cost?

I still haven't had the time to get over to the hobby shop, and probablly won't have the time until after the holidays...hopefully I will be able to figure out what is going on with that car and it won't be a serious problem. The serious problems can happen in a couple years when I save up enough money to be able to easily pay for them. Thanks again for all of the help guys.

 

The box & harness are $400 from Bob Bailey, just send him an e-mail and he'll send you a paypal invoice. http://www.bailey-eng.com/LTCC.html

Additionally you can probably figure on spending another $300 or so for wires, boots, wire tool and coil packs.

Unfortunately they no longer make the brackets & covers you see in my pic so you will have to figure out how to mount the coils yourself. I'm actually working on a new bracket to move them down to the frame rails because adjusting the valves is a royal PITA. When the temp is no longer sub-arctic here I'll wander out to the garage and finish them.

Before anyone asks, the covers are not for sale.

 

I figured they would be pretty steep. Unfortunately at the moment I can't afford something like that. Eventually I will probably put a kit of the sorts on there... or just put a LS1 in the car.

Just thought of something that could be causing the problem that I am still having. If the ICM is going bad, or if there is something wrong with the connections to it, would that cause the rough start and rough idle/run?

 

Just thought of something else... If the O2 sensor(s) are bad, would that be causing the rough idle and acceleration? I looked at the engine again, mostly at the wiring around the injectors, and noticed that there are a lot of bare wires laying around. I am thinking about getting a new wire harness and replacing all of it, which is probably going to be a serious PITA...but if it works, cool. Just wanted to know what you guys thought about it before I go and do anything.

I know a lot of people have suggested getting an OBD II diagnostic tool and using that to try and figure out what is going on. I am planning on getting one, but just don't have the cash for it right now. I know the hobby shop here has one that they will let me use...but finding the time during the work day to get over there and actually use it is proving to be rather difficult.

 

According to your 1st post, you have a 94. That's OBD-I. You can't use an OBD-II scan tool on an OBD-I PCM. And there are no low cost scan tools for OBD-I. There is however, free scanning software, so with a laptop, and purchase of a cable, you can produce data logs that are valuable for analyzing problems:

Free software:

FreeScan (free):

http://andywhittaker.com/ECU/FreeSca...0/Default.aspx

TTS DataMaster (Free download, 20 free uses):

http://www.ttspowersystems.com/DataMaster.html

Cable:

http://www.akmcables.com/

Interpet the data:

http://www.injuneer.com/ScanMast.html

 

PS: You need to add a "Signature" with basic data about your car - year, model, engine, trans and any major mods. That way people have all the data they need to help you , without having to go look at earleir posts to refresh their memory.

 

Very well, sorry, one of my friends told me that it was an OBD-II. Guess I won't be getting advice from him anymore

So, interesting thing happens this morning: I put a bottle of fuel cleaner (that is supposed to help clean your fuel filters and injectors) in the tank before driving the fifteen miles of highway to work. Stopped shortly after I put it in to fill 'er up... car ran smooth as it has since I got it for a good ten miles on the highway. As I started getting closer to work it acted up a little, but nothing too serious. Starting to wonder if I should just replace the fuel filter and keep putting the cleaner in there to make sure the injectors are clean...wouldn't it be a wonderful world if that was 'all' that needed to be done to fix this?

I know some of the more experienced guys are reading these posts and thinking "Sh*t, this guy just keeps throwing out random ideas!". I do this because I trully don't know that much about the car yet, just trying to trouble shoot it... if it is becoming annoying, just tell me to shut me yap

Injuneer - Thanks for the links, I will have to look in to doing that...probably help out in the long run huh?

 

Appears that so far, all you have done is replace the plug/coil wires. When you changed the plug wires, did you inspect the terminals in the Opti for corrosion?

Before randomly replacing parts, you've got to do some diagnostic work. Have you run the engine in the dark, looking for arcing? Look around the coil and the Opti, in addition to the wires. Even though the wires are new, if you have a plug with an excessive gap, the wire on that cylinder could still be arcing to ground, because its easier to do that than jump the gap on the plug.

Get it scanned. There are codes that don't turn on the SES light. Problem is that there are no codes directly related to the high voltage side of the ignition system. There are codes for the cam position sensor in the Opti, codes for the low voltage ignition control (IC Module), but nothing directly related to the high voltage side. If your "hobby" shop has an ignition scope, might be a good place to check.

As has already been noted, check the fuel pressure.

There are just so many possible causes if misfires, and misfires cause the problem to worsen, as the unused air blows into the exhaust and causes the O2 sensors to tell the PCM its running lean, and the PCM adds fuel the engine doesn't need, so now its running rich.

Does the roughness vary with temperature? Does it run better on cold start, and then worsen as the engine warms up? Does it "work through" the misfire at mid RPM, and then clear up at higher RPM/full throttle?

 

I did check for corrosion, and honestly I couldn't see anything wrong with the Opti.

Yeah, I learned a while back when I had one of my little ricers that throwing parts at it and hopping that each one fixes the problem is not a good idea...and a waste of money. I have run the engine in the dark to look for archs, but haven't been able to get up under the car while it was running though. When I put the cables back on I ensured that they were fully seated, though I didn't have the time to check the gap of the plugs.

Man, that place has everything you could need to work on a car, even a paint room. Keeps a lot of the Marines on base interested in their cars instead of getting out in town and doing stupid stuff.

The roughness doesn't really vary with the temp. It does "work through" the misfire at mid RPM and clear up.

EDIT: It works through the misfire at mid RPM and clears up most of the time. It also misfires real bad between 45-65 MPH and then clears up and runs better. There is still a misfire going on, but not nearly as bad as between those speeds.

 

Okay, so I found a scan tool (OBD-I) at Kragen-Oriley's for about $25. All it does is plug in under the dash and 'blink a certain sequence of lights' or something to that effect. From there you take the little guide book and find out what the light show on the dash displays means and fix the problem... I know it's only $25 and there is probably a reason it is so cheap, but I figure it would be worth the try. What do you think? I am still planning on getting the cable that you sent me the link to, Injuneer, but for a quick ball park I was thinking about getting this scan tool just to be able to get my car back in to decent running condition until I can get the cable for the software that I downloaded last night.

 

I'm not sure if one of the old flashing light readers will work with a 94+ PCM to be honest. I know they worked with the older prom based ECMs. I would put the $25 towards the AKM cable personally.

 

I don't think that will work.

 

It doesn't....93 was the last year that did

 

And there is no benefit in the " little guide book " (for the scanner that won't wok on your car).... when you get the codes, using the scan software or a "real" scanner, you only need to check Shoebox's list, which is specifc to the LT1:

http://shbox.com/1/Dtcs.htm