F-Body Europe

Heres the deal, when the car runs, it runs well, except for the time when I had a rocker to loose (but we wont go into that *grin*)

I seems I only get one crank per day, I'm getting good injector pulses, fuel pump does the proper 2 second whir thingy when key is on, and no trouble codes.

I have swaped out, coil wire, coil, ignition box so far. The engine cranks fine (nothing out of the ordinary), and you can smell the fuel so it is definatelly a spark issue. I'm leaning towards the opti for obvious reasons (thats why I keep asking about vented opti's)

My question is, why would it start at all if something was wrong?? There is no low end miss, or high end miss (only to 3500 rpm so far). I really dont think its a ground either because when it runs there is no stumble,miss,knock, fart or sneeze.

Granted I havent really started probing wires with the 'ol multi-meter but this doesnt make sense.

...So start spitting out thoughts (any)
TIA
Rob

Rob I hope this helps your pain. I had the same problem about two years ago, and funny the RPM was the same. I spent day's and nights and a lot of money trying to fix it. I finally gave up and bought an opti and it cured the problem.

Is this the symptoms your car has? When you give it gas it'll get to 3500 and then it seems to studder and loose power plus you get some kinda funny knocking/pinging noise from under the hood. When you drive it there seems to be nothing wrong until you get into it and hit around 3500 and then you notice some hesitation. If this is the problem you are having then it's probably the opti. The weird thing about all of this is as you said, before 3500 rpm and after 3500 rpm the car pulls normaly. I bet if you hook up a scan tool to your car you'll have a lot of knock retard. I wish you the best of luck on this problem. I know how it is you do one simple thing and you might as well replace everything.

Almost forgot this problem didn't make any since at all to me either. The opti is a strange breed of charecter and a piece of crap to boot. good luck!!!!!!!:)

One word................


[http://www.electromotive-inc.com/]


get rid of the opti for good. That's what I'm doing in the next few months! Authorized dealer and installer here from the link above located in Germany!
WOHOOOOOOO!

Why didn't my link highlight? Rob look at them and find a shop near you in the dealership section.

well completly confused now, cuz tonight it started like it was nobodies business 3 times in a row. Spark advance, O2 readings, L/R short term corrections , zero knock retard, L/R long term corrections, absolutely everything is within the realm of normal. I ran it about 5miles reving up to about 4500 just so I could get a 70% throttle reading to freeze the O2 and check knock retard readings was completly smooth and no miss or hesitation (just to clear it up if I explained it bad, I havent expieranced any hesitation or miss at all, I only ran it to 3500rpm because I'm still breaking in the cam). If the opti is bad, then it only has some bad days.

That ignition system is bad azz John, but I havent had any problem out of the opti. My first one was fine until I took it off and that was over 7years, so I dont really fear them going out on me yet.

I'm going to take a longer check drive hear in a minute, but the car acts great now. If I walk back home thou, well, then we have issues.

NOTE TO SELF: adjust rockers with the engine running, it works great.

I just got back from an extended drive/cruise. With 30 miles on the setup, and no pulling over to let the smoke out from under the hood, I am slowly (probably curse myself) starting to think everything is okay.

I'm gonna try and bump the idle up alittle, cuz with the underdrive and 600rpm idle, the lights will do alittle dim number at a stoplight, and I still dont have alot of faith in the puny dyno-bat.

If all goes well tomarrow, I'll have some video. Although there are several things I have to do yet, atleast the motor is back togethor and running. So it looks like I have a date with the dyno on MLK day weekend.

Place your bets, except for the motec controller I have the same 429hp setup that was in "Chevy High Performance" but with the ported heads they didnt have. So figuring 14-15% drivetrain loss, I'm hoping for 360-370rwhp and about the same Tq.

Any guess?

Rob

Those figures sound pretty accurate. I bet you'll have around 370-385 RWHP. The figures you put up there were pretty damn close to what it should be. Glad to hear it wasn't the opti I know how much it sucks doing a nother partial tear down.

Definetly bump up the idle/ 600 is way too low. Try 750-800 you still be cammin alot w/ that. Good luck and I'm sure everything is fine w/ the car too. W/ the dyna bat are you gettin it to crank the 1st time around?

Are you getting it Dyno tuned Rob? If so I say 390-ish rwhp. May be a bit optimistic but, there are few with the hotcam/ported LT1 heads and shorties geting that, maybe you can uncap the exhaust to get the HP #'s up on the dyno.

Jeff

yeah, it cranks just like it did when the optima was in there. Its just.... so puny!!

This may be totally useless but a friend of mine has a 94 Trans Am and described a similar sort of scenario where the car ran fine apart from one little patch. We all thought it might be the opti. He changed the plugs and it went away. I know they're a b*st*rd but all the more reason why they get overlooked.

Sounds like you're having fun!

I think I explained it wrong. I have never had a hesitatation or dead spot in the RPM's. My problem was no spark, leading me to think coil/coil wire/opti. There really is nothing left to change out because when I put the thing back togethor I used new coil/wires/plugs/opti/ignition box, you name it. I think its fine now, just probably a ground that I jiggled loose and reconnected not knowing it was the culprit.

C'ya
Rob

Nice signature picture there Rob!