Offering money $$$ reward to person supplying winning solution to or testing procedure that leads to solution of my starting problem...

I am having a hellacious starting issue with my 95. today I was driving down the road when all of the sudden I lost engine power. The engine seemed to have shut off. I imediately pulled over into a parking lot. When I stopped I noticed the car had an extremely aggresve Idle as if only one or two cylinders were firing. I turned the key off. I popped the hood and stepped out just in time to see smoke rising from under the hood. I though D*%$. Overheated... To my suprise the upper hose busted about in the middle. I pulled it walked to a parts store and replaced it. filled it with coolant and tried to start it... For some reason, it wouldnt start. All kinds of things raced in my mind. Optispark, head gasket, etc. etc. I narrowed it down to what I considered spark or compresion. Rented a compression tester and all seems ok, unless I missed something. pulled the spark plugs, put them back in their boot and ran a wire from the plug to the block for grounding purposes. turned it over and no spark. I hosed down the optispark with wd40 to displace any coolant that might have got inside since coolant will not evap on its own. (gotta give it a little convincing) Let it dry, and did the spark test again, walla, spark. I put the plugs back in and turned it over again... no luck. But there is a change... It seems to kick back a little after I stop turning it over. And then if I keep trying it will eventually make a slight back fire sound out of the exhaust and then once in a while also out of the intake... I checked the plugs for water, oil or coolant, nothing found. I checked the oil cap and dip stick for water or whiting, nothing... Im lost as to what to do next and am really looking to find a way to identify the absolute problem as I do not want to spend silly amounts to replace working parts... I am offering a reward to anyone who can bring me the solution or a testing procedure I can perform that will Identify to me the problem. I wont anounce the exact reward amount, but I will say it is in the tripple digits... Ill be checking both my email as well as this post regularly...

 

OK so... I pulled all the plugs, checked compression again, passengers side head is a little lower on all cylinders but its not by much, and theres no oil or water on the plugs. I sanded down the plugs, dried off the fuel and set them to the side, due to all the fuel n the plugs and the smell in the exhaust, I figured it might be flooded from all the attempted starts. I left out the plugs, spayed some wd40 in the cylinders and proped the hood up a little to circulate air and now Im off to bed, maybe it'll start one the cylinders dry up... I guess we'll see...

 

My money is on water in the Opti, pull the cap and inspect.

 

If my memory serves me correctly I need a female torques driver... Do you know what size? Ill have to buy it seperate. Im low on tools at the moment... But before all that If there was water in the distr. then I shouldnt get any spark at all correct? But Im getting pretty good spark from all plugs... ???

 

I think the size designation is E4 for the female torx, but can't swear to it. Water in the cap will not necessarily cause you to loose all spark, just like a conventional distributor the water can simply cause crossfire preventing the engine from starting. Good luck.

 

The engineer that designed them should be shot..A fly could **** on them and it will create all kinds of problems..Check it out for cross fire...Good luck..You'll get it

 

My guess for the money.......you have a pushrod not making contact with one or more of your rockers somehow......valve or valves not opening. If the valve remains shut "all the time" a compression test will show nothing is wrong. Pull the valve covers and take a look.....pushrod has come out of the rocker's seat.....look for a rocker stud or retaining nut that has backed off.

 

I'd check the coil and ICM as well if the coolant sprayed that badly.

You have a 95 which has the MUCH improved vented opti. You would be quite surprised at what the vented ones can take.

 

Oh we are guessing

I love this game...

I think that your tranny is shot

 

 

Check for codes. I would bet on codes 16 and/or 36 showing up.

 

I have to go with opti also, here's a free test for you. When you grounded the spark plug, what color was the spark? Yellowish spark is weak and may not fire a cylinder, you need to look for a bluish-white spark which is a good strong spark.

 

Wow! All good suggestions. I do see crossfire as a possibility seeing as how thats caused by multiple contacts in the cap bridging, or jumping (More than one spark plug firing at the same interval). The neat thing about crossfire is that it convenently creates a timing issue, which is usually cause for kickback and backfiring out the exhaust/intake. I will look into this and repost my discoveries. Thats right Mekanic, I do have the Vented cap, Which is a rather good improvement, however if the moisture coming in is greater than the little vacumme line can remove in time you will still fail the opti, or if the cap seal is old ad dry rotted then moisture is gonna slip right in at a seemingley uncontrolled rate and the little vaccume line will becore overwhelmed and overpowered. Good suggestion Aminnich, I did check for codes and found nothing, however the engine hasnt really had a chance to run long enough to set some. But I will watch for that. Oh, Midnight, all of my sparks are blue or white, telling me that my coil, and CIC ( Coil Ignition Controller), are in tip top shape as those tend to be the culprit in weak or failed spark production. You guys are good. Im glad I posted at this page as opposed to Digital Corvette. I will check that cap as soon as I discover all the things I need to do to get to the cap, and *suprise*, buy new tools. But Ill def post my progress, and check for updates...

 

Haven't had an opti, but if that checks out fine, timing chain.

 

are you serious about this statement :

"if the moisture coming in is greater than the little vacumme line can remove in time you will still fail the opti, or if the cap seal is old ad dry rotted then moisture is gonna slip right in at a seemingley uncontrolled rate and the little vaccume line will becore overwhelmed and overpowered"

Any amount of moisture is going to cause problems in the Opti, and it is not a matter of moisture ingress vs. vacuum rate........Yeesh...

...and you can buy deep inverse Torx set from Harbor Freight Tools to open up the Opti.

Also, I find it a bit insulting to offer $$$$ reward for whoever comes up with the solution. That's not what this forum is all about....

 

I used the female end of a allen head cap screw with some vise grips to undo the opti screws.

 

You should definitely change the fuel pump relay. It could fail at any moment!

I will take my reward in cash please.

 

put a timming light on it. bet it skiped a tooth or two.

 

Opti soaked by coolant and dead, and your vacumm could not keep up with the flowrate.

Please use Paypal to submit $1,000 Euro's into my Ebay account.

USD not accepted until our financial system has regained solvency.

 

change your motor that will fix it. Ill take my six figure reward now! or you could just donate it to "the guys with 1985 corvettes and the woman that will one day kill them in thier sleep" fund