I'm looking for everyones option here. Saturday I installed a Jet Performance chip state 2 into my mostly stock LT1 Auto. The guy I bought it from removed it from his 92 LT1 Auto so it should be the right chip. I disconnected the ground on the battery and installed this, reconnected the battery and the started up the car up about 5-6 times before taking her out on the road. I took her upto about 105mph on the open highway and then headed back home. Once I got off the highway I smelled a faint smell of something burning but then it went away. Just figured it was someone else. Turned into my neightborhood and it was making all sort of engine noise like ti threw a belt. I right away pulled over and popped the hood. Everything seemed fine and it started back up again. 1 block later and it was dead.

Now, I replaced the stock chip and called a friend to look the car over (I know very little about the engine). Voltmeter was showing little juice and a jump start for 15 minutes was not helping. I then replaced the 3 month old battery to find out that when it didn't exactly fit 3 months ago, why....this battery had both the top posts and the side posts that the Vettes use. The top post, with the red rubber booty still on - was rubbing up against part of the frame. Upon removing the boot, it showed sighs of a short (brown/black mark around where it had rubbed thru). Still wouldnt start with the correct battery installed (BTW - Advanced Auto still had this battery listed as an battery for my car but didnt quite fit....new battery fits perfect), but sounded like it wanted to kick over and then saw smoke from the alternator. I had her towed out to my shop and this is what they told me today:
Alternator locked up tight
Belts needs replaced (heavy groves - belt was only 6-8 months old)
Belt tensionor needed
and....value tap in the left bank and showing single cyc misses and/or lifter tap.

They think its either a push rod (I have my fingers crossed), colasped lifter or bent or damanged value. They are going to pull the value cover tomorrow on the left side (had a slight oil leak anyways so they will replaced the seal too) and will inspect the push rod, lifters and values. So far i'm upto $625.00 total for everything not counting if its a push rod, lifter, value, etc...

What does everyone thing - would a locked alternator cause this? Did I do this with a bad or incorrectly installed chip? If this is caused because of the battery shorting the alternator, locking it hard and causing problems with the push rods or some other innerads....should or can I go back to Advanced auto for any $$$ help? Money is very tight right now and this was not exactly in the budget. I can always hope its the value and plan for upgraded heads/cams.....

Car is a 126,000 mile 1992 LT1 auto.

Many Thanks!!

 

Ron
Sorry to hear of your troubles. The battery must have taken out the alternator, but good luck getting any money from the auto parts store.
The chip had nothing to do with the pushrod problem, 105MPH on a 126K motor will do that. :U
Sounds like it's time for an econo-stock rebuild.

 

I hope its not a speed issue - my car sees around 100mph (just because) about once every 3 times she is out if the traffic is low and no one is around.

I should find out later today what the diag. is under the value cover. I think I'm gonna resell the chip just to be safe on Ebay. I'm sure the chip is OK and the top mount battery post grounding out on the Frame locked up the Alternator but I just cant afford to go thru all of this all over again it i'm wrong. I won't know if I have any ECM/Computer problems until they get the car started up - bummer.

If the problem is with the lifter or damaged value - I might was well look at some other engine work as well. Either way - I'm gonna have to tow the car back home and cover her up until I can afford to have it worked on - bummer with spring so close around the corner!

 

These are NOT chip problems. Neither of these problems were caused by the chip. If the car felt like it was running better, take it to the strip for some comparisons. If it runs better, keep the chip.

I believe that in your exuberence in testing the chip, you may have over reved the engine and caused a valve train problem. Either that, or what ever is making the noise was ready to go anyhow.

Also in that spirited test session, you caused the battery to short out, where it hadn't under less enthusiatic driving conditions. The altenator failure WAS caused by grounding the battery.

Other than driving style, the two problems are unrelated to one another. And neither was caused, directly, by the chip. This comes from a guy who returned his chip because it slowed the car down.

This is just my opinion, I could be wrong.

 

You are correct - it was NOT chip related. I just picked up my car at the shop yesterday and they found a bad bearing in the alternator that caused it to lockup. It could be possible that the battery ground shorted out the alternator but would be difficult to prove. Either way, my car is not back on the road and in need of a good bath. No engine damage either. When they removed the value cover - they found that everything was in good shape except that it was not getting enought oil. They performed an engine flush and cleaned up some of the "buildup" and its flowing freely once again. Changed the oil and sent me on the way. If they wern't calling for a chance of snow today - I would have drove her to work.

 

Glad to hear it worked out for you with a minimum of headaches. :cheers:

You ought to drive it in the snow, it's fun to see the looks on other people's faces. You know an SUV is stuck on a flat road spinning all 4 tires as the vette just cruises on by.