Ok, so I recently (as in a few days ago) bought my first Vette. 1994 C4 with an LT1 that has a little over 83,750 miles on it. Car ran great the whole two hours home after a decent length test drive. However, I get it home and some issues cropped up. Sometimes the car fires right up without winding for more than a half a second, but sometimes I have to dang near hold my foot on the floor for almost 15 seconds to get it to fire up. Today I took it to get fuel, put about 7 gallons of premium in it, fired it up and pulled out. As I left I got on the throttle a bit (not full throttle, just enough to wake the horses under the hood up) and then it started surging real bad, almost like it wasn't getting fuel. Managed to find a place down the road and as soon as I put the car in park it died with a burble and nice loud backfire so everyone in the neighborhood knew I was done. Noticed the coolant reservoir was empty, not sure when that happened but when I filled it up it didn't appear to leak and didn't see anything on the ground on the walk back to the nearest store. Waited a bit after filling the reservoir so the engine cooled then fired it up and was able to drive home.

My first instinct is to think fuel pump, but I'm still new to Corvettes and while I do know a bit about turning wrenches, I'm by no means a professional and don't claim to be. Can anyone confirm or deny this being fuel pump related? Or even (knock on wood it ain't) Opti-spark???

Thanks in advance

 

Generally surging is going to be fuel-related yes. Start by confirming fuel pressure at the rail. You'll find your '94 LT1 has a wonderful schrader valve right on the fuel rail, easy to access and easy to attach a fuel pressure gauge to. Just pull straight up on the "Corvette" plastic covers to release them, they just clip on, and the valve will be on the rear of the engine, covered with a black plastic cap.

The pump could potentially be a problem if it's not supplying steady flow, but insufficient flow can also be caused by clogged fuel filters, which are located under the car.

Your '94 also has some very nice diagnostic capabilities. You'll need a USB-to-ALDL cable to plug a computer into the car ($60), but the software to datalog from the car is free-as-in-beer. Plus once you get these gremlins sorted, the tools to tune the car yourself and reflash the car yourself (including changing how your automatic shifts!) are likewise free-as-in-beer. If you're interested, here's what you'd need:

Cable: http://aldlcable.com/products/aldlobd2u.asp
Datalogging and Flashing Software: http://fbodytech.com/eehack-2/download-eehack/
Tuning Software: https://www.tunerpro.net/downloadApp.htm
1994-1995 Corvette Definition for TunerPro: http://fbodytech.com/eex-tunerpro-definition/

Nice to see another '94 Admiral Blue! Best of luck!