First off, I'd like to thank everyone for providing input along the way...This has been a great learning experience, and I think I gained a good amount of troubleshooting knowledge from everyone's help......

Here's the last and final update:

Last Friday, I was preparing to take the intake manifold off to look for a massive intake leak (even though I really diddn't have signs of one). And something really bothered me. From all of the readings I've done, they say that you should be careful when you remove the 1st gen opti because the shaft may fall out. Mine NEVER DID. In fact, mine was solid in the distributor. I've pulled the dist. off before & checked to make sure it was keyed correctly to the CAMSHAFT GEAR , but I never checked to see if it was keyed correctly to the DISTRIBUTOR .

So, Friday afternoon, I bought the expensive little deep-socket, inverted mini-torx socket set. And took the water pump and distributor off for the third time...When I took the distributor fully apart, and looked at the splined shaft in the housing, it looked like there was a tooth where the keyway was.

Then, to remove the shaft, I had to put the dist. on a bench and tap it out with a punch and hammer!

I re-oriented thed splined shaft with the key in the proper position, and it slid in like BUTTER!.

Then, I re-assembled the dist, put it on the car, pulled it off, and guess what, the splined shaft fell out!

After I put the car back together again, I fired her up, and she ran like a scalded dog! Like nothing had ever happened!

Vacuum levels back to normal, Idle as smooth as silk!

I believe what happened was the timing was extremely retarded, which would account for the cherry-red exhaust manioflds, and poor vacuum production. And I think this also accounts for the dying when given gas...If it can't burn what it's being given already, adding more gas only worsens the situation....

I took it for it's first drive, (in pure disbelief) and for a car w/ 178,000 miles, that thing's got some b@lls!

Now I see why there's so much hype about the LT-1
s and LS-1's....

Again, thanks for everyone's help!

:party: :hurray:

 

:party:
Congrats on getting it back together and running! Yeah, the LT1 is a great motor!!
:cheers:

 

:thumbs:

 

:hurray: :hurray: :hurray: :hurray: :hurray: :hurray: :hurray:

I am so happy for you! GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:party: :party: :party: :party: :party:

:cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

:thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs:

 

Execellent. Thanks for sharing and don't forget to :seeya as you pass other corvettes.

We learn when we post.

 

:hurray: :party: :hurray: :party:

 

Alright! Good job on the diagnosis :D

 

Good find, not to many would have found the problem, :cheers:

 

:cheers: