Need some help, guys. I'm driving along in the 93 with 81000 miles on it on a warm dry day. Suddenly it starts slowing down and pops a little out the exhaust when I give it gas. I coast to the side of the road. It turns over and tries to start but can't. No "Check Engine Light " came on during this time.
So I get it towed home.

After getting it home, here's what I'v found so far.

No Trouble codes were set.
My Xray scanner does not find anything out of tolerance.
I have 45 lbs. of fuel pressure at the Schraeder valve (normal).
The test light flashes on all the injection harness terminals.
All the injectors measure the same (10 ohms).
My timing light flashes on plug wires on both banks of cylinders.
Gas pulled from the tank appears ok (no descernable water).
No antifreeze leaks under the hood (OptiSpark not wet).
Air intake is not plugged up.
No obvious vacuum lines broken/disconnected.
No fuel leaks.

So it would appear that I have fuel, air, and spark. Whether it's enough spark, or at the right time, I don't know.

Right now my best guess is the OptiSpark has gone south. Is this typical of the way it might go bad? Is there a good way to check it? Is there anything else that might cause these symptoms? I realise I will be changing out the OptiSpark very soon in any case, due to the miles, but I'd sure feel better I really thought it would fix this problem too.

Any opinions or ideas as to where I should go from here would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, PurpleHaze

 

sounds similar to what my 94 did, turned out to be the distributor.

 

no miss fires?

I would check the coil/ignitor and/or coil wire first.

The opti is not noted for dying in that manner. Hence, the coil/ignitor idea.

if the opti is dying, I would expect there to be some codes, mainly, a code 16, which means the opti part of the optispark is failing.

how many miles? tuned up lately? if not, I suggest taylor wires and NGK plus.

There are other options to replacing the opti, LTCC, Del-Teq and DynaSpark.

keep us posted on what you find.

 

Symptoms when my opti spark went...

I was coming to park at walmart .... I was loosing power before then just hesitating when I punched it and then suddenly going ...Then when I slowed it it started backfiring occasionally and sputtering finally dying!
when I tried to start it sounded like my exhaust system was clogged up and bacfiring so bad .. I did manage to start it up once or twice but felt like I pulled four out the eight plug wires it ran so rough ... when I gave it gas well ...boom it backfire and die!!

GO OPTISPARK!!
goodluck pal ... its a really helpless empty feeling... GRRR

Mark A.

 

:iagree: That happened to my '95, it wouldn't start, it was the coil wire grounding out.