Please Help problems with 94 lt1 - 4th F-Body

DillonRager · September 27th, 2010, 04:37 PM

well my car has recently started having problems... when im driving if im cruising in any gear at low rpms then give it gas ( not stomp on it but give some gas ) it stutters bad and kinda shakes i can feel it in the shifter... but i think its an engine problem because it doesnt idle quite right its just a little choppy. this happened all at once after a burnout. also if the car is off for a while it seems much better then after warming up a little it starts doing it again...

i have found a small coolant leak but dont think its the problem I DID NOT overheat ever in the couple months Ive owned it.

car is a 94 Z28 with t-56 179,000 miles

Thanks for any help

firebirdmuscle · September 27th, 2010, 06:21 PM

mine idles funny as well and i can do the same thing and its like a missing action or something. we already put new spark plugs in and then just today i bought some new plug wires, well when i went to put the new ones on, one of the old wires wasnt all the way plugged in. so i plugged the old ones back in and i'm going to try it tommorow. so you might wanna check you wires. its a start..

DillonRager · September 27th, 2010, 07:54 PM

ive been researching... and im thinking its my optispark... my coolant leak was right above it and probly got it wet and that is what screws them up if my research is correct. first im going to check my MAF And all spark plug wires as you said..

so you may need to look into it too if the wire wasnt your problem

firebirdmuscle · September 27th, 2010, 09:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DillonRager

ive been researching... and im thinking its my optispark... my coolant leak was right above it and probly got it wet and that is what screws them up if my research is correct. first im going to check my MAF And all spark plug wires as you said..

so you may need to look into it too if the wire wasnt your problem

yeah i'm going to drive it tommorow and see how it does after connecting that loose plug. i will post up to tell how it does.

ZEEMAN · September 28th, 2010, 01:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DillonRager

ive been researching... and im thinking its my optispark... my coolant leak was right above it and probly got it wet and that is what screws them up if my research is correct. first im going to check my MAF And all spark plug wires as you said..

so you may need to look into it too if the wire wasnt your problem

I can almost gurantee its your opti, especially if there was coolant leaking onto it. They really dont like that. Replace the cap and rotor and make sure you take some electrical parts cleaner to the inside and you might get lucky and not have to replace the whole opti. Might want to replace the water pump at the same time as it will save you headache in the future if it goes out and have to replace everything again.

PNISSHR · September 28th, 2010, 03:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZEEMAN

I can almost gurantee its your opti, especially if there was coolant leaking onto it. They really dont like that. Replace the cap and rotor and make sure you take some electrical parts cleaner to the inside and you might get lucky and not have to replace the whole opti. Might want to replace the water pump at the same time as it will save you headache in the future if it goes out and have to replace everything again.

what he said... since you have to remove the water pump anyway to get to the opti, I would just go ahead and replace it with an electric one. They are pretty cheap for the lt1 and are a great upgrade for cooling and performance since the water pump in the lt1 runs off the cam and strains the motor.

DillonRager · September 28th, 2010, 02:10 PM

Thanks for the help guys...

so there is no way to know once i get it off wether i need the whole opti or just a cap and rotor kit..

ZEEMAN · September 28th, 2010, 07:42 PM

If you pull the cap off the opti and its full of rust or other crap than you know you will need the whole opti, because getting it to operate correctly after that would be almost impossible. If its clean on the inside and just the points on the cap are worn out than you can prolly get away with just a cap and rotor.

DillonRager · September 28th, 2010, 08:07 PM

i fixed the small coolant leak and drove the car.... it seems pretty normal but its pouring down rain outside and i hit a huge puddle ( i was forced to by oncoming car ) and it started to do it just a little then quit again... i will test further when it stops raining but it is possible that the coolant was leaking onto the opti and making it stutter and the opti is ok now except when its getting wet?? basically im asking if the opti gets wet could it act like its going out but once it is dry it will be fine? or once the opti acts up does it absolutely need replaced? thanks again everyone

hope you guys can even make sense of all that

ZEEMAN · September 28th, 2010, 11:18 PM

Genarally if the opti gets wet, it will never be right again at least in my experience. If the car has a 180000 on it than it prolly wouldnt hurt to do a tune up on it anyway. A simple change of plugs, wires, cap/rotor, and fuel filter can change how a LT1 runs drastically. I know its a pain in the azz to change those things on our F-bodys but trust me, your car will thank you in the end.

DillonRager · September 29th, 2010, 12:10 AM

thanks for all the replies zeeman, I plan to pull and rebuild the whole engine very soon. I was really hoping this opti would last me until then, but looks like its time to get my hands dirty.

PNISSHR · September 29th, 2010, 03:32 AM

if it were me i would just get the whole thing considering the miles you have. just mho... let us know if you have any questions on the swap, Ive done it tons of times.

PNISSHR · September 29th, 2010, 03:33 AM

what part of fl are you in?

DillonRager · September 29th, 2010, 02:06 PM

Im in palm bay bout 180 miles S of jacksonville

PNISSHR · September 29th, 2010, 02:38 PM

gotcha

ZEEMAN · September 29th, 2010, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DillonRager

thanks for all the replies zeeman, I plan to pull and rebuild the whole engine very soon. I was really hoping this opti would last me until then, but looks like its time to get my hands dirty.

No problem, the opti has a mind of its own sometimes. It may be telling you to bump up that planned rebuild a little sooner lol.

DillonRager · September 29th, 2010, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZEEMAN

No problem, the opti has a mind of its own sometimes. It may be telling you to bump up that planned rebuild a little sooner lol.

LOL the whole engine is definatley asking for the rebuild but I asked my wallet and it said NO!!! haha soon though

Edward-T · October 1st, 2010, 07:46 AM

just an FYI, when you do the opti run a bead of silicone around the cap to keep water and coolant out, it works. good luck bro.

firebirdmuscle · October 1st, 2010, 09:22 AM

its your opti huh? atleast you got it figured out man. as for me, the loose plug wire that wasnt all the way down was it, i pushed it all the way down and know its running strong. no one can hate a v6 anymore, it'll do a burnout with a 17x11 rim out back so i'm not complaining. good luck bro

DillonRager · October 3rd, 2010, 12:43 PM

I will definatley be putting some type of sealant around the new cap... but as of right now I have not gotten around to fixing it because it is running good since i fixed the leak and IM LAZY but I will be doing the opti, water pump, wires, plugs and some other stuff soon