Hey guys, here's some backround. Bought my 94 z28 back in September, the transmission needed to be rebuit, only had 1st and 2nd gear, so fast foward to monday of last week, I bring it to the shop, get it rebuilt. Bear with me, I don't have the car back yet, it's still at the transmission shop, gotta wait to get it towed back home. -_-

On saturday the guy calls my dad(it's a father and son project) and says the rebuilt went fine, but when he took it for a test-drive, it stalled on him, and he can't get it to start again, he says there is no spark. The guy suggested the Optispark went bad.

Now, the reason why I'm asking opinions on this, is because before we brought it there, the car would start incredibly fast. I mean as soon as it cranked once the thing would start up, in fact, I was actually impressed with how fast it started up!

Do you think it's the Opti, or maybe something was knocked lose whilst taking the tranny out and putting it back in, and whatnot? Or maybe something came lose while it was on the tow truck going there? I mean I know Optisparks don't have the best reputation, but for it to go from firing right up to no spark..is a bit strange.

Any input at all is appreciated..sorry I don't have much information on it yet, like I said earlier, I don't have the car back yet. Thanks guys.

 

could be vats, icm, coil, opti, injector fuses, need to do some tests, look at the top of this section were it says your lt1 will turn over and not start. you will see this https://camaroforums.com/forum/lt1-l...t-start-65637/

 

what is dad's willingness to keep dropping cash into the car? Accept $1500 as a budget but hope for it to be less.

This is where either you take back the car and dad tries diagnosing the problem himself or you pay a mechanic for their time and parts. A mechanic will charge around $500 for the opti part itself and since the waterpump must come off, and coolant drained, you may as well replace the front seals, put in new plugs and wires and the costs go up real quickly (especially with stock exhaust because it's tough to get to the plugs)

A mechanic must be willing to warrant their labor and parts so they won't cut corners.

Yes, it COULD be the optispark but as craby listed, it could be any of a myriad of items.

When I dropped my tranny I was nowhere near the front of the engine (figuratively speaking) and with headers and an off road Y pipe, It drops easily so I wouldn't assume that the tranny guy caused this. if you have stock exhaust, I don't know if it gets in the way and what needs to be removed.

 

I doubt it would be the optispark,if it started strong,went for the rebuild, and suddenly wont start you can probably overlook the opti being the culprit. Sounds like something electrical that the mechanic might have tripped,I would have have him go under and look instead of jumping to the options,has he looked for any other possible signs such as the crankshaft sensor,fuses,or any electricals deriving from the tranny?

 

Torque, my dad's definately not going to take it to a mechanic. My dad and his friend are both car guys, my dad's friend a camaro guy,(Him and his friend turned a 1978 z28 into a tubbed street/race car) and they've worked on cars for a long time, so most likely they would be doing the diagnosis. My dad is hoping it's not the optispark, because he doesn't want to drop $500 on that.

iLL, I don't think the guy has. He said he was going to have some guy come to the shop to take a look at it.

 

We dads are a strange lot. What we are capable of doing vs what we feel like doing sometimes are not one and the same. An opti can be had for as little as $99 for a Chinese built unit to $500 for the overpriced/overhyped MSD unit.

Next, do not assume that because a vehicle starts and runs fine at 8AM that it will do the same at 12 noon. Parts break, especially old parts.

If dad is going to undertake this, and is unfamiliar wit LT1's, have him log onto this site and we'll guide him.

Even better, have dad log into the site and we'll walk him through what he will have Y-O-U do as he looks over your shoulder. I'm not junior's personal mechanic but I do give him guidance. When he's over his head is when i slide in.

 

Well my dad called and said the guy told him it'd cost like 500 dollars to fix (he didn't say what the guy said was wrong with it) so its getting towed home sometime this week and on the weekends is when most likely anything will get done, I'll keep you guys updated.

 

if you don't have your license yet and this isn't a daily driver then that's not a bad idea.

You can buy a $100 part and $400 on tools and be better off for the next time.

I couldn't believe the sale at Sears on Black Friday and just couldn't resist adding to my tool box

 

Harborfreight ftw

 

Exactly, we're in no rush so there's no point spending that to get it "fixed" at this moment.