I just bought a 1996 camaro z28 with 70k miles on it. Its been sitting for about 2 years before i purchased it. at first the rpm gauge would go up and down while driving and the engine cut out a few times. it was hard to start extended cranking before starting but its intermittent. i tryed a obd2 scaner but the scaner could not establish a link with the PCM. This morning i unpluged the optispark conector that conects to the cam sensor and found it had green corrotion cleand it and now it will not start at all and i have no spark. my question is... is it safe to say its the optispark?

 

anyone?

 

For one thing this engine does not have a cam sensor. The only clocking sensor is the crank sensor, and in this application it is used to detect misfires, and it does not affect how the engine runs. All clocking signals are provided be the opti. Most likely the opti is bad, but you should check and clean all connectors attached to the opti first.

 

there's only one connector that has 4 wires beside the spark plug wires. i cleaned it and still no spark. i just wanted to be sure it was the opti before i riped out the water pump and bought a new opti.

 

you should replace that wiring harness. they are known to fail. not that exspensive.

 

Your OBD port gets power from your cigarette lighter/power outlet circuit. Check all your fuses, replace if blown, then try again to reestablish a connection with a code reader. That could save you some time and money by avoiding throwing unnecessary parts at the car. You didn't say whether your SES light in the dash is on, or if you were checking for codes for the heck of it.

 

all fuses good. the ses light is blinking

 

The blinking ses indicates an engine misfire. Try to get it to communicate with a scanner so you have an idea of what is going on. That corrosion on that harness could be your cause so i would think about replacing that like craby said earlier.

 

is it normal for the water pump to be a bit stiff to turn from the gear in the back? im replacing the opti and uppon inspection of the water pump noticed it dosent spin freeliy.

 

change it. if it does fail then it could leak on the opti and shorten its life or ruin it.