I'd be too tempting to go mudding if I did that! Hahah

 

So, someone try riddling this.

Two days ago I went to leave for work and the car wouldn't start. You could hear the starter turning the engine but it would just turn and turn and turn as if there was no compression. No big deal, took the Satellite to work instead. Spent the day thinking what it could be and figured it may be the Opti as we recently had a good amount of rain. Any ways, came home that night and tried again. Did the same thing for a bit and then I managed to get her running. Got it into the garage, left it idling for a few moments to run inside and get my camera so I could get a video for you guys. Well decided to see if she'd staying running under some load so I sat there and revved from idle to 5500. Misfired between 1500-2500, sounded beautiful till about 5k or so and started doing it again.

Now for the interesting part. I heard a snap and then the check gauges light came on. Looked at both the dash and my aftermarket voltmeter and noticed both hovering a little above 12. Okay, got out and checked the belt and it had broke and more or less destroyed itself. Decided to take a break after that. Two hours or so later, I went back out to see if it'd start and she fired right up. No hesitation. No spit or sputtering. Nothing. Went through the rpms and she sounded pristine throughout.

The question now remains, has any one ever heard of or personally experienced the serpentine belt preventing the engine from starting and more or less causing a misfire. Further investigation into the matter showed me the two bolts holding the accessory bracket to the head at worked themselves lose and was causing misalignment of the belt under load. Which explains the belt breaking but doesn't explain the no start and misfire. Took some loctite to the threads and tightened them down, so shouldn't have that issue again. Next pay I'm going to invest in a compression tester and check how the cylinders are doing, 123k miles on the clock, so I figure it'd be a good time. Also, car starts and runs flawlessly with the new belt and bracket bolts tightened down.

 

No, the serpentine belt being misaligned is not going to prevent the engine from starting.
The most logical explanation is those two happenings are just a coincidence.

 

wow thats a strange one. flash for codes and see what comes up

 

It's a hell of coincidence then. Checked codes and there were none. Turned the key and she fire right up and haven't had any trouble yet today. If it is the opti, hopefully it holds out for a few more months when I can get the money together to do the LS PCM conversion.

 

Update!

Finally got the windshield replaced!


I had SafeLite replace it for me. Ran $338 but they were the cheapest in my area and they did it while I was at work. The guy (Kevin) was awesome and knew exactly what he was doing because he has been doing it for 26 years, has done the fourth gen before AND he owns a '95 Camaro! He said it's only the V6, but he has fun with it. But he had my window out and replaced in probably 20 minutes. He jokingly said mine was real easy because he didn't have to worry about cracking the dash (cause I don't have one, haha). But I'm glad its replaced. Car looks much, much better.

I also managed to get my power outlet and gauge cover partially installed. Not finished yet. Still gotta make a plate to hide all the wiring.


Now that the windshield is replaced, next up is getting the a/c block of plate in so I have heat for the winter, wheels/tires for the summer, finish up the 8.5 rear, new paint (either candy apple red, stock bright red, or Chrysler Inferno Red), and some new chassis parts.

 

Be careful, new windshields are rock magnets. lol
Back when I put a new windshield (myself) on my Jeep Wrangler, a rock found it less than a month later. Man was I pissed!

 

I really hope that doesn't happen. I like my new windshield!

But any ways, block off plate came in the other day. Already got it in! Needed some trimming since I'm retaining heat and because technically it's supposed to go on the inside of the firewall, but I didn't wanna tear my whole dash just for that. There's some other mods that need done so heat can easily flow through the heater core, but for now, I'm just glad the hole is covered!

 

So I finally got around to changing the Opti since I think that's what may have been causing my problems. While I was at it, I went ahead and modded it a little so may be I'll get more than a year out of it. Any ways, I bought a cap from the 95+ years and replaced the stock cap with it and than ran a vacuum line up to the intake tube. Went to fire it up and she started so fast it made my dad stop working on his wheels. I barely turned the key and she was running. Any ways, here's a pic of the modded Opti.

 

That was step one, you missed step two. You needed to modify the body of the opti as well, so you have good air flowing through it. Just hooking up to the cap hose isn't going to help, and you actually made it worse because now dirty air will be drawn into the bottom vent holes, to muck up the optics and contacts. Read this article, for when the new opti fails: Opti-Spark Options