I just bought a 95 Z28 Auto and had it towed home cause it won't start. First it wouldn't turn over at all, so I charged the battery overnight. It now turns over a few times before the voltage drops and it stops rotating. Is this a bad starter/solenoid?

Also, when I checked the radiator, there was no coolant. It was dry. So I poured in a gallon of water for temporary use and it all started leaking out the back of the engine somewhere. Not sure if the 2 problems are related.

Car has 176,000 miles

Any help would be appreciated.

 

i would say 99% likely they are directly related.

start searching out the optispark, sounds like thats your issue. since you are most likely new the the 4th gen scene this is a common issue, as the LT1 engine has a camshaft driven distributor known as the optispark or opti which is mounted behind the water pump. alot of failures of the opti are contributed to waterpump failure and coolant being leaked from the weep hole (or worse) directly onto the distributor

replace the opti with a GM (DELCO) one or suffer doing the job over again in a few months (or weeks if you get a bad one) stay away from the ebay ones and also do the water pump and gaskets as you have to take it off to get to the opti anyway

 

battery is shot. the leak from the back of the motor could be from a few different places. you need to track the leak and find its source. could be cracked head, cracked block, blown head gasket, leaking soft plug, leaking crossover/steam pipe, failing heater hose, failing oil cooler. thats all i can think of that carries coolant back there. anyways before i went farther i would find the leak and its associated issue.

 

Yep, Im very new lol That's an...interesting place to locate a distributor.

Good thing you mentioned that, I was scoping out a few eBay units in the $100. I wasn't sure if MSD's unit is a replacement or not. I'll work on getting a new water pump as well. Any particular places to shop at for 4th Gens?

I replaced the 440 CCA battery that was in it with a newer 650 CCA unit. You know, the previous owner mentioned something about a head gasket. I was leaning toward this as the leak source but wasnt sure. I have a complete gasket set from my old 85 Corvette from FelPro. Would the head and intake manifold gaskets from it work? I will check your other suggestions too.

Thanks in advance for the help guys

 

lt1 head gasket is different than 350. if it had a blown head gasket and then sat for a while it may be trying to seize up. how hard is it to turn over and have you tried taking all the spark plugs out and then trying to turn it over.

 

I put a cardone select opti from rockauto.com (part# 841832) in my Z back in November '11 and it's been fine. $169.99 and I believe it has a lifetime warranty. Came with the cap and rotor.

Granted that was only 6-7 months ago, but I'll see how long it lasts.

 

Sorry for the late reply. My baby girl was just born

How can I determine if it'a hard to turn over? There a way to do it manually? No I haven't, I will try on either tomorrow or Friday and report back. I need to record a video and post it somehow...

I just might have to try that. RockAuto.com is my friend lol

 

Your results may vary, but it's working fine for me.

 

i just put a socket on the crank balancer bolt and turn like im tightening it. not to hard and not to fast. the crank should turn over faily easily even wiht the pugs in if you go slow. without plugs in it should turn way easier.

 

Took my 5/8 socket and my 1/2 drive and tried to turn the crank. Can't turn it. Trying to find my torque wrench for more leverage... Going to try pulling the spark plugs and turning the crank again.