I got a 97 z28 m6 yesterday just got car smogged barely failed due to high NO anyways driving home I shifted from 1st to 2nd gear at about 3/4 throttle and my car backfired and loss of power then died, tried to restart but nothing only crank so pushed car home luckily down street, tried restarting again still nothing only crank. Tried starting fluid car would backfire out of intake. So tested icm good coil tested good new wires and plugs, fuel pressure good, scanned for codes but nothing could it be the opti? Need help Also never had any problems with car starting or driving b4 this

 

Sounds like an opti rotor issue.

 

So should I just put in another opti then and go from there? It is the original 1 im sure

 

Positive diagnosis from here is impossible. If you can find no other reason for the issue, perhaps taking off the opti and inspecting it would be in order. If only the cap and rotor are bad, that is what I would replace.

 

Ok yeah im going to do that 2day ill see what happens

 

I Was Driving my 96' Down the road the other day, and pull into the Bar parking lot and my Baby goes to idle as i coast in and shuts off... Needless to say i went in... and got a beer... then i went outside Tried to start it, no Fire Cranks for days, There is a way to positively Diag the opti--- Research, And make sure you replace the Whole opti--- as if you are paying someone to do it you are looking at 500+ in labor for just the opti-- Also replace the opti- seal and water pump seal, inspect the coupling from waterpump to timing gear(65 dollars at gm and mine was about to go out) i did my opti&waterpump seal waterpump gaskets and spark plug wires for about 800 --- Parts, Labor myself, took about 4.5 hours max. was a pretty streight forward job, take your time Also wires are pretty impossible to do without having the waterpump off, and air pump (technically the ps/pump as well, i avoided the p/s pump removal)

 

If the cam position sensor fails, there will be codes set for the Opti. There is also a way to check that the cam position signals from the Opti are reaching the ICM, and that is on Shoebox's site.

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But he indicates he still has ignition, but it's backfiring. That is why Rob/Shoebox mentioned the Opti rotor. If that's the problem no codes will be set, and the diagnostic method is pretty much open it up and see if the rotor screws fell out, or the rotor shattered.