superadobo808

its been raining here in hawaii pretty hard the last couple of days. i was coming home from the store the other night and went through a puddle. the car ran fine for the next 5 minutes and then all of a sudden, i lost all power, i pushed the gas and it didnt even accelerate, the car basicly crawled up the hill. i coasted the rest of the way home because it was all down hill from there. when i got home, i took off my intake elbow to find water in the donkey dong thing. i took it off and let the motor dry off for a day. i tried starting it up today, but somethings wrong. it cranks but it doesnt start. it back fires out of the intake with big *** flames and smoke. i have no idea what to do right now and i cant find my haynes book. where do i go from here guys/gals? plz help. do i need a new motor? what ports do i use for the obd1 lights to shoot codes? hydrolocked?

Josh-'04 GTO

If it cranks over then it's not hydrolocked, which is good news!

Sounds like your opti got soaked and it's screwing with the ignition pretty bad. You can try to dry it out, but you'll probably end up needing to replace it.

shoebox

Probably wet optispark.

How to flash codes (93 only)

You won't get any opti codes if only the secondary ignition parts are wet.

scoobysnax83

Yea, I vote toasted opti as well. Thats why there was a delay in when it hit. Took awhile to "soak" in. Depending on the mileage on the opti, you might be fine with letting it sit for a few days and drying out. More than likely you will need to replace it. Sorry for the misfortune.

superadobo808

thanks for replying to my message guys. i tried pulling what plugs i could, draining my oil and filter, leaving the oil plug off, too dry water that could be in the motor. i looked at the opti from under the car also, it was still wet and had some oil crude build up on it also. looks like water is still dripping from somewhere. i tried to start the car up again today. it cranks, it starts and idles pretty bad. kinda like i got a big cam in there. the idle levels off and becomes smoother after about 2 minutes. i push the gas and then it dies or comes close to dying. it doesn't rev past 1500 rpm. im just giving more symtoms of whats going on. if you guys still think that i need a new opti then ill go ahead and try to change it. oh yeah, the intake sound is really loud, like a hondas intake, i can here it in the cabin of the car at idle. it wasn't like that before. how hard is it to change the opti? do i have to take off the water pump? is there an easier way to get to the opti? thanks for your commments. how much is an opti spark?

94_Z28_guy

I drove through a deep puddle that completely killed all power and shut the engine off. It eventually dried out and car came back fine.

I power washed the engine (all this before I knew about an optispark) and the car barely started and ran like crap (sounds exactly like you are describing) , and again after driving it for a while, it came back fine.

I might be really lucky, but maybe you can give it some more time before you replace it. Letting the engine get up to temperature should help to evaporate the water from everywhere.

Good luck.

Edit: do a search for optispark cost ($300??) and best place to buy one. Yes you have to take off water pump, not easy to change but doable.

Heatmaker

I'm wondering at this point why no one has bothered to design an "Opti Spark" Shield... a Waterproof devices that fits around the Opti spark to shield it from water.... lemme patent it first...

scoobysnax83

lol, trust me it has been thought of. Every few months this board gets fired up about the opti. New things are thought of and turned down. I still think the best fix for the opti is the LTCC setup simply because it removes the corrosion causing High Voltage from the opti. But it comes at a price...