Bandit 1

My car is broke and I can't fix it!!!
97, Z28, M6, 90,000 miles...

Two weeks ago I was on my way to work in my camaro and it died on the freeway no warning its just like someone turned the switch off, it would crank over but would not start. After sitting for 30 min it started back up and I drove it home WTF?? No check engine light, no codes nothing. Ok It did this to me the next day so I pulled the coil wire off and it was not getting any spark but after sitting it would start up and drive for a few min then do it agian. Alright that was two weeks ago.
I have been working on the car since it did this, I replaced my msd coil with a new msd one, nope. I replaced my ignition control module, nope. Humm I pull my digital 6 off and my msd HVC coil and put a stock coil from autozone back in and ran the stock ignition, nope. I thought it might be a voltage or ground promblem with my battery so I moved it back up front because I had it located in the back all NHRA approved wiring ect.. I got rid of my nice battery setup and nope wasn't that.
Ok I replaced my opti a few months back with a autozone quality one so I thought i could very well be that so I pulled it off and put a new one on, I felt good about it this time. It ran fine but it started cutting out when I got on it, idle was fine. I got under the hood and could hear arcing but could not see it so I replaced my nice plug wires and coil wire with stock ones. Alright so I am back to all stock ignition now.
I started it up and it started arcing agian but this time i could see it, the new coil was arcing straight out the side on to its mounting bracket, so I bought another new stock coil and its still doing it, arcs so bad it will die. How can the coil jump spark out of the side of its epoxy body?? I am very upset, this one problem has cost me well over a $1000 bucks. I have cuased damage to my car trying to fix this problem and its costing me!!
Please!!
Does anyone have a clue, am I not grounding out somewhere? Is my ECU bad? I want to cry.

Mtxz453

i had the same exact problem. It was my ICM ground, the black wire that mounts to the block. Check that out its a common thing to snap since its brittle. My car was doing the same thing, cutting out every once in a while, not starting back up for a day or two. check that..

Injuneer

Have you checked the plug gaps? Excessive gaps can cause the ignition system to arc. Maybe you burned a few ground straps off with that 200-shot????

Odd that there were no codes set for any of this... what did you use to scan it?

Bandit 1

thanks for the reply;
I did make a new ground for the icm, it still is won't run. It starts up and dies because I can see the coil arcing right out the side. Could the opti be cuasing this???
anyone

Bandit 1

yeah, I could see that. the plugs are fairly new with a 35 gap. I just took it to autozone and used there scanner when I first had the problem. I will pull the plugs out now and see how they look.

karpetcm

This has happened to me, i was driving and the car was fine no issues all of the sudden it turned off and i had to pull over. Cant remember if it would crank and not start or just nothing at all. It ended up being my opti either way GL

Bandit 1

Replaced the plugs that didn't help. What else you got

z28camaro1090

i had a problem like that but it was a short on my alarm it would cause the car to arm while driving then shut it down...

FryedClutch

double check that all the plug wires are firmly conected on the opti i had one come of while i was messing with something else and it arced out the side of the coil

Bandit 1

I removed the new opti and put an older one on that I know idles good. And it did not have the same problem. So I am ordering a new optispark a better brand, maybe Accel and I will see how it runs then.
Thanks,
I will post up later this week when I install a new opti for the 5th time.

94formbird

I have a oem opti if you want. Brand new

texastransam96

i would suggest a new GM opti, not one from anywhere else. and the aftermarket ones such as the accel and even the msd have been known to have a few problems, the factory gm delco unit seems to be the only one that stays trouble free, but i wouldnt get a reman from autozone or oreilly's as they dont use the same quality parts..

maverickmk

Bandit 1

Thanks but no thanks on the opti you have for sale. Also I just found a little fray on one of the wires in my optispark harness, it wasn't coming in contact with any bare metal but I am going to replace that as well.