So, Let me just introduce myself by saying I am Bill i need someone in Southern California to help me with this car 1996 Chevy Camaro z28 Ex Oregon Highway Patrol. This car needs T.L.C. and i need someone willing to sit with me, to help me learn how to take care of my car to the best ability. I love this car. It drives sweet, handles ungodly, clean body. Only down side is i need to be working on it 24/7 and i can not work on a car i do not understand. People try to tell me how to check.. but my problem is not only this trouble code (p1351 ignition control circuit high voltage) but my lacking knowledge of electrical or even how to check if a relay is bad.

My Mother and i work on this car together and she sometimes has to drive to Sacramento CA (From riverside CA) to see family. Sometimes the car breaks down because my mom is just unlucky that way and gets stranded and has to let some dumba** half a** mechanics come and try to help her but make it worse. I am not there to tell her no do not let them work on it. I do not have the money to fly around for the car. So i am forced to try to fix a problem i have no idea about. This is why i need help. I need someone who loves LT1's as much as i love mine.

My Mother and i have broken this motor all the way down to the timing chain and then some with no help from anybody other than how to find TDC. I have replaced friggin 7 distributors in this car and 4 Opti Wiring harnesses due to FLUX. I highly recomend to everybody to get MSD Ignition that i can not buy right now!! I am not a newbie mechanic, I know much about hands on mechanics when you just turn nuts and bolts. Electrical is my weak point.

This needs to get handled quickly or another Limited Edition Camaro will find it's way to the heap

BTW i am the Original owner (according to the DMV)

 

What parts are you having trouble with?

 

It's not parts i am having a problem with. I am having problems with a p1351 trouble code. Aafter sending the car to a couple electricians I have been told this is a dealer trouble code and only a dealer can take care of it. I have also been told to check the white wire off of the PCM to the ICM.

 

7 optical distributers???? Dude, what brand are you buying? Something is not right with that.....I've only replaced my opti once and even then the old one didn't fail. I did it as a PM measure when I changed cams. The old one had 100,000 miles on it....and I still have it as a backup. If you are not buying GM or AC Delco opti's then that may be one problem.

I have the 1996 factory manuals and could not find a P1351 code in the book. The closest code is P1350. Here is a link to the pictures I took. They are big, but I left them like that on purpose.

They should help you in troubleshooting. Just make sure the code # the car is throwing is correct....if I'm not mistaken, some code readers don't report the proper codes #'s.

http://www.ace1252.com/1996_Z28_Fact...CP1350_001.JPG
http://www.ace1252.com/1996_Z28_Fact...CP1350_002.JPG

EDIT!!!
The above pictures actually look like they are for the V6. See the three coils on the left side of the first picture? Those are part of the V6 DIS type ignition system. You NEED to verify that the code is correct that you posted above.

 

LOL, hang on....my dumbass was looking in the V6 section of the book. I went to the 5.7 section and found the P1351 you referenced above. Stand by for pictures.

 

Here ya go. P1351 from the LT1 section.

http://www.ace1252.com/1996_Z28_Fact...CP1351_001.JPG
http://www.ace1252.com/1996_Z28_Fact...CP1351_002.JPG

My apologies for the confusion. I haven't had my caffeine this morning!!!!

 

I understand your getting a trouble code,does the car run right now?Have you checked the icm for cracks?what does the connector look like?If that was a Highway Patrol car,my guess that it was driven HARD,I would look into possibly replacing the icm or atleast inspecting it.Heat is not the icms friend.when you re-install it,try moving it off the head a little,that way the icm wont be subjected to the heat from the cylinder head.

 

The car runs great until the system goes into a closed loop. Then Only Number 7 cylinder begins to misfire, but only when the car is in drive with brake applied can you really notice the misfire. I bought a Cardone All-In-One distributor that has not failed me yet. I was posting the P1351 Ignition control module circuit high voltage Previous to this Cardone Distributor. When the code first posted i blew the 10 Amp Ignition Fuse in the Fuse box under the hood and also got a large bubble on my old ignition control module. Since then, New distributor, coil, module, all the ignition parts except for the wires and i'm putting in MSD Spark Plug Cables just to make sure i'm not getting a surge through the cables arching on the block.

I have yet to even mess with the PCM until i trace the initial problem and or make sure it is indeed the PCM also to make sure it doesnt happen again with a new PCM. I have already priced out a new ECM for about 250 - 300 dollars and the programming from chevy will be another 100 - 200.

If anyone has a Spare PCM for cheaper that is close to new i would gladly buy it.

 

And will getting water in your distributor cause a PCM failure? Will A failed PCM cause a single cylinder to misfire in a closed loop?

Closed loop - When the engine temperature and time-since-the-engine-started timer agree that the O2 sensors are warmed up and ready, the PCM switches to closed loop. Just as it did for open loop, the PCM calculates the closed loop base pulsewidth using numbers programmed in lookup tables.

Open Loop - When you fire the beast up, whether the engine is stone cold or fully warmed up, the PCM starts out in open loop. This is because cold (or just warm) O2 sensors don't work very well, and they take a little while to get good and hot. Most LT1 O2 sensors have built-in heaters to speed up the process, which is why they have 4 wires coming out of them. Also, cold engines are happier when they are run richer than the fixed closed loop air/fuel ratio target.

source: http://www.noid.org/~lj/PCM%20Tutorial/PCMtutorial.htm

 

just installed MSD spark plug wires today. We will see if it helps. gonne buy the new PCM anyways to see if that helps.

The most awesome thing about finishing the work on this car will be having the ability to diagnose anybody's car without even running a DTC Palm Pilot. I'll Prolly be able to work for chevy. LMFAO.

 

Getting water in the Opti won't damage the PCM. Have you checked #7 injector with a 'noid light? It's possible for a single injector driver to fail, but I've never seen it happen. IF the injector is firing in open loop, there's no reason the driver would suddenly not work in closed loop. It is very seldom a PCM problem.

The fact that you have gone through 7 distributors and 4 Opti harness (what is FLUX?) would indicate you have some problem that you haven't found yet. There are way too many people running Opti's that have lasted over 100K miles.

Provide more details on the mode of the Opti failures - what part of the Opti fails?

 

Someone posted diag for the code you posted. did you follow it to see if you have a short or not? buying parts without diag is expensive and unessary