Here is how one of my cars is sitting now... I am taking motor apart piece by piece down to the shortblock... I cannot bitch because i have a garage... Patience my friend.. You'll get her up and running again.

 

If I had to work curbside like that I'd be a pissed off ************ as well. I curse my **** enough in a garage much less on a street. At least I have walls to muffle my cursing and a driveway to throw tools if I have to. In that environment I'd be in trouble.

 

Ha guys I'm jealous, I have a pretty big driveway but my father totaled his cobalt which is taken apart and I'm only allowed to wash my car in the drive

I rebuilt my Fiero like that on the street including every piece of the suspension/ undercoating the frame/ body work/ interior/ drivetrain, it got totaled the day I replaced the brake MC and bled the system after all that work lol. Nothing like getting t-boned a block away from home coming from putting air in the tires after working on the car for a few months straight.

It gets old eventually

I'll update when I get the harness and install everything. Anti seize for regular bolts, sealant on the WP bolts, new WP gaskets, and an RTVed opti cap. Hopefully no more trouble for the next few months from the engine!

Btw- Has anyone ever heard of pcmsforless tuning for 87 octane? The PO told me this pcm is tuned for regular, but he always ran 89 "to be safe". I don't get why the hell he'd do that with the mods this car has? I've run 87 and 93 to see the difference but I haven't ran enough to notice anything. Before the ignition problems I'd get 27mpg mostly highway on 3.73s but I always felt the engine had less power than it should. When it started backfiring I went down to 15-17mpg.

 

Don't forget to locktite your rotor screws. Also, you might want to tap the weep hole and put a brass nipple and some hose to route coolant down below the opti in case your water pump goes out. Really cheap mod that might save your opti down the road.

 

Yes sir rotor screws have red loctite applied and the cap will be sealed tomorrow. Hopefully the Chandler harness comes tomorrow or thurs the latest as it was shipped yesterday. Thats a good mod, thanks for the suggestion! I don't have taps so it'd be a PITA.. Regardless like I said I'll be keeping my eyes open for the 24x conversion parts so I can have it all pieced together while spending as little as possible.

 

Man, your language is atrocious. You could have said the same thing without all of cussing. Must be ok to cuss like a sailor on this forum. If it is just let me know, please, because I don't want to be a part of a forum that allows this much bad language.

 

I appreciate the compliment

I thought this forum had a language filter when I initially wrote the post, but I guess it doesn't so maybe you can put your big boy pants on?

The Chandler harness still hasn't arrived , USPS tracking indicated delivery on Weds. It went blank today, now back online showing a delivery date of the 10th.. Yet it still hasn't arrived at my PO, lame.

 

Could have had mine already, good luck on the rebuild.

 

Possibly, you said you wouldn't be home until Monday and I assumed that meant it would go out on Tues. Thanks though.

Chandler shipped out the harness on Monday and it just got here after 3pm today. Tomorrow its supposed to be over 50* so I'm very much hoping to have the car back together and running. Positively beside myself

The harness looks great and plugs in properly. Heres to a trouble free reassembly!

 

it's there any interior things you need?

 

Not right now thanks.

Well its been a long day... I started off getting the opti on, after several attempts it popped right on the came dowel without issue. Torqued down, then I realized that the vent hose provisions were different from OEM to MSD so I stood around cursing MSD until I could borrow my fathers truck to get a long enough hose.

Came back, hooked it up.. Went to plug Chandler's harness in and the connector was wrong to the PCM . Please take a look at the pics and tell me what connectors I have if you know cause I'm going nuts- thanks! In an act of desperation to assemble the car I used cutters to cut the nub off and prayed the wiring was the same for this harness vs the one I should have.









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Hooked up the spark plugs, did it wrong first so after checking shoebox's site I got everything right. Torqued down the BBK underdrive pulley and harmonic balancer just enough to be properly seated. Installed intake and all connectors minus the one going to the WP. Connected the battery and test started- it wont fire. After I took the vid the 8th time or so it popped once and nothing after. Any ideas? Opti is seated properly, plugs in proper order, ICM/ coil/ all connectors hooked up and working. Its pointing to the harness right now

Heres a vid, maybe someone will get an idea-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED3vf...ature=youtu.be

 

Have you confirmed whether you're getting a spark?

If you're not, my guess would be the harness, and I would probably break down get a new OEM harness.

 

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No unfortunately I got really pissed and considered setting the car on fire, it was just one of those days

Can anyone comment on the differences in connectors (was I sent the wrong harness or is what I have in my car different)? Also is if I did receive the wrong harness, I could've sworn somewhere that the wiring is the same and its just the connectors that are different correct?

Thanks!

 

where you possessed by the ghost of George Carlin?


With that disconnected I believe the pcm reverts to assuming it is VERY VERY cold out and can flood the engine rather than start.

Far as having the plug wires wrong I either use different colored or multiple zip ties on both ends of the wires so they are easier to check without having to trace them like 1 zip tie on each end of the front cylinder 2 on the next 3 on the next. I do that "per side" and it just makes checking your work easier.

 

From what I've seen though many people test start their cars like that for this repair. At first I used a sharpie, but the damn marker smeared off. Luckily the MSD wires has these little clips with the number of their respective cylinders on them. I traced a few back and they were correct.

 

Well I did some research on the harness issue and the tabs being wrong is apparently a common problem, wtf

The only differences between opti harnesses from vented to non are the connectors so I'm good. Tomorrow I'll break out the multimeter and start testing for spark, before I do though I'll try to start the car with the WP connector plugged in just in case.

I really hope this opti isn't DOA because I think I will lose it completely.

 

The Seven Dirty Words. Foundation of what cannot be said (at least before the wardrobe malfunction incident) on broadcast radio/tv.

 

It's been awhile, but I'm pretty sure I started my car, and let it run for a little bit, without the water pump installed so that I could make sure my timing cover seals were not leaking.

 

Nitro

since you cut off the connector from the MSD unit to splice onto the Chandler harness...really confirm you didn't cross up any wires in that process. Not sure what year car you have...do you have the right year opti?? (early year was diffrent drive IRRC)

many have posted they were able to start car without WP on to confirm newly installed opti worked.