Not that bad, but worse than the battery. I was driving into town to pick up a package that a member sent me, pick up some coffee (whole bean) and I was on my way to get a new coffee grinder. I went from Hwy 77 to Hwy 9 and had just gotten onto I-35 and while I was under the bridge, my car backfired horribly loud. I thought it sounded cool, but the people behind me backed off in a hurry. Guess they didn't like that sound or the fire that filled the under side of my car (dumped exhaust lol). It finally cleared up about 1/2 mile down the road and I was able to make it to the store without any more issues.
I picked up my grinder and as I was pulling back out onto the road, it did it again, but this time, lower RPM and I was able to throttle it to work it through it without making Ed Noble Parkway sound like a war field lmao. It straightened up and at that time, I decided Best Buy was not on my list anymore even though it was just across the interstate from me. Instead, I got on the interstate, back to Hwy 9 then back to Hwy 77. It didn't act up again that whole way (I live pretty far outside of town lol). So I decided to stop into Walmart and pick up some "cheaper" coffee that I could use to just grind and get the grinder dialed in and just toss the grinds.
Well that turned out to be a bad idea. It made it to Walmart, I parked and decided to take a few minutes to let the engine cool off just a touch while I was in there. I forgot to mention, I had been smelling coolant (antifreeze) on the way to the store to get the grinder. I looked under the car before I left, and there was no puddle anywhere. Anyway, I come out of the store with two bags of coffee, not the cheapest, but two that I do actually like, Espresso and Cafe' Verona. I start the car, it starts right up and I go to leave. I get to the first top sign, stop, then take off to the next one. On the way to the next stop sign it starts studdering again. I get to the stop sign, it's dead. I try to start it, nothing, just cranks. I keep trying and find that if I floor it, it will start, but it is pissed off lol. I get it started, I keep the RPM's high (manual trans) and I pull out onto the road. I just need to make it to my house, that's it.
So I'm on the road and I'm about to turn into the turn lane and it dies again I keep playing with it until it sounds horrible and all of a sudden, smoke/steam. Well, that was the end of my "limping it home". I get out of the car, remember I'm in the Middle of a 4 lane road in teh left turn lane. So I have two lanes on each side of me. I pop the hood and there is coolant everywhere. I start looking around and I had a huge hole in my upper Radiator hose. Not a big deal, right? WRONG! My car is a 1996 Camaro Z28. The second to the last year of the LT1 engine. This engine was only produced from 1992 to 1997 for one very good reason. The OPTI-Spark ignition.
You see, the distributor on the LT1 is not on the top rear of the engine like a Gen 1 SBC, it on the front of the engine. It is driven straight off of the crankshaft and sits behind both the water pump and the harmonic balancer. This "Opti" has one fatal flaw. Sensitive electronics in a high voltage environment. As long as it is kept dry, it works great. But when it gets wet, like when you blow a radiator hose all over it, it starts jumping the spark to other cylinders hence the backfiring and nto running. Can't keep an engine running if it is not firing on the correct cylinders lol.
So yea, It's a big deal in that it takes someone like me about 2 hours to replace the opti because of where it is located on teh engine. I have to go to the parts store and not only get the radiator hoses, coolant and opti, but I also have to get new gaskets for the water pump since I have to pull it off to get to the opti. I may do something stupid that I said I would never do again. If I do, you can find it on my youtube channel BrokeAuto or Z28.com. It will be uploaded in both places. But not this weekend, it's supposed to get stupid cold, the wife is gone so I have no car right now. Had to call a wrecker to get my car to the house....
But hey, I had some really good coffee, I picked up a package that is sure to make a great series of videos for helicopter fans and I have a variety of coffee to try out. So now I'm just sitting here waiting on Mondays T-Maxx video to finish uploading. I was hoping to have better internet by now, but nope, still waiting. So uploading this video very slowly...