I have an '87 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am that seems to have an unsolvable problem. My dad and I recently did an engine swap with a 396 SBC from blueprint engines. The specifics go on: Hooker shorty headers, Accel Distributor, coil, and ICM, a Holley Stealth ram intake manifold with accel 30 pound injectors, and a bbk throttle body, brand new plug and wires, and a high performance fuel pump. All of this in front of a TCI-Street Fighter 700r4. Hauls *** like a dream.

It's been running fine for a few months since everything was squared away, but recently, it's thrown an extremely annoying problem my way. I was stuck in traffic last week, where the car got up to about 230 degrees. Once traffic cleared, I was right at 60 mph just cruising along when I heard what sounded like a backfire, and instantly lost it. Turned over but would not start. So I had the car towed home. This weekend, we checked for spark and fuel. In-line fuel pressure gauge reads out 36 lbs of pressure, so we're all good there. Checked for spark at the #1 plug, and nothing. Well, my dad and I continued our project, working backwards from the plug wires, to the cap and coil. No spark there. Pulled the cap and checked to see if rotor was turning; turns fine and no corroded points on the cap. It all still looked brand new. So, we replaced the ICM thinking that may have been the issue. It solved the problem....for about 10 minutes. We let the car idle in the driveway and soon after it cranked up, it died again, and lost spark.

The last thing we can think of is that when it backfired after getting too hot, that it may have messed up the intermittens in the distributor. The teeth are all good on the cam and distributor gear. I don't see how it could be bad already after only a few months, so if anyone has any other suggestions, please let me know.

 

Did you check the coils resistance? Could also check for loose grounds.

 

Distributor pick-up coil?

 

@ 3.4 grape; checked all the grounds, and they all check out, and tested the coils resistance, perfectly fine. It turned out to be exactly what @mjdavis68 said. The pick up coil in the distributor moved just far enough away from the gear to not generate the necessary volts (only about 0.5 volts instead of 1.8 -3) . Moved it back into position and tightened it back down. Runs just fine. Thanks again for the help!

 

good deal...