Ok so for about 2 years now my choptop has had this issue with loosing its ability to restart. After about trying everything under the planet including a different engine I am at a loss as to what could be causing it.

The symptoms are like this, I drive it, the things runs fine all over town but when I get on the hi-way for lets say 30 miles it once and awhile after shutting down will refuse to start till I take off the dizzy cap and fiddle with the electrical connections on the distributor. Now this does not always solve it tho and i even changed the distributor with no luck it still does it. Could this be a issue with the computer? it is the only thing in the car I have not changed yet. Crappy part is I cannot duplicate the problem but many people some on here have witnessed it happen. the engine throws no codes when it does this as well.

With all that going on now a new problem has developed, I drove it to meet a friend for lunch a few weeks ago, The trip was about 45 miles to the place and ran perfect the whole drive. After being there for about 20 minutes waiting I restarted it and moved my car a few spaces over so I could see the driveway better again no problems it fired right up. Well later on after eating say 45 minutes it would not fire, finally after pulling the cap again and wiggling the wires it fired and off i went to make it home. Only, this time it was different. As I got on the hi-way it sounded like it was sucking hard from the intake and making no power, the belt started squealing a bit too and according to the gauges it was putting out about 13 volts I did not see a problem since I was running headlights heat and radio etc... but the problem kept getting worse. Also it was having hard time shifting and would pound into gear but if in neutral it would act fine. It was misting out so no real water got up under it anywhere. Any ideas?
I have it put away for the year now but I would like to figure it out this winter so it's ready for spring.

[This message has been edited by jetsnvettes2000 (edited 11-23-2013).]

the most common problems of this type are loose conection & corrossion
all older cars have this problem
the ECU under the console is seldom bad,but check connections use fashlite
first check the connection from the coil to the dist.pull the connector,,clean the male & female connectors .curl fine sandpaper in a roll & clean ALL male studs,now roll sandpaper tighter & clean female being carefull ,,finish with Q tip,,after cleaning carefully squeeze females to get great connection,if the snap connector is broken form a new one or use a dap of some form of adhesive. to secure connector
check dist shaft for looseness
remove screws that hold the ignition module down clean the screws & threads with wire brush or stiff tooth brush,pipe cleaner or some such impliment,,,,clean the bottom of ignition module regrease,check minicule metal gromets screws go thru for corrossion,if the screws heads that form connection are not clean ,,make them shiny
if you changed engine the timing chain should not be an issue ,but check for slack,, the loose timing chain has recently come back to bite me I knew there was a timming issue, but though pick up coil.. which has to do with ignition & injectors
the pick up coil connection is probably loose from what you say
the Ignition coil is unlikely to be effected by wriggling ,jiggle the wires in the distributor,but clean the wires at the coil to prevent future problems,,make sure coil is firmly mounted
this is not as complicated to do as it seems easy & quick to do Basic mechanic 101
if my suggestions do not work have coil checked at auto parts store
if the module has over 120,000 thousand miles replace with delco or less expensive fiero store Etron

Has brand new delco ignition module, I wonder if the pickup coil may be the culprit but then again this did this with the old distributor too. the engine is rebuilt and the timing chain is brand new so highy doubt it's that.

I would lean toward the pick up coil, based on your description. When you changed the distributor, was it a NEW part, or just a DIFFERENT part?

Also, there could be issues with the coil, but they usually don't work intermittently, they just misfire or die.

ya new coil too and far as the condition of the distributor well it was way better than the original with the first engine but i would not call this the best either as the pickup coil looks like it is falling apart a bit at least the covering.

Question - Does the tach sit at 0 during cranking when this happens or does it rise to 200 and then fall again.

Dunno the problem would have to happen again to determine that. Right now It will start so I have no idea if it would do that

I've encountered 3 difficult intermittents on the ignition system:

1) Bad ICM. Most common I think. Ensure the heat transfer paste its there!!
2) Bad pickup coil, or poor connection to ICM (they get corroded up pretty badly). Replace pickup with new style
3) External power wiring (2 connector plug) from the distributor to the ig coil...the wires can be broken/partialy making without an external indication (It occurs inside the insulation). Replace with wrecker lead...a number of newer cars share the same lead type. Just look for an external distributor type ignition


OR

Go 7730 and DIS and forget about it all.

Note: you could have a flaky power feed/ground from the fuse out to the coil. Defintely check this out!!

Chay