97 Lt1 problem..Backfireing no Start?

[97Lt1SpecialEdition]

Here's the deal.. I'm Driving down the road and all of a sudden i hear Bang BAng BAng( backfiring) .... my car begins to shake and the engines sounds like it wants to die. I pull over and turn it off, I had friend come up behind. She was like wtf was that. She was a like 7 cars behind when this car began to backfire. I have headers so it makes the effect. Anyways I turn it over and all it does it backfire a couple times. The motor turns over but doesn't start, just backfires. I check the pcm and the only code to have was a p0100 Air mass Malfunction. We Clear the code to see if it would come back. Well it didn't So im stuck whether I should buy a new Air sensor or not. I Just wanna make sure that's what it is. I unplugged the sensor on my friends yukon and he truck started. So, that makes me thinks it could be more than the air sensor. The only other problem i have is that my brake switch is causing my lock-up in the Transmission not to go in close loop ( I thinks thats what its called)when i press the brake. But im sure that has nothing to do with the backfiring. Anyone ever heard of this before. The Car is a 1997 Firebird Formula LT1

[Craig 94 TA GT]

You're going to have to verify that the connection was making good contact. Your car is capable of running without the MAF, using pre-defined tables for speed density mode. However, if it was making intermittent contact (connection was loose, connection dirty, etc), your car will behave similar to the way it did. I've been having an intermittent contact problem for years, and it behaved exactly the same. It would backfire, die, run terribly rough, etc. I finally decided to get a new harness and crimp the wires and haven't had a problem since.

If I were you, I'd try to 1) clean out the MAF itself with electrical contact cleaner - be very careful and 2) make sure all the wires and harness are firm and the connection is solid/clean.

[97Lt1SpecialEdition]

I starting to think it might be my optispark. Anyone know a good brand to get?

[Dave Vince]

The Opti has been the cause of many problems. MSD is making a replacement unit. Jegs sells a GM replacement. Whatever you do don't get one of the so called rebuilts from any auto supply store. Those people cannot REBUILD???? anything electrical.
The problem I have found with the unit is the Opti sensor goes bad. That is the small chip like piece in the bottom of the distributor. It is not available by itself.

[97Lt1SpecialEdition]

anyone use that deltq(SP) Where you have convert to the coil packs like the ls1 instead of the otispark?