Atomic6

I owned a 1996 Firebird Formula for nearly 10 years and 40,000 miles and never had an issue with the optispark. I bought it new and it was garage kept with basically no repairs ever needed. Now owning a '96 Corvette w/ 29,000 miles makes me wonder what's ahead. It's also all original with few repairs over it's 20n years. Who has their original optispark still? How many miles on your car? Is age affecting these optis or is it the miles? Any pattern shown or is it 'luck of the draw'??

charliet615

I have a 93 with the original Optispark and 67k miles and still runs strong. I believe it is the "Luck of the Draw" and how it was taken care of. IMHO

ColaBear

I have a 96 LT1 with 92k and it still has the original Opti. I have replaced the cap and rotor with a new AC-Delco unit.

Mr Angry

I had the original Opti on my '94 Z28 until I was ready to sell it. 150k miles, and I was not nice to it. Put it up for sale, and it started acting up.

I did, however, take it apart when I had the water pump fail at 80k. I cleaned it up, loctite on the rotor screws, and silicone sealed the cap (a few old tricks from the F-Body guys that seem to really extend service life).

We just did the Opti on my buddy's '95 Vette, at 180k miles. It was original, too, aside from a cap and rotor change at 110k.

Mr Angry

The 3 biggest killers are
1) Water pump leak. The weep hole is directly over the opti. When we change water pumps, we always do the weep hole mod. Tap it, put a fitting in, and run a small rubber hose down past the Opti.

2) Leaking front intake seal. It gets oil all over the Opti.

3) Rotor screws coming loose. Loctite them, good to go.

antfarmer2

I still have mine in a box. I changed mine at just under 100k before I knew better. I was doing the plugs and wires before a long trip. I was told it was a good idea to change it. So glad I saved it.

B17Crew

59,000 miles on my current ’96, no issues. Had a ’94 coupe that I traded for my ’96, had over 66,000 miles on that one. No issues with that one either.

However, I bought a new ’93 off the showroom floor. At 9,000 miles, the opti went, it was covered under warranty.

B17Crew

gdl2165

My 96 just turned over 140,000 miles. Original opti with a new cap and rotor when I did a cam change at about 120,000. When I took it apart I found one rotor screw had fallen out and the other one was loose, I'm surprised it was running fine at the time. I actually made the mistake of replacing the opti with an AIP unit while I was doing the cam. That one was crap, it would cut out at anything over 5,000 rpm so I ended up putting the stocker back on but used the cap, rotor, and harness from the AIP. Interesting note there, the AIP harness recently developed a problem, I had one instance of a low resolution signal loss and the car just shut off. A few other times recently I'd noted an occasional miss during moderate acceleration. I was afraid my original opti was on its way out but I spent some time looking at the wiring first and found that the wires on the harness were showing some signs of being affected by heat. I put the original harness back on, even though the locking clip on the opti end had broken off, and it's been running perfectly for two weeks now. I'm concerned about the broken lock clip so I've ordered a new harness from EFI Connection.

Whiteonrice

My 95 has the original but the car only has 22k miles on it

Atomic6

Thanks for all the replies. From replacing when almost new to 100,000+ miles use with no issues. That's running the full gamut. I'm certainly not seeing a pattern develop so it may just be 'luck of the draw' so far.

DGXR

1995 LT1 65,000 miles all original and no issues.

Planning to change the plugs and wires soon, no driveability issues but 21 years is long enough.

Tom400CFI

You got it. As I said in another thread;

Mine went 155k.

93droptop

The original on my 1993 vert went 100K, over the next 50K I lost 3 optis. The worst one only lasted a couple days (cheap Chinese unit). I Added a vacuum line to the current AC Delco unit and have had about 10K trouble free miles.

Turbo Bob

Just recently purchased a '95 coupe. Optispark is original. 43k miles. Plugs and wires have been changed.

Edv92c4

Mine is original...1992 coupe...and it should be at only 15,400 miles...runs great!

JBRUSS

I have a 96 Grand Sport Coupe with 27,000 miles or so on the original optispark with no issues.

jess

My 95 vette has 247,000 miles with original Optispark. Engine is original never rebuilt

QCVette

My LT1/LT4 cars with Optispark:

'96 42k Corvette (current)
'95 44k Corvette (current)
'96 110k Caprice (current) (water pump failed)

'94 145k Corvette (sold in '11)
'94 35k Corvette (sold in '95)
'95 54k Z28 (sold in '01) (water pump failed)
'96 115k Impala SS (sold in '03)
'95 140k Caprice 9C1 (stolen in '05)

All of these were original and I never had any problems with them even with water pump failures leaking on them.

AllGensAdmirer

Ditto!

jph46

My 93 went 67,000, what got it was a failure of the water pump rear bearing.