I just removed my Opti from the front of the engine and before wiping anything off I figured I'd take a photo or two. I definitely have oil leaking from the distributor shaft seal. Although it looks like a lot of gunk under the water pump seal, that is mostly gunk that built up in that location while the distributor was mounted and provided a resting place for it. However I'm sure it has some minor weeping going on as well.

I turned the motor over until all the white marks on the distributor shaft coupling were at the top of the rotation. Is this TDC? or am I jumping the gun? I want to mark everything where it needs to be, before I go any further. I will be removing the hub next, and then I'll clean everything up a as good as I can before I move on to removing the oil pan and timing cover.

Should I remove the intake manifold and its paraphernalia now or wait until I have the cover and pan off? Does it really matter which order I dissect this beast?


Edit: I just realized that I removed the opti-spark before the distributor cover, and didn't mark the location of the rotor first. Is this critical? or am I on the right track with the current allignment? with the way things are now, can I assume where the rotor should be?

Having fun - no scraped knuckles yet and no problems faced, thanks to the forum and all the threads on this process. Thanks for all the prior documentation from those that have walked down this path before... or should I say crawled?
Cheers

 

Since you have already removed the hub I dont know how much use marking it will be now, the opti shaft comes out and is keyed and will only go back one way (easily - yes you can force it back in wrong) . The timing cover seal may be replaceable with the timing cover on the car but to replace the timing cover seal the oil pan must come off - major pain)

 

It appears that the hub is still in place, and that only the balancer/Pully has been removed. But there is no need to find TDC due to the keyed Optispark spline.

Also, you did right by removing the entire Opti. I don't think you can remove the cap/rotor without removing the entire Opti from the engine.

If you really want to put at TDC, pop off the timing cover and turn engine until the crankshaft gear is oriented as such:

 

The hub has not been removed (see photo)

If anyone knows how to replace the timing cover seal without removing the pan, please chime in.

Thanks

 

I think you have settled my major concern. I was worried that when I install the new MSD Opti, that the rotor would be in the wrong position. How does one insure that the rotor is in the correct positon before installing the new distributor? or does it only go on in one orientation?

Thanks for the picture - I'm sure this will all become self evident when I get the front cover off.

 

Just note that, as MikeC4's photo shows, the cam makes two revolutions to the crank's one. You still have to make sure that #1 is at TDC on the compression stroke when the marks line up. One way is to remove the #1 sparkplug and check for compression with your thumb as the marks line up.

 

As stated above, no need to find TDC to reinstall the opti.

You'll need to drop the front of the oil pan to change the timing cover's gasket. The timing cover's seals can be changed with the cover still on the engine, but the hub will need to be removed.

 

OK - let's say I drop the oil pan an inch as needed to get clearance to install the front cover gasket; Can I reuse the pan gasket? or do I have to replace the whole oil pan gasket? What is the process there?

Thanks for the assistance

 

If you are very careful not to damage the part of the pan gasket that seals the lower part of the timing cover. I wasn't so careful on my first attempt.

 

Oh. I would say there is a pretty good chance that your leaks are coming from the timing cover seals, not its gasket.

 

There was a good thread 2-3 months ago on changing the timing cover seal without removing the cover.

 

You've got a heck of a power steering fluid leak.

 

Did you modify the opti in anyway when installing? There were some reports of screws coming loose and some rubbing on the inside of the opti. I think some have used different screws with locktite any may be doing some type of mod on the inside of the opti. Read through some of these threads. You may also want to call MSD to check with them. Thanks for the pic it may help me when I'm ready to install my MSD.

http://web.camaross.com/forums/showt...light=msd+opti

http://web.camaross.com/forums/searc...archid=1745256

 

Hi Rick,

I have not installed the MSD yet. I removed a factory Opti that had ~150k miles on it.

Thanks for the links, I'll have to read them before installation of the MSD unit. It is so pretty I hate to mount it!!!

 

Dang, I read all those threads on the MSD Opti, they get me worrying. I'm gonna go through my unit tonitght and inspect it closely. Mine has only been out of the box once to take a quick look at and take a few photos for you guys. I'm planning on doing the Threadlocker on the rotor screws and checking that ORing real good. I may even be calling MSD to see if they have any advice before installation.

Thanks a ton.
donhaller

 

I'm not sure what would be worse, a pwr steering leak or my dang engine leaking from every orifice!! Thank god the power steering rack is dry.

 

Mike's photo doesn't show that the cam makes two revolutions to the crank's one. You are going to have some of the neophytes scratching their heads over THAT bit of misinformation. How about the camshaft turns at one HALF (not twice) the speed of the crankshaft?

RACE ON!!!

 

+1

 

you guys...always nitpicking

Note dowel pin orientation w/r/t to cam and crank gear DOT which determines which cylindar is at TDC compression.....

(the little guy(crank) spins twice as fast as the big guy(cam))

CYL #1 TDC :



CYL #6 TDC :