Hello Everyone,
I just bought my first Corvette a few weeks ago (1994 stock LT1 Beautiful condition) I have wanted one for almost 20 years but have been drag racing a moded 1968 Buick GS 350 since 1993. Anyway last night I was doing a tune up on it that included new coolant and thermostat, taking the thermostat out coolant came flooding out. Vet ran fine before, after that it would not even attempt to fire, like someone just pulled the coil wire. I checked for spark from the plug wires and nothing. Will an Opti just die like that from a good dose of coolant? Do I have to pull the crank pulley inorder to get the Opti out? If so...how? I am lost and pi$$ed off. Any help would be great. Thank you VERY MUCH and Glad to be a Member here!!!

 

Thats the prime reason they seem to fail is condensation/coolant getting into the opti...Most of the time its the waterpump that goes and the coolant ruins the opti...also if you have one of the pre vented ones your in even a worse situation for that to happen. You might try drying the area off with a blow dryer and see if that helps. If, not seems like you'll be doing an opti/water pump job. A shop will prolly charge you about a 1grand to do it.

 

I am already elbow deep into it as we speak. I just can not see how I can get the Opti off without pulling the crank pulley, and the cross member and rack are right in front of it. Everything is off and out but the Opti (unbolted and loose, but can't get'er out )

 

It should dry out. If it doesn't you may have take it apart to dry it out. Basically it's just a distributer cap and rotor (okay, an expensive one) treat it like you would any distributer that you got wet.

 

You'll have to pull the balancer/dampner to get the opti off, the hub can stay.

Oh, and welcome to the forum.
-Mike

 

You have to pull the damper (three bolts and the outside comes off the hub). You will then need a female torx socket.

 

Also, this may take a little persuasion from a a board and hammer. Get underneath the car and tap/beat forward.

 

Well, welcome to the club and sorry that you're initiated with the most dreaded of all LT1 failures.

The short answer is "yes", the Optispark can fail if doused with water (coolant, engine wash, etc). However, don't automatically assume that you toasted it without running the full gambit of tests on the coil, ignition module, etc. Won't take you more than an hour if you're ok in the garage.

Do a search on ignition module in C4 tech, you'll find all the relevant tests. I'll see if I can dig up a thread to link you to so I don't have to retype them all...

 

List where you are in your profile. You never know, there could be a LT1 expert around the corner from you.

 

I did try that. I went through about 300 gallons of shop air, let it dry overnight with a fan blowing down on it and then fired up my leaf blower at 225mph for about 10 minutes. All she would do is just crank and crank, like I said before it was like I pulled the coil wire on it, thats what it sounded like anyhow. I did check all of the fuses as well. It's gotta be the Opti.....Right???

 

Is the coil firing?

 

Thank you to everyone for the kind advice!!! Once I get the hub off do I have to go at the crank bolt with an impact or will just a good breaker bar get it done? Thanks again guys... and maybe Girls.

 

I just tried to get the bolts off with an air ratchet, not enough power. A breaker bar won't work because the crank turns. An impact looks like the tool for the job, oh, and a hoist. So it looks like she's going to get towed to a friends house. Lucky guy has a 6 car garage with a new hoist. Maybe I should just do the intake, heads, cam and chain as long as I am at it. That should put an LT1 deep into the 12's.....Shouldn't it?

 

Just use a long ratchet or breaker bar on the crankshaft snout bolt to hold the c/shaft while you loosen the three damper bolts with a second long ratchet. Pull the plugs out and rotate the c/shaft while tapping the damper off evenly; try to keep from wedging it. Most will be rusted in place and will take a little effort to get them off. Will go right back in place once cleaned up, however. Be sure to check for wear grooves in the damper hub and w/pump driveshaft if you decide to pull the cover to change the chain.

 

To get the 3 damper bolts out, apply the parking brake and put it in 1st gear ( it's a 6 speed,right?). Factory torque on these is 60 lbs.

Torque on the hub bolt is 70, but you don't need to remove the hub to pull the Opti, just turn the hub until one bolt hole points down. The opti will come off inbetween the other 2.

My damper came off in 5 wacks after an over nite soak with PB blaster.
Note that the damper is balanced to the specific engine. I mark the hub and damper before removal so they can be installed back in the same position.
Antisieze on the hub OD where the damper sits will make it much easier next time.

 

I got my 92 6 spd in Aug 05. I didn't know about Opti vs Water until I REALLY doused the motor after liberal (I hate that word) applications of Gunk.

Oh My. I'm in deep S##t. Won't run let alone start. I remembered my dad placed a 100 watt light bulb on the battery of his old cars to keep the battery warm and make sure it started in the Michigan winter.

Why Not ? I put a small 100 watt (size matters - a standard bulb is too big) under the opti. It took two days for the ornery opti to fully dry. The bottom line is it did dry and has performed well for 2 yrs now. Good luck to ya'.

 

Well thanks again to everyone for the advice! I now have all of the necessary items off the engine. I got the damper off by putting a socket extension through the holes of it and using a breaker bar to get the 3 bolts out as well as the center crank bolt. They came off easier than expected. Then I used two pry bars on left and right side of the damper to "pop" it off. Then the opti came right out. I ordered the MSD opti, a new MSD coil and a set of Taylor Spiro-Pro wires in the hope that I do not EVER have to do this again. I decided not to do the electric water pump as the mechanical looks and feels to be in good condition. (whats the purpose of a weep hole in a water pump anyways?)
I do have some questions after looking at these parts and reading all of your posts. My damper seems to be one piece. Some made it sound like the belt pully or hub would come off seperate and was held on by the three bolts and that the damper was held in with the one center bolt. As a matter of fact it does not look to my based on the size of the hole of the damper and the size of the washer that goes on the center bolt that the bolt plays any role on holding the damper to the crank. Did I just misunderstand or is somthing different here. Also being that the engine is internally balanced does it matter in which way I rebolt the damper in relation to the crank? Thanks again!
-Mike

 

The damper only bolts one way to the hub. LTx engines are externally balanced from the factory.

 

What prevents it from being bolted on the wrong way?

 

The three bolts are not evenly spaced.

Tom Piper