I am fixing a water pump leak on my girlfriends 92. The pump was not leaking onto the optispark, it was spraying away from the unit. The car has 116,000 miles on it.

I jumped from an 87 to a 2000 so I do not have any experience with the LT1 but I do remember hearing the optisparks had some issues with failure. It was pretty easy to get the waterpump off. It looks like I would only need to take off the crank pulley to put on a new one.

The car runs good, so do I fix something that is not broke or is failure at this mileage right around the corner? Do I go OEM or Aftermarket? Please remember to factor in that I am paying for the repair and the time I will spend in the doghouse if I don't replace it and it fails soon after.

 

I don't like to throw good money away on parts that are good, but your mileage is over the 100k mark with that original opti, if it is original. I'd probably go ahead and replace it. OEM or Aftermarket is your choice. I bought the MSD unit and it appears to be a real solid unit with lots of great features for my early LT1 opti. Yours is also an early unvented style, so you would gain from the aftermarket vented MSD, but it is a bit more money at $499. Others can be had cheaper. You might also get away with just an OEM cap and rotor kit if all you want to do is change out those parts. There are many options to consider, but I think you would be wise to do something rather than just put the old one back on.

 

Depending on the doghouse, of course.



Cap/Rotor MAY be the way to go. But to ensure staying TOTALLY out of the Opti-Doghouse I'd personally go with the MSD vented unit.

There's nothing more you could DO (Opti-Wise).





And we'll all back you up on that.




....ummmm......what's your doghouse address again?

 

I am lucky in that I don't have opti on my cars but....everything I have read on here states"while your in there" change the opti or you might be back "in there" much sooner than you would want to be. At 116k it's not a matter of "if" the opti goes, but "when"....just my two cents! Good Luck!

 

There is one being posted for sale in the Parts section for $400.00 you might check it out.

 

I don't think you should worry about it. Some of them fail a lot, others tend to last. I have a friend with over 200K on his stock opti.

In my opinion there's no need to disrupt the balance that is keeping that opti going. There is also no really reliable replacement. MSD units have problems with the screws falling out of the rotor, the O-ring on them is a huge pain to seat properly, Dynaspark went out of business, and a stock unit from anywhere is just as likely to fail next week as your 100K unit.

I wouldn't mess with it, but it's up to you.

 

Dustin....I have a OEM cap and rotor kit that I was supposed to install when the water pump was being replaced. I decided against changing it since the Opti was good at only 43,xxx miles at the time.

I'll sell it to you with free standard shipping if you are interested....send me a PM if want it.




BTW...I don't mind going to my dog house.....its where i keep my xbox 360 and plasma TV!

 

If money is super tight then pull it off and open it up and check the various failure points (cap / optical sensor / bearing) and then decide.

Otherwise just replace it. You are way past the typical reported failure mileage/age.

Ask yourself - would you go 116k on a cap & rotor in any other car?

 

Where did you see that?

 

If you have anyway of contacting them, let us know. The phone number doesn't work and they don't respond to E-mails. The shop I used work for has several thousand dollars worth of Dynaspark stuff that we were never charged for, the credit card number we used with them since the beginning hasn't been charged, and they won't respond to any inquires asking about paying them.

Most people on the F-body forums agree that they are out of business. No one has heard anything from them, or been able to buy one of their products in close to a year.

 

Not sure what you decided to do, but here is my two cents worth. I realize that there are always at least two sides to any story, but personally, I would replace it. You can pull the cap and inspect, but be prepared. The rust build up in mine after 71K was almost unbelievable. I don’t know how it ran with all of that mess in there. I replaced it with an MSD unit and so far it is running great.

If you do decide to replace the opti, get a can of PB Blaster and start coating the crank surface of the harmonic balancer. Getting that balancer off the crank is the biggest challenge you will face. It gets rusted on and will not come off without a lot of effort. I used a piece of re-rod (some call it rebar) about 3 feet long. Crawling under the car and putting the end of the re-rod against the back of the balancer, you smack the other end of the re-rod with a hammer as hard as you can. Some have tried doing the same thing with a 2X4 board.

Whack a few times in a couple of places, then use the centerbolt on the hub to rotate the engine 90 degrees, Whack it a few more times, rotate, repeat. And repeat. And repeat. And try not to go crazy crawling back under the car, then back out to rotate. I lost count. But it did seem like I had climbed mount Everest when that baby finally came off!

Good luck whatever direction you choose and Merry Christmas.

 

I'd replace it with the MSD unit. Especially if you plan on keeping the car for a longer period of time. If you are going to sell it anytime soon, leave it be, otherwise get a new one.

I just bought a 96 and the owner had replaced the water pump and not the opti (27K miles on the car). Left me stuck on the side of the road about 1,000 mles later. That stunk, I replaced it with the MSD, or rather my mechanic did

When I compared them side by side, WOW the MSD is way better built. I also heard about the lose screw thing, but it all looked great, and the car rann great afterward.

The original looked like total corrosion inside.

Bottom line, I say replace it

 

Mine had 98k on the original and still worked perfect, but went ahead and put an MSD opti on the new motor when it was installed.

 

Since you are that close to it anyway I would pull it and disassemble for a look inside. Anything short of that is guesswork and speculation and this way you will have your answer. It will either look like it needs to be replaced or it will be clean as a whistle and in that case you just replace the cap and rotor. And since it it tight quarters in there this would also be a good time to replace sparkplug wires. New Optis are constantly available on eBay for around $200 and sometimes less. I think partsladi.com has new GM units for around $230 unless there has been a recent price hike.

 

I pulled the opti today. Seems to be in great condition. I think I am going to go with a cap and rotor. Thanks for all the help!!

 

Mine old style opti was working fine, but when I had the heads/cam package installed, I upgraded to the newer style opti. It is much better built, but you will have to replace the timing cover and harness. It's been about 3 years and everything is fine. Either that or go with the MSD. Avoid the Accell.