How in the world does one Detail / Clean / Gunk the LT1 Engine compartment W/O Damaging the Opti? ?

 

Simple Green, lots of towels and time. The engine compartment is pretty straight forward. Depending on what your final goal is you will have to disconnect some stuff, ASR etc. The bottom half of the compartment can be reached easier from under the car, frame rails, engine block etc. As far as the front of the engine, removing the ac, tensioner along with air intake all the way to the throttle body. At least this is how I would go about it...if I had the time.

 

In other words.....Don't Hose the Engine Compartment ....Right ???

 

Not unless you need an excuse to buy a new opti

 

I here ya !

Thanx Guys

 

I have a '93 LT1 with '95 vented conversion Opti. I just power washed upper and lower with no issue It fired right up with no problem. Of course I didn't drown the top side. Once you have it clean keep it clean by wiping it down when you wash the car. I had an oil leak that I repaired and thus the need to power wash.

It may be a different story with the pre-'95 unvented but, I think if you careful and start it up immediately after washing or run it while washing you should be OK.

Remember, if you were to drive in the rain, which many of don't, but if you did, the Opti is exposed to the water on from the underside while driving and should be capable of surviving some exposure to water.

 

Never get a warm Opti wet. I have power-washed my engine twice so far without the Opti-spark causing a problem. Mine is a '95 also. Anyway, I don't get real close to the engine with the wand. It's my understanding that a warm Opti will condence and pull moisture in if cooled down with cold water. I always use compressed air to help dry the engine and electrical connections. Again I will stress not to get very close to componants when using compressed air as you can blow water past seals. Once the water gets in, it can't get back out. Then I mist 303 vynal protectant on everything and wipe it down. Some things have to be removed and hand cleaned. It just depends on how "clean" you want to get.

 

Here's the poop on cleaning your motor
I cleaned mine this past winter, 94 LT1 with 148,000 on the clock. Dusty, dirty and had some gunk on the underside.
For the cleaning agents I used Greased Lightning cleaner, WD-40 and Simple Green. The GLC was used on all engine parts and the frame, the SG was used on the underside of the hood only, the WD-40 was used to clean the susp parts...A-arms and aluminum items.
A bucket of hot soapy water works wonders also

The tools were a toothbrush, a rag, a brillo pad and a alot of elbow grease
The toothbrush was for tight spots and the casing of the wire harness, the rag was for flat areas. I removed all the covers in the engine bay and wheel wells

The trick is to take your time and do it right

Here is the finished product.

 

Does switching over to the updated MSD Opti eliminate the "getting wet" problem?

 

No, it does not eliminate the getting wet problem.

Also, you shouldn't pressure wash your LT1 engine bay. The people who are saying you will be OK were just lucky. Water will ruin an opti. Point blank. There is no magic solution like using a 95 and up vented opti and spraying the engine 'just so.'

Also, to the people giving the advice to wash the motor with a power washer because you did it and there were no problems. Think about what you did, how careful you were, the time, place, relative humidity, hardness level of the water, and the million other factors that contributed to you getting away with it. The chances of the original poster replicating those conditions is next to impossible, so encouraging him to 'spray it man, it worked for me' is contributing to him being stuck on the side of the road at some point, which is not what anyone here wants.

I'm certainly not one to preach about posting responsibly, but in this case try to hold off on encouraging people to wash their opti spark units with a pressure washer.

 

I've been washing my engine for YEARS now with zero, no, none, zip, nada zilch OPTI failures. The cats with the 92-94 cars may have issues, but the OPTI in the 95-96 Corvettes is a different animal and is much more robust. (Same opti is used in the 94-96 impalas) Just treat it like a regular distributor and you will be fine. IE don't hit the OPTI directly with a pressurized stream of water.

MIKE
uato

 

 

And maybe some people have a glass half-empty view and are a little paranoid!

Seems to me the majority experience, especially with 95+ opti is that power washing the engine compartment and not specifically the opti is an issue.

No one is recommending that people wash their opti's directly. Common sense and being careful, especially water on electronic components, is what will alllow someone to wash their engine compartment with no issue.

Let's take your points one-by-one and see if they are a contributing factor to washing an engine compartment and opti failure. When I did my last power wash I assume you would consider my conditions a worse case scenario and one that would lead to failure, but it didn't!

"how careful you were"

Goes without saying and is a given. If your going to put water in an engine compartment under pressure with electrical components you need to be careful. If your not going to be careful don't do it!

"the time"

June, Late afternoon / early evening, 90+ deg

"place"

Central TX, driveway

"relative humidity"

Very High! 65+%

"hardness level of the water"

Hard! 21+

It doesn't get much worse than that! As previously stated the LT1 fired right up and has run fine since with NO problems.

I also am one not to preach about posting responsibly, but in this case try to hold off from posting glass half-empty paranoid posts that are not factual or the majority opinion.

 

I don't (and wouldn't advise anyone) to wash the engine/opti.

 

How about steam cleaning the engine compartment? Cuts grease and drys its self for the most part.