Hey everyone;

Not trying to start a "flame" war but I was curious as to the number of owners that bought the MSD Opti had any major issues, minor issues, on no problems at all.

I had one bad experience with the opti and thought it might be a fluke but now I am curious. I have read several posts about the MSD failing with some of the posts pointing to a bearing issue.

FYI, some of these posts are from other forums as well.

 

I have been watching this issue closely. There are lots of promoters on this forum but do a search on MSD failure and you will find plenty that have. I don't see it as anymore reliable than the OEM and certainly not worth the premium. They don't even fully assemble it as every other opti on the market is. I have read a couple of threads where the customer service was questionable too one peson sent it back and they returned the same bad opti to him. It looks pretty though.......


On second thought forget the search it is down AGAIN....

 

I put an MSD Opti on my '94 right at 2 years ago. In that time, I've put 60k on the car trouble free.

FYI, my original Opti was still working fine. The water pump started leaking, so I went ahead and put in the MSD unit as preventative maintenance more than anything.

Just last weekend, I had to replace a leaky water pump again, and I haven't had any issues with the Opti since then either. Keepin' my fingers crossed.

 

I did the same last spring - replaced the opti "while I was in there". I put about 7,000 miles on last summer, no problem.

 

I've seen numerous MSD failures on the camaroz28 forum. Those guys tend to spin their engines higher than most of us, and they have had problems with the rotor coming loose.

 

And installed a Delteq to replace the Opti.

 

Loose rotor screws here. One screw came completely out, the other was out about 50%. Car would run great until it wound up to about 4k, then it would break up for a bit, then clear out and run fine to 7K. MSD opti, less than 100 miles.

 

Took mine apart, everything was nice and tight.

Getting the cover back on w/o damaging the seal is a real PITA
Kinda wishing I left it alone now.

 

I skewed the results. I have an MSD but its still in the box. Never been installed.

 

FYI removed my stock opti had a loose screw inside however was still working fine. I did have a miss at idle. Leaking waterpump and opti was dry inside. I am still unsure which to buy and watching the results of the poll.

 

The stock opti on mine had an oily residue inside the cap. It did idle rough, but part of that may have been the 1994 era plug wires & possibly the spark plugs too, laugh, it still had the factory shocks on it. No issues w/MSD version so far, the idle is smoother after install.

 

Glen, did your high rpm issue end up being the OPTI or are you still working on it?

 

No problems on mine whatsoever. They are rated for 10k rpm, won't turn mine up that high but have hit the 6300 rpm mark several times and not a miss.

You guys that have had trouble probably bought the ones that were Made In China the week(s) they have been mad at us.

 

I went though two of the first ones before I got a good one .No problems with the last one

 

I have never had a problem with mine. It was on a f-body. 7000 miles and was still going strong when I traded it in. The best part is the life time free replacement if defect kills it, or $167 rebuild when worn out.

 

So far so good.

 

I've had one in my 93 for about a year with no problems at all. It's on a daily driver and I put plenty of miles on it, not to mention I drive it very hard on a regular basis.

A very nice product!

 

I have 2 1996 LTx cars. never an opti problem.

 

Hey Dave,

Hope you had a great holiday and new year !

Haven't had a chance to get back on it. Tom, of all things; went and had a baby boy right before the holidays....what an excuse to getting out of work !

Anyway; we are shooting for this weekend or early part of next week.

I decided to stick with the GM Opti and go from there. I am not too convinced of the results of this poll. You would think that the ratio would be more like 1:10000 of any problems but who knows.

Although, the gm opti itself had it's issues with moisture and failing when it got wet; I think the overall concept and reliability was much better. I don't remember hearing too many stories of people having opti issues right out of the box though.

I may be wrong and not trying to start an argument but looking at the results made my decision which was very helpful. The other alternative is a dynaspark.

My original gm opti lasted until at least 75K and only swapped to my 2nd gm opti when I had my engine rebuilt. I swapped out the last one because we went in their again when we tore it down again and figured that if the MSD was a better unit; then why not.

We will see and keep you updated.

glenn

 

Had my rotor come loose after the first 2000miles

After installing some red loctite, I've had about 5000 miles trouble free so far.