Are there any good threads on this? I need a VERY dummied down thread on this. I know about as much about opti spark distributers as an 87 year old woman.

I got quoted $1900 today by a local mechanic to replace the distributer, waterpump, plugs, and wires. That's crazy. I am gonna tackle this by mself.

I have no idea where to start. I know nothing about opti's other than you can't get them wet. I have no idea what to buy. I see new MSD opti's on ebay and some are only like $100 and some are like $600....

Basically, I want to just replace the water pump and the distibuter.

What EXACTLY do I need to buy. I haven't a clue.

The good news...my Corvette is my weekend toy-not a dailey driver. So if it sits on jackstands in the garage for a while-no big deal


Thanks.

 

Be careful, that's how my project started and now my car is sitting in the garage 2 feet off the ground with pieces of the engine all over the garage, the transmission in the corner, the rear end on my basement stairs, and various pieces scattered throughout the house/garage/basement. A simple water pump and opti replacement, plus a few "might as wells" turned into head work, a camshaft, torque converter, and 3.73 rear end. And all for about the same price you were quoted by that mechanic! Good luck!

 

There are some good threads here to study on the "how to" with this part replacement. I was like you too before I started. It is not really difficult to do. My Optispark (MSD) cost me about $600 and I replaced the waterpump at the same time by converting it to an electric pump. I liked the MSD quality as well as the waterpump. My old optispark was the unvented type. Now, it's vented. Jumped to life immediately when I turned the key after the installation.

I didn't jack up my car, just wasn't necessary. Took me about 5 hours to do overall. You can do it, just study the threads here. Some have pictures and tutorials on how to proceed. Good Luck!

Billy

 

There are tons of threads about the opti procedure, and you should have a FSM for torque specs, etc. From memory:

1). Disconnect the battery negative cable
2). Drain the cooling system, by opening the petcock on the radiator, and then by removing the knock sensors on each side of the engine block
3). Remove the air cleaner bellows and serpentine belt, disconnect electrical connections to MAF and coolant level sensor
4). Disconnect radiator and heater hoses, and remove the water pump (you may also want to remove the radiator hoses to get them out of the way). The water pump may need a little persuasion to come out - I tapped it with a rubber mallet.
5). Remove the harmonic balancer pulley (3 bolts) - you may want to spray some PB blaster where it mates to the hub, and also mark the pulley's position. Note that the pulley bolts must be roughly at 10, 2 and 6 o'clock in order for the opti to clear the hub.
6). Mark the spark plug wires and vacuum hoses, and disconnect from the opti
7). Remove the cap from the opti and mark the location of the rotor
8). Remove the opti
9). Check the seals around the opti and water pump drives, replace if necessary, and clean the water pump mounting surface. Here's an excellent thread on replacing the seals: https://www.impalasuperstore.com/nai...TOPIC_ID=30984
10). Install new opti, noting rotor location - make sure it mates easily with the front cover without force
11). After plug wires, etc. are attached to new opti, install the balancer pulley, connect battery and start the car briefly to make sure opti is functioning properly
12). Reinstall everything in reverse order - note - check the o-ring on the engine shaft for the water pump to see if it needs replacing. A new water pump will come with one o-ring for the pump, so you may need to buy another.
13). Make sure to bleed air from cooling system when refilling.

You may find that removing the belt tensioner and the coil gives you a little more room to work. As for replacing the plug wires - you will find that loosening the power steering pump to allow you to pull it forward a bit is helpful.

 

Oh boy, another Optispark thread! There are tons of threads about opti spark replacement. I had bought a cap and rotor from a place called "All Ignition" on E-Bay, and it was an absolute bust, could not even get the wires on, it was made so poorly. Went with GM stuff and all is good. So from what I've read the options are MSD or AC/Delco (GM). Many of the "$100" aftermarket optis are cheap imitations.

Your profile says yours is a '94. This creates another complication. The later '94s got the opti II which means it is vented with air flowing from the intake to keep it dry. Let's hope yours is one of them. If it's vented, you will see a small hose coming from the about the middle of your intake manifold on the driver's side and runs toward the front of the engine and down to the opti.

BTW, when you take the balancer aka damper off, make sure you index it's position so that it goes back on in the same position.

 

Honestly if your going to replace the Opti I would buy the full blown MSD unit (part number 8381 or 83811 depending on which your of LT1 you have).

Its a pretty solid unit.

I did my waterpump , optispark , wires , coil, and plugs last year and its a fairly simple job.

It took 2 days of casual wrenching (drinking beer , shooting the breeze ect) to get everything completed, however I also did headers / cat elims and timing chain at the same time.

There are oodles of threads on here giving you the step by step on how to get it all completed.

Word to the wise , if you have a 92 you need to order a wiring harness adapter for your MSD Optispark ~ if you go that route.

Good luck!



PS

Just wanted to add that if you do go with the MSD unit , they are all vented and they come with the hardware to get it all setup.

 

I got my water pump from thepartsladi on ebay, and my MSD opti from epowershops.com (get a quote from them, good price).

The job is a little tedious, but not all that difficult. Some challenges come from stupid things, like cleaning the old water pump gasket material from the block, and not getting a face-full of coolant when you pull the knock sensors. You'll get to know your car quite well.

 

I stupidly just had the water pump replaced by my b/f and didnt replace the opti. I ended up with an oil leak from the manifold gaskets, so while I am having those replaced by a mechanic here, I am also having him replace the opti, plugs and wires, (because they are a pita to get to), fuel filter, air filter and a few other things if they are needed.

The car has high miles and this is all much needed maintenance work that should be done.

My quote so far is around $1500 parts and labor, so I would say that $1,900 is indeed high.

Laura

 

I recommend the dynaspark (www.dynaspark.net) as a replacement. It is heavier duty unit, bigger bearing, sealed better and vented. Made for both the early and late LT1's (both shafts). Great Warranty and replacement. Check out the web site. The unit I feel could even be washed with a high pressure without problems. GM 's I don't think could do that.

 

the dynaspark opti is an amazing unit, yes...but also very expensive. it looks like the dynaspark opti and the MSD opti are near the same. I have the MSD opti, and although i haven't run it yet, it's an extremely well built unit... just some food for thought...

 

Man, you didn't even try

75% of the C4 threads are about the optic, ACCEL, Dynaspark, MSD pro-Billet and Delteq.

 

Oh, I find plenty of threads. Not doubt. That's the problem. Not all say the same thing.

I bought a waterpump today. Gonna take my time with this.


Is there any such thing as an Opti just getting a little wet and being just fine? My car never ran crappy until it got fully warmed up and then only at idle. In other words, if you find a leak and act fairly quickly, are things okay?

Also, do you have to remove the waterpump to get to the opti? If I wanted to just do the water pump now and try the opti if this does not fix my problem go back and just do the opti?

That is exactly what I am looking for, but only with pic's.

 

Yes, you must remove the water pump (and the balancer pulley) to remove the opti. Due to the labor involved, if your opti is questionable in the least, this would be the time to replace it. At minimum you'd likely want to replace the cap and rotor, but even they're not cheap.

There are probably some good threads with pictures, but meanwhile here's an article:

http://www.corvettefever.com/howto/16758/index.html

and I took some pics while I was working on mine last year:

http://bradprestonmusic.com/Photos/V...008/index.html

About the only oddball tool you will need is an inverted Torx E4 bit to remove the opti cap. If you get an MSD opti, it comes with a little makeshift tool for this purpose.

 

Thanks for the links pianoguy.

Looks like you have gone through this before.

How do you remove the knock sensors? I am not sure if I am looking at the right things. Do they have these v-shaped flaps below them?

Oh, and nice car. WOW!!! That is clean. I wish mine were like that. it looks like oil, grease, etc is all over the place on mine.

 

Thanks! I'm in the process of doing most of it again right now, getting ready to pull my engine.

The knock sensors are under those flaps on the side of the block. Just remove the flaps - they're held on by 2 nuts on the flange of the oil pan. Then remove the electrical connector (just squeeze and you should be able to pop it off). You'll see that the sensor is fit for a large socket - doesn't take much to loosen them to be able to turn by hand (I think they are torqued to something like 14 lb/ft.). Hold a 2-gallon pail up there tight as you remove the sensor - it'll gush out pretty fast, and over 1 gallon of coolant will come out of each side. I have read about another method of draining the block that involved using a shop vac to blow the water out, eliminating the need to pull the sensors, but I have never tried that.

 

A few other notes:

When you reinstall the coupler between the block and the water pump, pack it with grease, and note the direction of the coupler. And make sure to use thread sealant on the water pump bolts when installing the new pump - the bolts go into the water jacket, so without sealant they'll leak. When reinstalling the balancer pulley, coat the surface that mates to the hub with anti-seize (this will make it easier to remove next time, if there is a next time). You may also want to think about replacing your radiator and heater hoses at this time, while you've got the system drained and everything apart. When refilling your cooling system, use a 50/50 mixture of antifreeze and distilled water.

 

One thing that I didn't see mentioned that I had to do:

My damper would not budge.
Wound up with a piece of wood (2x4 works) and a hammer.
Buddy under the car, get the piece of wood on the damper, whack it a few times with a hammer.
I would then rotate the engine 90 degrees, he would wack it.
Repeat until the sucker comes off. It took almost 3 revolutions before mine came off.
Cleaned it up and used anti-sieze when replacing it.

 

If your keeping the stock mechanical WP, have them install a drain line on the weep hole so it won't take out the opti.

 

I need to paste one of those yellow sticky notes on my forehead so I don't forget to do that this time around ;-)

 

How can you attach a drain line from the weep hole?