I had to work yesterday, as I do from time to time on a Saturday. I hadn't had the Vette out all week. I decided to take the cover off , get it out and drive it to work. I remember telling the wife " I hope she(the Vette) wasn't gonna be p*ssed at me "cause i hadn't driven her all week" LOL. My route to work takes me on some nice twisties (not much traffic on saturdays) and i'm thinkin' ....man this car is a blast to drive!!! What a sweet runnin' car!!

I get to work and the shop AC is not working/feels like I'm working in a oven. We're very busy and w/in 15 minutes the sweat is dripping off me. No complaints though 'cause when I started in this business AC in a shop was unheard of. Nowadays i consider myself very lucky to be employed. The AC not working may have been a sign of things to come though/ lol

The day comes to a end...I'm hot and sweaty..but looking forward to my drive home w/AC !! I jump in the Vette thinkin' about my barbeque dinner my wife has been cooking all day. There is a short piece of straight highway I use sometimes to get home before hitting the twisties. About a mile after merging off the entrance ramp onto the highway...she shuts off and I coast to the side of the road. I crank..crank..crank---No Start---also notice/no tach and I'm thinkin' hmmmmm that can't be good. I get out.. open the clamshell ...doing a visual check to see if I can spot anything which may be loose. Didn't see anything...get back in the car..crank..she fires right up running perfect...idles about a minute...shuts off/no tach...this happens 3 times..let it sit for a bit fires right up.. then shortly cuts off.

I was lucky that the parts manager where I work uses the same route as I..when going home ..he spots my car and pulls over. He owns a Miata and loves it/ he also knows I worked for Mazda a few years back and we banter back and forth about Vettes/ Miatas and sports cars in general while at work. His first question when he walks back to my Vette...."What did you do/ stop to take a leak ???" Hmmmm good guess..but no that's not it

I'm thinkin' symptoms sound like possible ICM....so I turn on my flashers and we head back to the shop i pick up some tools and a ICM. We drive back to the Vette...install the ICM...I jump in knowing I've got her fixed...go to crank it and.....CLICK CLICK CLICK...GREAT...now between me trying to start it and my flashers...my battery is just about dead. My buddy says no problem ...i'll call the dealership and have one of the salesman run up here with a jumper box...it's all good(or so I thought)...salesman arrives W/jump box...and guess what...It's deader then my battery!!! This is turnin' into a genuine comedy...wasn't quite as comical in "real time" though as it is while I'm telling my story now LOL. I say 'Well if you don't mind takin' me back to the shop I'll get my jump box , which I know is charged up" So off we go!! FAST FORWARD w/my jump box spinning over nicely now but NO START. At this point it's time to get her back to the shop...so i call a company that I know has flatbeds...I also call my wife and ask her to bring my scanner from home and come pick me up at the shop. Get back to the shop...wife arrives...check codes....low resolution/ too few 4X pulses.

A little less then 2 years ago i replaced water pump, opti dist(killed by water pump) spark plugs and wires. I used a Accel opti, which I later learned likely wasn't one of my smarter moves. I'm gonna check the opti harness first/ and will likely replace it regardless. However i believe there is a new opti dist. in my future next weekend. Shouldn't be quite as bad a job this time though 'cause I anti siezed the balancer to the hub

Guys who own higher mileage LT1s w/original optis IMO are very--very fortunate. If I do need a opti...I'll make a decision...MSD...OEM...NOT ACCEL or Delteq individual coil conversion...not sure 'cause it seems like there are good and bad reviews on any of them depending on what I read.

Frankly i'm "old school' enough if someone offered a opti with with earlier HEI or even points and condenser....naaa nevermind
Hopefully someone will get a chuckle out of reading this...I did while typing....but I d*mn sure wasn't laughing yesterday

 

This is exactly what my car was doing when the Opti went. It would even start and drive for ~5 minute intervals, allowing me to get home. However after a few days of this, it started running erratically when it started, tach would surge, drop, rev, stumble. All kinds of crazy. Replacing the Opti is a good chance to clean things up and do some maintenance, it's not near as hard as some say either. Get a sixer of your favorite beer, some good music to listen to, and take your time. GL!

 

Did you pull the codes? Also how many miles on the Acel Opti?

 

Since I started this thread I'll post this up on the chance someone may be looking to buy a replacement opti. I repaced mine this past Saturday w/OEM dist and new opti harness...she's running great now.I removed a Accel opti which was less then 2 years old with 7-8K miles on it. I read a lot of negative stuff after i did the install about Accel optis on this and other forums. Wish I'd known then....what I know now!!

Here's what I found when I opened up the Accel opti...one of the rotor screws was stripped and of course loose... the other one was just loose. The rotor being loose had allowed the trigger wheel beneath it to loosen and wobble slightly--rubbing on the optical encoder...until eventually the Vette shut down and left me stranded. I coud see tiny bits and pieces in the dist. housing. Needless to say I won't be buying Accel again. Hopefully this may help someone else trying to decide which opti dist to buy

BTW no sign of loctite on either rotor screw !

 

How many miles did your first opti last????

 

Water pump and a bad seal at the opti cap took out the original at about 71K.

 

That's the mileage my car is currently sitting at with all original components and I am about to take it to Kentucky for the bash...

Cross your fingers for me, although the water pump isn't leaking.

 

Mine is at 72,00 and looks original.I was just woundering how long my opti will last.

 

It is possible to install a vacuum hose nipple and a short piece of hose into the weep hole to direct the coolant from a water pump failure down and away from the opti. Not easy to do on the car, but it could save your opti someday.

 

I did the same with mine. Hopefully I'll never had to perform this task again. My water pump bearings were leaking and that took mine out. I just replaced mine with OEM since the only place in town that carried these parts actually had one in stock.

The opti was not a bad job at all except for the balancer. It took WWIII for mine to come off. Took me over a week with my car sitting on jackstands in the garage. Probably 80-90% of the time I spent on replacing mine was just getting the balancer off. I used anti-seize when I reinstalled it.