Hi I have a 92 and my opti is bad.

First Is it a improvement to spend $ for the MSD unit, or should I just get the Delphi unit from parts geek ??

second Parts geek is cheaper than ecklers for the MSD but they do not include the new pig tail from dist to wiring harness, and eckles does supply it with theirs. do i need the new pigtail or just use the old one?? the car has 72,000 on it. had a small leak from throttle body hose and car overheated idling in driveway it runs like junk since. local chev mech said to replace opti. plugs, wires, and new water pump are also on planned repair.

thanks to any replies
calicokid

 

The MSD optispark is not an improvement.

Ive read many posts here during my time here, about people who have installed the MSD optispark only to have it crap out on them either right away or 1000 miles down the road. In most cases MSD worked with them and got them a new unit. However, some people had issues shortly later with the replacement MSD unit.

Its not an easy part to replace and you dont want to do the job twice.

Though Ive never looked inside an MSD optispark, the problem seems to be the optical sensor. Optisparks using OE, mitsubishi optical sensors seem to do a lot better than the aftermarket ones with optical sensors from who-know-wear.

Recently I bought an AC Delco remanufactured gen II (for 95-96) optispark that had a defective mitsubishi optical sensor. In fact, you could see a crack in the optical sensor housing and they tried to cover it up with black spraypaint. Other than that, the optispark seemed to have new seals, bearings, etc. I went thru the effort of installing it only to have the car run for 2 minutes then shutdown and not restart again.

I ended up going with a Delphi gen II optispark. The one I bought did have the mitsubishi optical sensor. It was not remanufactured or anything like that. I suspect the gen II optispark's were made OEM by Delphi.

You can open up the optispark and look at the optical sensor for a small mitsubishi emblem. Heres what it should look on an OEM unit (though note you shouldnt have all that rust and crap! ). Note this is a gen I unit like you need.



You need a gen I optispark and they were made by AC Delco. You can improve the design of the gen I optispark by adding a custom vent. You need two lines. A vent in (for fresh air) and a vacuum line. There should also be a flow reducer and check valve in the vacuum line to prevent so much vacuum that the cap caves in.

You can buy a cap/rotor kit for the gen II and use that on your gen I optispark. The gen II cap includes a vacuum fitting on it for the vacuum line. Most people then use one of the 3 weep holes, on the gen I optispark base, as the air inlet source and block off the other 2 with bolts or epoxy.

So heres my advice to you:

Do not go aftermarket here unless you want to do the job twice.

I can vouch for the quality of Delphi gen II optisparks (I just bought one 5 months ago), but I dont know about the Delphi gen I optispark. Ive had good luck with Delphi so maybe you will be good to go.

If you want to be 100% certain you dont have any issues, pay the $550 for a new old stock AC Delco gen I optispark. They still are available.

Dont trust any remanufactured units from anyone.

Also, the MSD optispark function to be able to advance / retard the timing is useless because you can do that with free software (tunerproRT), $DA2 (for 92-93) definition file, Moates ostrich adapter, USB cable and laptop.

I hope I dis-suaded you from the MSD optispark. Honestly that companies products have been turning into garbage since a holding firm bought the company, for its name around 2008.

Ive been having good luck with my MSD-6BTM box, but everything else ive bought from them, 8.5mm wires, ignition coil, etc. have all been subpar.

 

I have about 1000 miles on my MSD Optispark. I will let you know if and when it fails.

 

I don't agree with dizwiz , I put in a Chandler's opti, ran almost a whole season of autox on it and it's still running great. I don't believe I have ever heard anything bad about them.

 

whats a chandlers optispark?

(ie. what 'core' is the unit from? )

Is it a knock-off 'core' or a genuine AC Delco core ?

 

Just a quick list of MSD optispark failures:

There are some that seem to work. But why take the risk?

At a minimum you'll have 6 hours (more if MSD sends you another defective unit) in labor replacement.

Worst case, could you imagine this thing breaking down on you in a busy construction zone without berms to pull over?


http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c4-g...d-is-junk.html

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c4-t...is-vs-msd.html

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c4-t...celerator.html

 

I'm with mixalive. MSD may have been sold a few years ago, but I can't believe that anyone would pay what it would cost to buy that company (and it's good name) only to allow their investment to be ruined by turning out an intentionally crappy product. C'mon guys, give your heads a shake! Would you spend millions in order to intentionally annoy your customer base? As far as I can tell, MSD's products are as good or better than anyone else's at a comparable price. Is everything they make perfect? Nope; never will be. It's just like any other manufactured item. Most are going to be perfect, some are going to be just within maximum allowable tolerances, and some are going to be defects that slip through quality control. Now, it certainly sucks to be the guy who gets the defective one, but it can happen with any manufactured item. My MSD seems to be one of the perfect ones (at least so far) and I'd buy another in a heartbeat. It's well engineered, solves some of the factory issues, allows for variable timing and it looks good (if you can even see it). Oh, and to answer the other question, if yours is a '92 you'll want to get the additional harness or else you'll be cutting and splicing your wiring harness. Me, I like plug and play. Oh, and no, I don't work for MSD, any of their distributors, nor do I own their stock.

 

Well. It works a hell of a lot better than the one I replaced.. And it does look pretty, doesn't it..

 

I built my own harness as I am an expert with the soldering station. But it is just as cheap to buy the offered harness. This was the connector I used.. And I do not work for MSD either..

 

i put a $100 opti in my 92 using the method explained at www.corvettefever.com/howto/16758/. haven't had a problem, but i will keep it from getting wet in the future.