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Are you sure that you pushed all the plug wire connections all the way on to the opti? It takes a pretty good push and makes a very noticable snap. As I recall, the rubber boot on the plug wire just about touches the opti housing.
BTW: did you disassemble the new opti and reseal it with some hi-temp RTV? If not and if you've got the time, it's a good idea. If you didn't no harm, but becareful washing the engine.
Regarding Bogus' post, I remember a post here about 1 year ago that said it is possible to install the opti out of time on earlier opti's. Not sure when GM made the error proof design, but I do know it was not possible on my 96 to make a mistake. FrankLT4CE
Are you sure that you pushed all the plug wire connections all the way on to the opti? It takes a pretty good push and makes a very noticable snap. As I recall, the rubber boot on the plug wire just about touches the opti housing.
Mine made two very noticable snaps & John is right the plug boots are right up near the opti body. Less then 3/16" in my case.
Let's look at the issue.. runs for a few seconds then stalls. Does it run good?
I am looking at getting a new ignition module as mine is hard as hell to start and then runs great. I think the module starts the car and then the ECM takes over to control timing and spark advance. Could you have a bad ECM?
I didn't opened up the new one to reseal it... i never knew to do that
I gave the wires a perdy good push onto the opti, most of them did make that 2 snap sound but a couple didnt and I played with them for a while and they'd go on a good bit (wouldn't snap) but they would snap when i pulled them off so i dunno
the car starts up really strange and runs for those few secs extremely ruff. I took the new opti out and reinstalled it twice yesterday and both times it had a ruff start then would run ruff and stall out. Then I put the old one back in and it started right up, and ran smooth.
Within 5 mintues though the idle starts dancing all over the place. I figured that with the idle like that, the high rpm studdering and the fact that the car had 78K on it when i got it now it's got 125k and that the water pump went about a year ago it was more than past time for a new opti.
btw The ignition module,coil, and tps are all about a week old.
Sounds like you got a bad Opti from the parts store. I would take it back and raise some heck. I dont want to do that job once.
I agree with that.
after reading all the new posts... it sounds like a mess in the making... I would try a new opti.
the way the opti works, it has a metal ring with 2 sets of holes. there is a pickup that uses the holes to set timing. the outer set are for the spark, the inner, for the injection.
if the pickup is bad, or the ring somehow bad, then it won't work...
also, pull the cap off. it requires a T4 torx with the little hole in the middle... I think thats an E4? I don't remember.
this can be done without voiding the warrantee, just to make sure everything is cool.
on my original opti, the pickup had shaken itself loose!!!
Don't raise too much heck, I'm sure the guys at the parts counter didn't know the opti was faulty.
This time, take it apart and reseal all the mating surfaces with hi-temp RTV. Look at the seals on your old opt, you'll probably see places where there are gaps and they are brown or dark brown and very brittle.
The resealing won't completely fix the bad seal material problem, just give it a bit more time.
Don't do too much, as the stuff can ooze inside the opti.
You'll need a "reverse" torx wrench to get the cap off. I found it in a set at Kragen for about $10, I think it's something like an E10.
I hope you didn't wait till the water pump was installed and you filled the cooling system to test run it. You can run the engine for a short time without coolant. I'd keep it to max 15 seconds at idle.
I assume you replaced the opti because it was showing symptoms of spark failure. Well, if the opti had been failing for a while, there is a darn good chance the coil went with it.
As stated above, check for codes but take a serious look at replacing the coil.