I know already about getting the optispark wet. My car is a 1996. I VERY gently used a gentle mist on my engine just to clean it up a bit taking extra care as to not spraying a stream of water anywhere near the optispark distributor. After I was done my car wouldn't start. The starter would turn the motor over and I would get some bad missing and a puff of fuel smoke from the air filter but it would not start.
I took out my leaf blower and blew on the optispark for about 5 minutes. Didn't work. I then went into the house and got my wives blow dryer. I hit it with that for about 5-10 minutes and after about 10 seconds of the motor turning over it started right up and ran great. No issues at all anymore. So..... this makes me nervous. Obviously a little bit of water got on the distributor causing the no start. I am worried that driving it in the rain or going through a deep puddle of water is going to leave me stranded. This is the first time I have ever had the hood open with the hose cleaning the engine. Like I said.... I wasn't power washing it.. I wasn't using a forceful stream of water and I was staying away from the front of the motor and I still had a problem. Is there anything I can do to protect the distributor or am I overthinking this. Funny thing is I was hesitant to put water anywhere near the motor because of all the optispark horror stories. but I was told the 1996 has a vented unit that is better than the original ones.

 

Not the distributor, and it's got nothing to do with "opti". It's your spark plug wires. You need new plug wires.

The clue is right here:
A hair drier wouldn't dry the inside of an opti in 5-10 minutes...it would take days. What you dried, was your plug wires/boots/connections. You need new plug wires.

 

so just to be clear… the motor would not start. It would shake and huff after the starter stopped spinning a few times and I would get a puff of unburnt fuel out of the air filter box. Wouldn’t wet wires cause the engine to start but run rough and misfire? Thanks for your response.

 

Depends on how wet, how bad the boot seal, etc. Usually, when the opti gets wet INSIDE, it won't start at all. Won't fire, nothing. There's no crank signal at all. It doesn't typically come and go, until it's dry/the lens is clean.

 

Thanks. I am going to replace the wires. My guess is they are probably original. They are gray. I bought the car right before the winter from the original owner. 86K on it. In a side note... I didn't drench the motor. Just a light mist to get it wet enough to wipe down the plastic parts and the hoses.

 

Yep, I read that. More reason for me to suspect wires; a mist isn't likely to infiltrate the opti....but will certainly ground out old, dried and compromised wires.

Do 1 wire at a time!