Ok....here is my problem....my car is a 92 with 45,000 miles. The car does not see rain much at all. It has on occasion, but not to much. I do not wash down the motor!

So, I am driving along the other morning, top down, sun shining. Stopped at a red light....the light turns green...I try to go, the car begins to sputter, almost like it was back firing. After about 15-20 seconds or so it "cleared" itself out. I continued driving to work...about 6-7 miles. The car was fine. The car then sat for about 3 1/2 hours. Started it up fine, and began driving home. The car felt good, was running fine. Then when I get almost home it sputters again for a second and died. Now it will not start. Just keeps turning over and over. Then when you stop cranking, it sort of burps.

I had it flat bedded.... ....a scary experience...to a local garage where I know the owner. He put it on the computer and it came up with a Code 36. He mentioned something about an optical sensor!?!? He said the sensor was only like $30???

So, I am pretty lost at this point. At first, when I was thinking it was an opti replacement (and maybe it is) I figured I would go with a Delteq set up. Seemed pretty easy and reliable. Not to mention, Pete over there is AWESOME! He has already answered many questions for me and I haven't bought a thing yet. BUT...the Delteq set up still needs the optical sensors to operate.

Anyone have any ideas??? I sure would appreciate some help.

Also.....can an opti change be done out in the garage with no "special" tools?

Thanks,
-Rick

 

A non experience vette garage can do it but I can almost guarentee you they will take twice as long as a Vette mechanic, thus charging you more.

 

Opti changes are not hard... I did mine in about 4.5 hours.

An experienced mechanic should be able to do it according to book time.

There are no special tools involved. Infact, all you really need is a mallet and a chunk of 2x4 to bust the crank pulley off the hub. really.

The waterpump is held on by 6 bolts... and the opti itself is held on by 4 10mm bolts. REAL EASY.

Now, for the bad news... if you want to go DelTeq, you will need a new opti. The code 36 means the optical signal is bad... that is the death nell of an optispark. There is no replacing the optical pickup for $30.00, cause you don't have a conventional GM part... sorry. It requires a new optispark unit, to the tune of $350.00 for a new GM opti.

If it was me, I would go ahead and get a Dynaspark part (about $600.00), then do the DelTeq down the road. or, sink the big bucks and do it all at once! Yea, baby!

good luck!

 

So true. Welcome to the Optispark Blues. It's an inevitable tune for us LT1 and LT4 owners...

 

Hahaha.....surrre...I believe ya!

I figured this. Don't see the need in that case to drop the extra $700 on the Delteq.

What is the advantage of the Dynaspark?
How long have they been around?
Do we have any "real" evidence that they are better than the original replacement?
Do they come already vented?

Now...if I go with the factory replacement....I imagine I should vent it. Where do I buy the kit to do that from?

Thanks for the help guys! This sucks!

-Rick

 

I'm in a similar dilemma right now and not having $600 kind of answers my questions about what route to go for now. Just do a Google search on what you are looking for and you will probably find some good answers. A search yesterday yielded me this nice little "tear apart":
http://www.charm.net/~mchaney/optisprk/optisprk.htmp

I'm thinking about buying a "cap and rotor kit" from Autozone for $132 and then later on converting over to the Delteq or LTCC. That's not an option for you though. Also, there are places that sell the Vented opti for $229 (found it in Google).

 

I was talking with the guy at Dynotech Engineering (DuraSpark). Now, he tells me that a more thourough diagnostic should be done instead of "guessing" based on one code that was set off.

What do you guys think?

-Rick

 

This is the problem... I like his thinking, but, short of a bad ECU, the code 36, and the stalled condition, are pretty clear cut indicators that the opti is bad.

The sign of a bad computer are:
* wacky display data
* no codes read, including the base code 12
* tons of codes read
* other runability problems

I would agree that if the car just stalled, then yea, you have a case for further investigation, but that code 36 worries me.

You see, if the car had just stalled, and the mechanic said "optispark", I would say, "check the coil and assembly and the coil wire." But, the code 36 indicates that something may be remiss in the Opti inself.

Can you drive the car at all? if so, clear the codes and drive it (remove the battery cable for 10 minutes). If the codes come back, you are on your way to a new optispark. I know of no other event that can trigger that code.

A word of caution: I am not a fan of the cheap remanned opti's, they are dubious at best for QC and do not include a cap and rotor. The sad reality is that most of the time, its the cap and rotor that do wear out. Which leads to the catch-22, to replace JUST the cap/rotor requires the same labour, plus the added labour of RRing the cap/rotor. So where is the real savings?

 

Bogus...I plan on going with an AC Delco unit or a dynaspark. The car is totally dead. It just turns over and over, then when you stop turning the key it sort of burps. If this was my Chevelle, I might suspect that there is no fuel, as it really sounds like it wants to start.

I guess I am cooked and have some work ahead of me.

Thanks,
-Rick

 

Rick,
I think you can buy a vented Opti and make this an upgrade of sorts. I am free this weekend if you need a hand swearing and throwing tools LOL

This sucks but hey what can ya do. Let me know when youa re ready for the install. I would forget all the alternatives and just bite the bullet and get an OEM part and put it in. I don't think this is an area to fool around

 

Bob.....you can not buy a vented opti for my year. You have to convert a non vented one. Don't worry...you cna Chris will be over for the swearing and throwing very soon!

-Rick

 

My technical resources say that code 36 is theTransmission shift/solenoid, or improper timing signal.

Good Luck

 

Alright let me know when the swearing will commence

 

Rick,
I went thru the same type of problem on my wife's 93. The car died 4 times driving down the Mass Pike on our way to a show in CT. It would pop & fart when I tried to start and then it started & ran fine for a while and would die out again. It did this 4 times and then ran perfect the rest of the trip over & back (350 miles). I checked the codes when I got home with it and came up with a code 16 ( low resolution siginal from dist. ?). I started pricing out a new Opti and got sticker shock. Luckly, I found a new GM unit that a guy on the forum had purchased as a spare for his car. He had sold the car and was looking to just get rid of it. I paid $200 shipped to my door. The guy is a sales rep for AC Delco so I asked if he could get me a "good guy" price on a water pump too. $125 shipped to my door!!!!! I sent my new Opti to Corvette Clinic in Florida to have them do the venting update on the distributor for $110. The actual job of changing out the Opti is pretty straight forward. The tough part was getting the pulley off the hub on the crank. A 2.5 foot long piece of 1"X3" wood and a big hammer worked good. Just make sure you alternate sides when appling force.

 

Hey Jim! Yeah, the whole deal is pretty expensive for sure. I was going to try to do the venting myself. I have a tech article on it froM Corvette Fever (I think). It seems petty straight forward.

So, does this good guy Ac Delco rep have any more optis or pumps?

-Rick

 

ttt

 

Rick,
His forum name is glennrock. I don't have his email address here at home. You can do a search on the forum for him and send an email thru it. Tell him you got his name from me. He is a nice guy to do business with .
I was going to do the venting job myself too but decided it was worth sending it out. If I broke the cap doing the job, it would cost me $170 for just a new cap!!

Jim

 

See http://www.corvettedoctor.com/1992-93_Codes.htm

36 is High Resolution Sensor.

I agree with the others. Rebuilds on the Opti are short lived. Cap replacement will not fix the hi-res sensor problem.

My tips. 1) To get the dampner loose, loosen the 3 bolts about 1 turn. Start the engine and shut down quickly;
2) Mark the spark plug wire very well as you remove them from the old opti (don't ask!); 3) As soon as you replace the plug wires and before you replace the waterpump, start the engine (you can safely run it for 10-15 (probably longer) seconds without coolant.

 

Car is apart! The balancer only took a few good whacks. BOY was it dirty there. Now, I just have to get the parts. I'm going with a new non-vented opti, with a 95 vented cap, a new water pump.

I am thinking of doing thei ntake gasket, because things were really a mess. See my other post if you have any insight to this!!

Thanks for all the help,
-Rick

 

I don't think a 95 cap will fit on an earlier body opti. The connector plug was changed to a better design.

You can vent an early opti with some simple tools and simple engineering. I think there's several web sites that have a step by step instructions. I'll see if any of my "favorites" are still active.
----
None of my links to the step-by-steps are active anymore. Maybe someone else has a good link. There are a couple of tect tips that address the effort, but there are no pictures.

CorvetteFever used to have a terrific article on how to do it, but it looks like they took DelTeq on as an advertiser and the article is now MIA.