1996 Optispark
 

I need to replace the optispark in my 94. It's been through 4 water pumps and an engine replacement. Will the opti from the 1996 year fit directly onto my engine, or will I have to replace other things to get the 96 opti to fit?

Any help/insite is appreciated!

Your going to need a different timing cover, different optispark connector, maybe a different cam if your's isn't drilled for the late optispark drive, long cam dowel pin, modify or replace the timing chain cam gear, and the later vacuum venting harness.

I put a '95 Opti-Spark on my '92.

I suggest '95 Opti-Spark parts over the '96 because you can use your original crank hub.
The '96 has a crankshaft sensor for the OBD-II that needs additional parts to put on a '92 - '94.

Tom Piper

A 95 timing cover and the vacume lines (Including check valve) are needed and thats about it. You will need to drop the oil pan a bit also.

You sure about that ? :lurk:

You'll need to extend your cam pin too.

Wow, it's not all that simple. Seems like the Delteq opti replacement may be the way to go...

You can vent the older ones, if that's what your after.

Nope forgot the new opti pig tail. As for the cam dowl, I did not need to do this on my 94 but I did install a hot cam at the same time so I am not sure on this one.

Depends, if your opti is bad as of right now, you will still have to get a new opti in order to run the delteq. The delteq only replaces the high voltage side of the opti. The cam sync in the rear of the opti is still required for the delteq system.

So really if its water contamination you are worried about the Delteq system helps nothing. You still have to have the opti and water can still ruin the cam sync inside of it.

I'm not sure about the '94, but on my '92, the cam had to be changed because the hole in the front of the cam has to be large enough for the '95 Opti-Spark to fit into -- my '92 cam had a hole that was too small.

Tom Piper

The car runs, but something is not right. Dyno readouts indicate possible electrical breakdown in the upper rpm range. I'm replacing the knock sensor module with a 1996 version before I proceed further (with a possible opti replacement).

I actually had the same thing happen to me, in upper rpms it would have a miss, sometimes little, sometimes terrible. I put it on the dyno and found out the same thing. Turned out that it was my opti. Another thing to try would be your ICM.

http://para.noid.org/~muttvette/opti.html

A simpler option is the dynaspark

http://www.dynotech-eng.com/dynaspark.htm