Purchased a summit brand opti about 3 months ago for my engine rebuild. I was driving my 95 z28 about 2 weeks ago and it started to violently backfire, I nursed it home. I took the cap off the distributor only to discover that the screws that held the rotor on came out. I quickly purchased a gm brand opti because i just didn't trust the summit opti anymore. The only damage caused from the backfiring was to my cat convt., the backfiring blew the inside of it apart, i had no choice but to gut it. Take my advice if you need another opti buy a gm opti.

 

In my experience, you should get ALL of your electronic components new from GM -- not remanufactured, and not from some third party. MAF sensors, knock sensors, spark plugs, alternators, window motors... the list goes on. Every time I've gotten a non-GM electronic part, it's failed in less than 10% of the time that the original GM part lasted.

Having said that, if I had an LT1 with a bad opti, I'd be doing an LS1-style ignition conversion.

 

I normally do but i got cheap and wanted to save 100 bucks and believe me ill never do it again, gm parts all the way lo.

 

I allways take Optispark distributors apart before installing them, OEM GM units, and loctite the rotor screws. It is a common failure for the rotor screws to back out.

 

The rotor screws falling out is not unique to the Summit Opti. As noted in the post above, it is a common problem - MSD, AC Delco and the aftermarkets and rebuilds all suffer from the problem. If you didn't Loc-Tite the screws in your new GM unit, it may suffer the same fate.

That being said, its hard to believe anyone would even try a Summit Opti, after all the bad news posts over the past 5 years on this site, that discourage the use of anything other than the AC Delco unit.

 

It's already been said, but I guess a reiteration of the fact that Summit optis are junk might save a few people from the same mistkae.

Rich

 

I had one. It broke. Encoder failure in less than 1 year. I've had alot of opti failures (6). Rotors, dirt, fowl, encoder.

Summit would not exchange or return purchase money.

My last purchase is an allignition.com performance opti (like the msd for $300). It's been running good. Most say they are junk, but, it don't see this as I dissected it before assembly to the engine. Quality internals.

I did fab my own vac check valve to ensure better air flow control on a FI app. It looks to be working good. I had to put alot of thought into the opti system adapted to FI app. Opti is not built for high spark and current/ rpm loads, and, usually fail alot.
Hope this helps. B.

 

Not all GM OPTI's are perfect. I put less than 600 miles on my last one and the encoder took a dump. Other than trial and error, you are at the mercy of your luck when dealing with OPTIs.

 

Been running my rebuilt OPTI from Carquest just over 4 years now in the 93Z with no issues... Guess I'm lucky...