optispark
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Joined: Oct 2016
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optispark
Bought a beautiful V-8 1997 Camaro and find it has an optispark distributor. The car has 82K miles on it. I have to assume its original. So when the snow melts this spring i want to make sure the car is dependable. Can i just change the cap and rotor ? I know i have to pull water pump and will probabaly replace it also.
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Joined: Nov 1998
Posts: 71,112
From: Hell was full so they sent me to NJ
Re: optispark
Tough call on the Opti.... some people have gotten 150,000+ miles from the original. Others had them fail in less than 100,000 miles. 1995-1997 used the later "vented" version that tends to be more reliable.
Can't hurt to replace the cap/rotor (as long as you loc-tite the rotor screws). But the other components - namely the optical cam position sensor module and the bearing can be a problem. They are in the "body" of the Opti.
A code scan can be useful. No codes for the cap/rotor, but in OBD-2 a scanner can pull up the misfire counts by individual cylinder, which MIGHT point to the cap/rotor. There are codes for the optical module, one for the high resolution cam position signal, and one for the low resolution signal. The loss of the high resolution signal sets the code, but may not affect the way the engine runs. Slight loss of ignition/injector timing accuracy, but not likely to be noticeable. Lose they low res signal, and the PCM sets a code and shuts the engine (fuel system) down.
By scanning, you can see if the optical signal codes are setting, clear them, and see how quickly they come back. That would give you some insight to the condition of the optical sensor.
Can't hurt to replace the cap/rotor (as long as you loc-tite the rotor screws). But the other components - namely the optical cam position sensor module and the bearing can be a problem. They are in the "body" of the Opti.
A code scan can be useful. No codes for the cap/rotor, but in OBD-2 a scanner can pull up the misfire counts by individual cylinder, which MIGHT point to the cap/rotor. There are codes for the optical module, one for the high resolution cam position signal, and one for the low resolution signal. The loss of the high resolution signal sets the code, but may not affect the way the engine runs. Slight loss of ignition/injector timing accuracy, but not likely to be noticeable. Lose they low res signal, and the PCM sets a code and shuts the engine (fuel system) down.
By scanning, you can see if the optical signal codes are setting, clear them, and see how quickly they come back. That would give you some insight to the condition of the optical sensor.
