bad opti?
 

Ok so i already typed out a long message and it was erased when i tried to submit the thread so this is going to be straight to the point.

My water pump went up 2 months ago. I fixed the water pump seal as that was the problem. While changing the water pump i must've spilled a little too much coolant on the opti, because the car would crank and crank and never started once i put the car back together.

So I took my spare opti i had that has about 100k on it and put that in the car and the car started immediately. However once i started to drive the car, the car felt off and didnt have very much power. I could still break the tires loose but it didnt seem to have the power it used to. Not to mention that once the car heats up the motor starts to hesitate and while accelerating it starts to buck a bit.

This is my daily driver so I have to take it to work everyday. It gets me to work and back every day but cant do much more than that. Work is about 15 mins from my house (no highway) fastest speed I go is 50mph. Seems to cruise fine at higher speeds. Also the car idles at 1000rpm now where it used to idle at about 850-900rpm.

My question is this an opti issue? As that's pretty much the only thing I changed. I also changed the spark plugs to see if that would help and it did not. they were gapped to .50 as the factory specs show.

no check engine light and no codes present when scanned.

Any help would be great,

Thanks,

Ryan.

Re: bad opti?
 

Are you sure the cam dowel pin engaged the correct hole in the back of the Opti?

Did you possibly knock the connector of the coolant temp sensor in the water pump?

Are you sure the rubber inlet elbow is fully over the throttle body, and not doubled over at the bottom, and not torn?

Re: bad opti?
 

the pin is in the correct spot and good to go the coolant temp sensor is secure and working properly and the intake elbow is a PITA to get all of it to go over but yes i used a screw driver and made sure no air was getting through after the MAF sensor.

Any other ideas?

could it be ignition coil? mine isnt in the best of shape but it worked prior. the car starts fine, just has a jumpy idle and feels rough all around once warm.

Re: bad opti?
 

What was the interior condition of your 100K mile Opti - carbon tracking, burned contacts, etc.? Externally, was there any sign of corrosion on the plug or coil wire terminals, or in the harness connector socket? Have the rotor screws been installed w/ loc-tite?

We’re there any codes when the engine wouldn’t start at all?

I only asked about the dowel pin because it is not an unusual problem. Last year on ltxtech.com we sorted out a 96 or 97 with symptoms like yours, but that one had the benefit of the added crank position signal. Was setting the code for a faulty CKP sensor, or the angular variance between the cam position sensor and the CKP sensor being out of range. He used a Tech-2 to pull up the angular difference between the two sensors and they were different by 19°. He pulled the Opti and sure enough, dowel pin had “slipped out” of the index hole because it was “too short” (according to him).

Re: bad opti?
 

Ok so when the car didnt start, it did not show any codes at all. It would crank and crank and there was no ignition, but no codes. The old opti was in rougher shape than i wanted but at the time its all i had. The shaft actually had wobble to it and it was covered in crud and dirt. Also the third spline on the opti that connects the spark plug to the opti (drivers side) had a chunk missing out of it. however the boot covered it so i wasn't worried about arching. If that makes sense.

The pin was in the correct hole and I pulled the opti like 6 times back off to make sure the pin was in the right spot. So I dont think that is it.

I just purchased a new opti. From what I see looking at other threads, people experience the same thing I am, just needed a new opti. I purchased a summit opti and it had 4 out of 5 stars review. I know those optis have issues sometimes, so I hope I get a good one. From what I can tell the ac delco and delphi are the only good ones and I cant find them for cheap/if at all.

I will update this thread when I install the new opti to see if it works.

Also I notice a lot of people saying to loctite screws on a new opti. What screws are these and do we have a diagram of this on this forum?

Re: bad opti?
 

The rotor is held on the rotating assembly by two screws. Photo from Shoebox:

http://shbox.com/1/opti_one.3.jpg

Some people have noted that the later AC Delco units came with a notice that opening the cap would void the warranty. Might want to see if there is any similar condition with the Summit unit warranty.

I would agree - if the old Opti drive shaft was wobbling, it would throw off the optical sensor and cause erratic contact of the rotor contact to the terminal buttons on the cap for the plug wires.

Re: bad opti?
 

you've been a great help,

Thank you very much.