I was hoping I could get some advice on buying a optispark,
I am blaming myself to my opti taking a crap on me.
I wash my car last sat and decided to degrease the engine bay. Hosed every thing off. No problems till monday on the way to work started to run like crap,bucking and misfired under mid to hard acceration. But not all the time mostly in 5th or 6th I will punch it and feels like I am rideing a bronking bull. I hear pings and what sounds like a backfire. I am leaning towards ignition system failure coil,icm,optispark?? Just not sure.
I have failed emission twice in the last 6 months. My plan was to put a CAI cause my hydrocarbons were high both time 2.2ppm , and do a tune up replace the plug wires with MSD,Plugs, now here is where I need help should I change just the cap and rotor or replace the whole optispark. I am leaning towards a new unit while I am in there. I don't know where to turn MSD,ACCEL,GMPP,Autozone,Napa,GM is one relly better than another I am more concerned with reliabity than performace.
also I was thinking about replaceing the timing chain while I was at it.
What would most of yall do in my case,
Any advice would be great thanks alot.

 

I'd just go with a GM opti. I've never had a failure yet, i just replaced my old opti when it had 110k on it just to make sure it never left me stranded. Also if you're thinking about a new timing chain, a cam isn't too much more work.

 

Would I be a fool to put new springs,rocker arm,pushrods, etc and not cam.
Thanks for you help.

 

Are you talking about aftermarket springs, and roller rockers? If so i'd say yes because you're pretty close to having a cam in anyways, you might as well just do it.

 

My stock opti lasted 235,000 miles (and is still good when the head gasket went out).

 

I would just go with another GM replacement as well.

 

ok i'm in the opti boat too, i wanna replace mine before it craps out and leaves me on the side of the road. my big question is that the GM unit for my car is non-vented and i can get a MSD vented for about 100 more. and that the MSD unit comes with a new harness too (which i wanted to go ahead and replace) and the new harness i found is running about another 50 or so on top of the factory opti. so is it really worth it to go to the vented msd unit or should i just stick with gm? i live in north florida so i see plenty of rain every year if that makes any difference.

 

$36 Harness: https://www.casperselectronics.com/M...Category_Code=

if it helps

 

Unless MSD makes all their opti's vented, then it'll require a lot of work to convert to the vented opti. You'll need to replace your cam, timing cover, and chain.

 

yeah all the msd units are vented. that was one of the big reasons i was thinking of gettin it instead of the gm unit. i don't care about the manual timing adjustment on the msd but the design, bearing assembly and the venting are things that i thought would be good to have.

 

The MSD is vented for both the early spline drives, and later larger pin drive units. I just installed an MSD in my 94 Camaro, and it was worth the extra $100.00. The MSD unit comes with anew electrical harness, and a vacuum harness. The cap is designed like the newer vented units, and the 100% billet aluminum body has been drilled to allow the hookup of the other vacuum line. It comes with the 90 fitting for the fresh air inlet (you have to drill a small hole in the rubber inlet hose), and a tee fitting to tap into the vacuum line on the drivers side of the intake right above the pcv valve (the smaller one). The distributer shaft spins in a ball bearing instead of the factory oilite bushings on the GM units.
My original opti lasted 160,000 miles with no problems. I replaced it last week with an AC Delco unit from Summit racing. It lasted a whole 23 miles before leaving me stranded due to a failed low resolution signal output. I had to go through all of the trouble of removing my new waterpump (also GM) and doing the job all over. I spent the extra $100 on the MSD, and am confident I will never have a problem again. Setting the two units side by side is like night and day. I know I probably sound like an MSD salesperson, but I'm just trying to save someone the nightmare I encountered last week.

 

Both my brother and friend have 93s and used dynaspark optis with great success. Pricey but worth it.
Joe