I think my opti went out... It doesn't want to start as much anymore and the idle is really rough.... doesn't like to accelerate sometimes.

I think it's to the opti... I think its too much work for me, esp considering I'm at school 35hrs/week and work 28hrs/week and I've got finals coming up.

Got a couple questions:
- Is it bad to buy a "autozone brand" opti? Because the GM ones are soo much more.
- Do I need to just replace the cap and rotor? Or should I replace the whole unit?
- Should I replace the water pump while its out?
- How much would Joe Shmos Auto shop charge me?
- If I decide to wait till this weekend and do it, how bad is it? How long would it take me and a bud with a LS1 to do it?

edit: 130k miles BTW.

 

You'llbe fine with either autozone or Oreilly Opti's. You should replace the water pump while you're in there. You'll have to take all that stuff off anyways the pump itself is going to add to the parts total but if your pump goes out in 6 months you'll regret it.

 

I think changing the water pump would depend on how much money you have to throw around (Pump= about $200.00). The pump is very easy to get to. I would reuse it but change out the opiti, cap, and rotor.

 

Should take about 2-3 hours to do your first opti.

Replace the whole thing.. you can get new ones for just over 200 i believe from whoever the flavor of the month GM parts supplier we're using now is.

Pull water pump, pull crank pulley, pull opti. New gaskets, installation is reverse of removal

 

A lot of people have had good luck with the autozone ones. I didn't. I went through three of them in four months, then put on a GM opti from Jason Cromer. I actually got the GM opti shipped for less than I had to pay for opti+cap and rotor at autozone, the GM one comes with cap and rotor already installed, just bolt it up. And no, my waterpump was not leaking at the time at all, so I didn't change it. Well, it just started leaking out the weep hole last week and fried my GM unit that ran great, but I got a new one under warranty, so it all works out.

 

Good to see Jason Cromer is still around with good deals.

 

I've used the O'reilly brand (A1 Cardone) with no probs and they are good about warranting it (Lifetime). I had to swap it once but that was because the front of my intake was leaking a little oil into it. Stoped the oil leak and no more probs.

 

Is there any good walkthrus? I know a decent amount about cars but I don't wana **** anything up.

 

jbird, did the AC Delco opti you ordered from through Jason Cromer come with a warranty? Did you have to ask about a warranty or does it come automatically? Hope so, cause I'm bout to order one...

 

Update after driving it today. It will NOT get going however once you eventually get going it runs fine (sputters from a stop). I had been using 89 but I filled up today w/ 91. The previous owner had been running 87.

 

Yeah, the delco from Cromer has a warranty, it's either 6 months or a year, but I think it's a year, just save the receipt they ship you with it. You can take a messed up one back to any GM dealer, not just Cromer, and they'll give you a new one.

 

Have you checked fuel pressure?