Just exactly what is an opti? From what I can tell it has something to do with the vehicle's starting system. I have seen it all over this board yet I cannot find out what exactly it is.

 

Basically it's the distributorless distributor. All I really know about it is that and the fact that it breaks somewhat frequently and costs like $300+ to repair.

I'm sure someone that isn't quite so unknowledgable or cryptic will come along shortly to properly answer your query.

 

Here is an opti. Short for Optispark, one of GM's most brilliant creations. Mounted on the front of the engine, on top of the timing cover, driven off the cam and directly under the waterpump. What a perfect spot!

 

in short, it is a front mounted computer controlled optical distributor

 

Except that it is not computer controlled. It feeds timing info to the computer (more like a sensor in that regard) and also serves as the spark distributor.

 

Opti means pure evil in ancient latin. It also means a minimum of $300 withdrawn from my checkbook. In other words it is the very expensive replacement for a distributor on the LT1's