97rebuiltZ28

Do any of y’all know what might cause the coil wire to burn right where it connects to the opti?

Here’s some more info leading up to it. I left church, and the car backfired and then started stuttering bad for a minute before dying. One code did pop up P1371. I immediately figured it was my optical sensor again, but after cranking some more at the house that code never resurfaced in stored codes or pending. After tha I took everything off and found the coil wire burned off. Here’s a couple pictures.

97rebuiltZ28

DrewHMS97SS

That is crazy, I have never seen anything like it. I would think that this would have to be some sort of short. Do you see scorching anywhere near where the coil wire was routed? Is anything else damaged?

97rebuiltZ28

Nothing else was abnormal that I saw. It drove perfectly then just backfired, stuttered, and died.

Injuneer

Chimera96

use dialectic grease on the new coil & plug wire boots.

May have been a cap problem causing the coil wire to arc or just a bad coil wire. IDK if these kind of arc can also damage the coil and or the ICM itself also

If your Opti is a AC Delco than I would re-use it and install a new MSD cap & rotor...and also use a skim coat of dialectic grease on the large O rings between Opti body and cap. Use blue loc tite on rotor screws

97rebuiltZ28

Thank you all! It was leaking some oil somewhere near the opti so I suppose that could’ve been the possible liquid or greasy buildup that cardo0 mentioned. Unfortunately it’s just a oreillys optispark, so I think I’ll just get it warrantied for the time being and get a new coil wire.

Chimera96

since the Opti will be coming off for the replacement and you have oil leaking from or around TC, buy the $12 Felpro TC gasket/seal kit. Most auto part stores carry them. Very common for the WP drive seal to leak. Do a search on installing that seal. You need some form of tool to install it, homemade or a $20 one from ebay. Without one its about a 100% chance you will fold the inner seal lip over and a immediate oil leak will ensue

Your oil leak may be from front intake or valve cover also so just look and see but the WP drive seal leaking is VERY common

Also clean and grease the spline coupler and replace the O ring on the WP drive spline. Your new opti will have new O rings on its spline

Suggested you also replace the Opti seal also. It is in the Felpro kit. The crank hub seal typically does not leak or need changing but is also included if you are so inclined. Not necessary if it is not leaking though. BTW the WP drive & Opti seals are to be installed dry. They are PTFE seals, do not oil them

The auto part store Optis are a crap shoot on working. Some do without issues and some are just bad out of the box. Ideally yours will work. Unfortunately any good Opti is hard to find anymore. The AC Delco remans when available seem to be favored.

97rebuiltZ28

Thanks for your advice Chimera96! I plan on doing most of those items you mentioned, thanks for the write up.

Chimera96

pic of the tool for wp drive gear seal. The home made one I have not done but it should also work fine. People have even used the spline shaft itself or a deep well socket, not sure what size

Bsically the tapered end of the tool allows the seal to be placed over it without the inner lip folding over. If using a socket or well cleaned spline coupler I would twist the seal some as I started to get it on. You can see if the inner lip folds over once it is on some form of tool. Once seal is on tool put over wp drive spline and use a larger deep socket the size of the seal to drive the seal home. Not hard at all if you have some form of tool

97rebuiltZ28

Thanks for the instructions. I may have to try the home made version. The first time I did seals I put the seal on the spline shaft and that worked great. The seals only have about 9-10k on them so once I get the opti off and can see all the seals I’ll see what all I need to do. The wp seal actually isn’t leaking at all currently, but if the oil leak is under the timing cover I’ll do them all while it’s off just for safe measure.

97rebuiltZ28

DrewHMS97SS

That is unfortunate. The oil pan is less the less than fun part of the timing cover. Let us know how you progress.

97rebuiltZ28

I will man.

Chimera96

is the pic showing a oil pan leak??

Not seeing it. Or you think the TC gasket is the leak?

That pan has been off before as it has a blue felpro gasket

oil will migrate down to the lowest point making it "appear" to come from a lower point (oil pan) than its core leak source.

I chased what I felt was a oil pan leak (replaced it) only to find the leak was from something else. I found the leak by using oil dye and a black light.

If the leak is TC gasket (rare) than yeah you need to drop the front of the pan to get TC off to replace it