Well I just found out MSD has made an optispark replacement and it figures I just bought a GM one a couple months ago for $250 or so and they're selling the MSD's for $150. SOB. Well if anyone needs one or wants to buy this instead of the really expensive alternatives Thunder Racing is selling them in late January but they're on the website now. www.thunderracing.com

Myles

 

its not an opti, its a cap and rotor.

 

I misread, my mistake. So what parts do you re-use from the old one? The optical sensor and crank position sensor? What is the part that tends to go on opti's first?

Myles

 

The optical sensor rarely goes bad, I replaced my cap and rotor once ( I paid $130 for the parts thru GM), and it was charred on the inside from arcing, but it was a pain to change...Just as easy to change whole opti. When I changed mine a few months ago the optical sensor was still good, but the shaft had tons of play in it...bad bearing...

 

Would the MSD cap and rotor be more beneficial to the opti? or is it just a fancy looking one?

 

i wish someone would invent something quality, like a complete replacement for the opti for around $150. Delteq works, but is a huge rip off IMO.

 

why couldn't GM have just kept it ghetto

 

Atleast MSD is using brass instead of aluminum contacts.

 

amen to that

 

for my next opti change i might just get that cap and rotor actually...it definitely LOOKS a lot better if nothing else.

 

yeah, I have one coming up next month, so I think I'll be getting this and seeing how it works out.

 

My optical disk warped when my opti went south. Which caused interference in the optical sensor. So i would only buy a whole opti after my problems.

 

Okay, so say I just buy the MSD kit and rebuild mine with the kit. Are there any links out there for how to rebuild the opti or is it outlined in my Haynes manual? My manual's out in the garage and I'm to lazy to go check right now.

 

Seeing as my Delteq equiped car has been running flawlessly for the last 6 months on an Opti that was so bad the car would barely run. I'm gonna have to say your wrong. Many members of this site have replaced their Optis more than once. Paying $200 or more each time. At 110k I've never changed mine, and unless the bearing goes I won't. For $600 I've got the best ignition system you can bolt to these cars, and it's money I'll only spend once.

 

Well, it's prety self explanatory. There are only a few moving parts in the opti. The rest is all solid state, i've had mine apart a few times. If you have the rebuild kit from autozone and the MSD cap and rotor then you are basically just screwing the two units together. There are a few pictures of the dissasembly process on this page:

http://www.charm.net/~mchaney/optisprk/optisprk.htm

Non-vented and vented optis are the same internals btw, only difference is the ventilation ont he vented opti and the non-vented are gear driven (which is an external difference anyways).

The pictures int hat link acutally make it seem more complicated than it really is. Assuming you undertake the project simply take your old one apart so you can see how things look. But seriously, taken mine apart twice and without any reference put it back together. Once you are inside the unit there's only several bolts.