Are the dynaspark's available again. I thought I had read that Dynaspark was no longer being manufactured by the same people.

 

I've had great luck with my gm opti spinning @ 6200rpm for about 5 years now. Both my brother and buddy with 93s had no luck with gm opti. They both bought DYNASPARK opti and so for so good. about 6 months.
Joe

 

Okay, you guys asked for it. Here's my MSD story. I got my unit last year and it ran well for the first 4000 miles until I got a code 36. I removed it, found the housing was rubbing against the rotor and returned it to MSD for warranty repair. They fixed it and sent it back. I installed it and lo-and-behold, 4000 miles later and 1 week out of warranty it was acting up again. This is what I found when I opened it up.

You'll notice the similarities between this photo and what others have posted. It appears the rotor is rubbing against the housing right? Read on.


Here's another look at the rotor


Here's the cap. What a mess. Examination of the contacts reveals the rotor has been pushed up causing the engine to misfire.


I found that the plastic part of the housing was very loose. I measured as much as .035" of play. A position marker on the right of the dial shows where the indicator ends up if you lift the plastic housing. It was flapping around and whacking the rotor. You can imagine the problem this creates above 2000rpm.


I removed the snap-on plastic housing. It wasn't hard since it had deformed, likely due to normal engine heat and vibration. It just pulled off with no resistance whatsoever.


Here's what the snap-on pegs look like. This is all there is holding the MSD housing together. I can't believe it. The GM unit looks like a tank compared to this thing. What a joke.


To sum it up, I heated up the snap-on pegs and reinstalled the housing cover with glue and RTV sealant. I cleaned up the rotor and cap and will reinstall the unit on the car. I will not buy any more parts from MSD. I will contact their customer service people and tell them what has happened. I intend to get a new GM unit. The original lasted 95,000 miles. I do not recommend the MSD distributor.

 

I've had to rotor screws to let loose on my new MSD twice now! The first time, it was after only three runs at the track (this is a car used for bracket racing primarily). So, I though possibly the screws weren’t tightened correctly during assembly. I added the blue thread locker to the rotor screws and ensured they were tightened correctly.

This time after five races (35 to 40) passes, the rotor screws got loose again and one fell out. I’m not sure why this is happening on my engine??? I’m running open headers and that causes some resonate vibrations, however, that is normal for a race engine.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the loose rotor screw issue?

WD

 

Besides the rpm miss is there any way to tell the thing is about to come apart? Does the cover have play in it or can you see the screws work loose?
Also how long did it take from the engine performance loss to the time the unit had to be removed?

 

The loose rotor screw symptoms start with a mild, or random high miss, then rapidly gets worse. In reference to seeing the loose screws; once you remove the opti (first drain the coolant, remove water pump, harmonic damper, Etc., Etc.) and remove the opti cap, yes you can see the problem.

I'm not sure the #6-32 machine screws MSD provides for the rotor are long enough. Possible longer screws that have more contact area in the hub w/ thread locker may be the solution. I'm going to do my own measurements on the screw length and determine what screw length is acceptable (longer is better w/ more thread contact area). I'm also calling MSD again tomorrow about the loose rotor screw issue.

WD

 

basically because of "The Engineer's" problems with the MSD opti clearly steered me away from the MSD. I waited about a month for the Dyanspark to become available since they were on backorder. couldnt wait any longer and just bought another GM opti..maybe next time i'll swing the Dynaspark.

 

It's not just the screws. The housing heats up, gets loose, and slams against the rotor. The ensuing vibration will shake anything loose. I reinstalled mine today. When you take off the black cover and steel cover you can remove the circular guide plate very easily, it is delicate so you have to be careful. I cleaned my unit out with electrical contact cleaner. It appears that part of the problem for the screws may be that there just isn't enough thread in the plate to keep the screws in. You've got maybe .030" of thread there. I used blue loctite, but I'll use red if mine comes loose (that hasn't been the case with me...so far).

I have raced my car too, but there's no excuse for the second time because I never made it to the track and it still fell apart. The final solution for you might be to solder the damn bolts on if they come loose again. But take my word for it, RTV the black housing and the steel cover back on or you'll be taking it apart again.

 

I finally got my car up and running with the new msd opti unit in it. So far no problems but I did none of the things mentioned by you all. Nothing in regards to the locktight for the rotor screws and rtv the black housing to the steel cover. Hopefully I wont have to take it back off to repair it but it's sounding like it's only a matter of time. Be sure to post what size screws you end up using. We need to figure out a solution to this problem that us msd opti owners are encoutering. Since we're now out of $500.

 

I would like to thank you guys for the thorough analysis and admission of problems you are having. It will further the hobby and help the next guy.

I see way too many cases of problems being denied and swept under the rug, and the people having the problems often telling others to use the same exact parts which is very damaging to the hobby.

I have like 11K or so and over a year on my MSD cap and rotor on a stock opti base that had 70K on it when the cap and rotor were installed, motor topping 6400rpms during(commanded eariler) the shift the whole time. Did not locktite the screws and even had them out once because I forgot the rear metal sheild the first time I put the rotor on, meaning I messed up the locktite that was already on the screws.
Wonder if the stock threads are cut a little tighter???

 

Has anyone had similar problems with the cap/rotor kit? I put red loctight on every screw in my opti so I'm hoping none of them come loose, but the rotor rubbing has me concerned. I spon it over by hand and it cleared everything fine in mine though.

 

Ive been thru 2 MSD optis. The first one seized up and destroyed the bearing. Im on the second one in a year. this one has lasted longer except for the rotor screws coming loose twice. Even with blue Permatex thread lock. I think it has come loose again yesterday. I think im gonna go delteq now.

 

I had a high RPM miss on my new 393 stroker where the car would let off at about 5500RPM then comback strong at about 6100RPM till I shifted at about 6400RPM. I thought it might be my Opti so I grabbed the MSD unit. The car did the same thing at the exact same time again so I assumed it was not the optis fault. I have changed and checked just about everything more than once yet I still have this issue. Perhaps I got a bad MSD opti to replace a failed GM one? Can the opti give you a "dip" in a dyno graph or does it just hit a wall when it fails at high RPMs? Of course with my luck my engine builder used the Comp R lifters. Could those be causing the motor to let off at 5500RPM then come back strong at 6000RPM?

Dam I'm stumped.

 

you guys make me want to throw up. i ordered the msd for the exact reason a few of you did, the damn dynaspark is not being produced. due to lack of parts. now i realize all i did was order a guaranteed piece of ****. also i just called thunder racing at 1:14pm est and they haven't heard from dynatech or whoever makes them now. this sucks

 

The link is to a report which I wrote. The MSD Opti in that report now has 17,000 miles on it and I have even replaced a leaking water pump recently. Not a single problem with the unit since it was replaced by MSD. Also, I do not believe the O-Ring had anything to do with the original problem. The billet aluminum housing is far too rigid to distort by an unevenly seated cap. I believe the MSD to be reliable although there alternatives out there that might be better performers (i.e. Delteq) according to some who have posted on this board. Just make sure the O-ring is seated properly before seating the cap and you should be fine.

Jeff