IS the MSD optispark any good?

I seem to remember lots of issues with it, but somebody informed me that those issues were all isolated to bad quality control when it first came out. Recent units are fine.

If you have one, Id love to hear about its reliability. Also, let me know when you bought it.. Thanks

ID like to buy an OEM AC Delco optispark II, but unfortunately they are not avail new anymore from anyone. Only remanufactured.

 

They receive mixed reviews. Personally I'd rather take my chances on a reman'd AC Delco. If I have a larger budget though I'd try the Dynaspark.

 

There have been problems reported here with the Dynaspark since the product line was sold to another company a couple years ago. They have had problems with component failures and poor customer service.... used to be a great product, but no longer.

 

The Delphi units may be good to try(I have not tried one....). There are many products made by Delphi that get the AC Delco label.

 

The "Delphi" situation is confusing. Back in the days of needing cash, GM sold off a bunch of their parts divisions including Delco electronics, as "Delphi" in 1999. It operated as an independant company for several years, and went bankrupt in 2005. In 2009 GM bought back a controlling interest. About a year ago, it went independant again.

 

Six years on my MSD in the 93 Z28 so far...

 

Yeah, that's true. I was reading up on that a couple of weeks ago. My general experience with Delphi has been good. I just bought a Delphi fuel pressure regular for my LT1 and it has "Made in USA" stamped on the box, which is good to see.

I wished I could say a Delphi opti is as good as an AC Delco, but I don't have experience with them. Given Delphi's performance in the past, I'd take them over a "Jeg's or Autozone" special any day. Now that AC Delco has started to reman them.....if I can scrape up the cash, I may buy a new Delphi as a backup while I still can.

 

Do we even know if a Delphi Opti is any different than a Delco Opti? Does Delphi sell Optis with their box and logo? Does Delphi make the ones packed in the Delco box? I don't know. My factory vented conversion has been going strong for all these years, but I don't use the high voltage section. I only know what I read on sites like this with regard to performance of the various sourced Optis.

 

There are easily tens of thousands of Delcos that have gone 10+ years.

When the MSD came out a lot of heavy hitters gave it a shot and went back to stock or modified stock ones. I have a link somewhere to a guy saying he just pop rivets the electrode to the rotor and turns 8500rpm. Then every kid who wants a 12 second car thinks they "need" to ditch the factory part just because it is factory.

Realistically the biggest "opti problem" there is is NEGLECT it is a hassle and expensive to change the cap and rotor compared to say an older HEI, so people neglect it and when it fails instead of admitting neglect blame the design.

It is in no way perfect but enough of us take it to 7000rpm reliably that the part can't be all that bad.

 

I've had good luck with stock ones and good luck with MSD's. I hurt a stock one, but I was spinning it right up to 7k for a few years, and it had a lot of miles on it. It eventually wore itself out, but I don't think it was a bad piece. It still worked fine for cruising, it just broke up above 6k. I was pushing it beyond what it was intended for. I would recommend you replace the cap/rotor every 2 years or so, since they are wearable items.

 

I got more out of this one than I did the last two original Delco Optis so I'm not complaining. My main motivation was that it is vented without the hastle of changing all the associated parts that go with a factory vented opti. I didn't expect it to last as long as it has, but was pleasantly surprised.

 

I had 2 or 3 years on my non-vented MSD on my 350 LT1 with ZERO issues and a lot of high rpm track passes right up to the limiter. It's sitting here waiting for a new home. I have 1 year on my vented MSD on my new motor with no issues.

Maybe me and you are on to something? lol

 

Im having good luck with mine, about 20k on it and i spin it just over 6800 all the time.

 

We're not saying the MSDs have a high failure rate, just that it's higher than the AC Delco. It's probably every one out of five that have trouble with the MSD - just try a search.

 

Is there a way to test the opti to see how it's running?

I'm still running my factory Opti on my 93. It seems to run fine and strong so i dont see why i would change it.