First get a beer……..

I am taking the liberty of your time to fill you in on my Opti experience. This is not truly a technical issue, but I posted here, because it was here where I got the answers to my questions. Move it if you need to……..

Like most of you, my “plan” is to one day install heads, headers, cam, etc. And the more had I planned, the more I felt that I would go with DynaSpark or DelTeq when that time came around.

But, after installing waterpump #3 at about 95,000, I started experiencing the typical “bad opti or ??” issues. After many searches on the forums, I concluded the opti was the problem (Don’t recall the exact thread that really cleared things up for me, but it was linked to a corvette forum. It listed: Soot at idle, popping at rev limiter, decreasing mpg, misfires, loss of power, no codes, etc.). The opti was quite corroded (I was amazed it did run at all) and rotor was rubbing on the housing. There was rust on the rotor mounting as well.

And I agree with many of you that 600 bucks is a lot verses a stock at 325 or so. My “revelation” was, if I put a stock opti in now, in a couple of years, I most likely will replace it, as I do the “planned” work. Or live with the reality of getting a stock unit now, that in the future, it will be the “excuse” to not do the installs. So in went the DynaSpark (Don’t have the time to wait out for the others coming out (will they actually?)) and installed a vented elbow too. And all is well at just under 97,000.

So, here is a quick thanks to all of you out there on the forums for making my opti swap a piece of cake, especially:

CamaroZ28 and MFBA forums – If you search and it ain’t here, you ain’t working on a Camaro PERIOD!

Shoebox and Injuneer – Thanks loads for your sites and posts, especially the ones for trouble shooting. In particular, Injuneer’s Scanner Reading site and the details on how O2s worked. ‘Cuz, with my post-DynaSpark install problem of a miss at low - mid rpm but not at WOT, I used Andy’s FreeScan data recording and was able to conclude that I needed to replace one sensor. And all was well.

John Benton – Your “how to” opti replacement article – Most Excellent!!

Eric at DynaSpark – Clicked PayPal and the DynaSpark appeared. What more can you ask for? Install was easy to do. Instructions were to the point for the wiring changes, etc. And the unit is just a work of art! I felt embarrassed to install it in my stock bay…..

Andy’s FreeScan – It’s great to see the before/after differences and with Injuneer’s Scanner reading document, its given a lot of confidence toward getting more out of the Z (Now which tuner to use??) by understanding how it thinks.

Dal Slabugh, Thunder Racing, akmcables and my local Chev dealer, CarQuest, and AutoZone for parts, pieces, loaner tools, and such.

BTW, I got the Z used in ’96 and it still makes me giggle like a school girl when nailing it from a light or up a ramp!!!!!!!

 

I feel ya. My dynaspark seems to be holding it's own also and my scanmaster is the best mod on the car.

 

Go with the Dynaspark. Works great for me.