When I replaced my opti with a stock GM unit, it took a good bit of cranking to get the engine to start. Once it finally fired up the engine ran like gold. I don't know why this is. The only thing I could figure is that for some reason the new opti didn't fire right off and the injectors fludded the engine. I held it at WOT, kept cranking and it fired up.

Just a guess

 

People wrongly install both types of optis all the time and you don't have to break it to do it.

 

yea the hardest part about getting it to "seat" in was clearing the crank pulley hub. I didn't force it into place or anything and didn't seat install it by screwing in the bolts to get them to pull it in close.

all very good advice everyone several things here I havent thought about.

No SES light by the way

 

I greatly appreciate everyone's insight and recommendations. After the battery charged over night, I woke up, hooked the batt in. And about 4 attempts later the car cranked up. I swapped out the old opti for the new one...did a test fire before putting everything back together and BAM it cranks after about 5 tries. So no clue what the gremlin was. In any case i had some other issues to tend to.

my original reason for changing the opti was the typical "car warms up and runs like POOP" and wouldn't accelerate past 4k rpm and above 2k was like hesitation and crazy advancing. After the opti swap, the car was running great, reved up nicely. After letting it idle while I got coolant in and what not I went on a test drive and there was still a ever so tiny hesitation around 2k and again at 4k, but unlike before it ran smooth and nicely even with this almost unnoticeable hesitation. Well those kind of things drive me nuts with my car. So i quickly started blaming the coil.

While in the process of removing it to test with a spare that I had in the ol parts bin, I realized just how hot the coil was. Well with that much heat on the coil, im assuming 140k miles on it, AND with my having an MSD 6AL on a stock coil I decided it needed to be replaced anyways, So I just went ahead and went to the local parts store and got me an MSD Coil for 42.67 after taxes. replaced it in the parking lot there, and so far I have yet to feel that hesitation. Now she runs super smooth and I have my baby back!

I will find out tomorrow when I hit the interstate rather the problem really is fixed or not.

In the end, for those of you who need an OPTI check out thepartsladi on ebay. I got my opti with cap and rotor shipped to my front door for 182.50 and took 3 days to get to me!

 

thanks agian everyone!