So I put another opti on my car last night. Ran great. I was flushing my coolant and opened the bleeders up top, some water ran down on the opti, now it's back to missing. The wires are dry.

Will the opti be ok once it dries out? Can I fix it, or do I need to get yet another opti. How is the vent system suposed to work? I am getting the feeling mine doesn't. I have hooked a direct manifold vacuum like to the opti and used a Y fitting to join them.

Is there a way to seal these things? The GM Opti system is down right criminal of GM, put something that delicate where they did. Well, same reason they replaced the rear disc on thier P/U's with a bad drum design, so they can make more money off brakes, I worked at a dealership, they told me this.

 

Pull the vent line from the opti and see if it is getting a vacuum or suction effect, that would be the easy way of knowing if the vent line is working or not. As for the opti, when people have gotten them wet, they let it dry out for a period of time and the car worked fine the next time around.

 

How much coolant did you let get on the opti? I swear i must just be around bullet proof opti's because i power wash my motor, accidently spill coolant on it when i take the water pump off and other things and i never have a problem. I agree to check the vaccum system and see if it dries out.

 

Mine has been wet SEVERAL times, but dries out and then runs normal.

 

If you use direct manifold vacuum to your opti, you can ruin it. You must use the flow restrictors in the factory vacuum harness.

When you say "another opti" what is it? New, used, GM, MSD, remanufactured?

 

How would the vacuum ruin it? Does it need air pressure to run properly? Vacuum is just the absence of gas. It isn't under vacuum anyways, it s vented from the elbow. So, it's more a vac leak but it's measured through the MAF.

What I did was take the tube off and sucked in, got a mouthfull of nastyness. (get your mind out of the gutter you pervert ) Obviously, the main source isn't doing a good job, so I ran it off a very small unused port on the intake manifold (used to be for the EGR or something, now deleted) and there is hardly enough air going through to make the engine notice. Well, ran it like that and it cleared up. Runs good now.

I put a used opti on it from a freind wu0 got a used 40K engine from a junk yard and since he had just put a new opti on his old engine, he swapped them, but kept it. It is in real good condition, but appears maby to have a little warpage on the top of the cap, kind of like the plastic warped a little. I suspect that is where it got water leaked into it. I don't have money to spend right now, and was selling the car, now I am reconsidering. It needs a few minor things now and it will be one sweet ride.

Next time I am in there, I am going to replace it with a MSD or something new.

Thank you for the help/advice everyone.

 

The stock vacuum harness includes a flter and a check valve. This prevents the Opti from being damaged in the event of a backfire in the manifold. Additionally, the stock components are sized to provide the correct flow volume through the Opti, between the atmospheric pressure connection at the intake elbow, and the full manifold vacuum at the driver's side of the intake manfold. Too much vacuum, and you can distort the cover, or start pulling in crap around the shaft seal. Shoeox is trying to help you, and you're telling him he's wrong. After you've been here a while, you'll know who to listen to.

When working on anything with coolant associated with it, its only common sense to stuff a few rags around the top of the Opti.

Its in good condition, but its warped......

 

Poor guy!!!