Well my shoulder finally started feeling better, so i decided to tear my opti off. I got it of and shook it and heard rattling. I took it apart to find the rotor in pieces. The weird thing was the middle of the rotor was still screwed down but half melted. The rest of it was in tiny pieces. I'm guessing that it was melted due to the coil still firing and arching all over inside the opti. Do you think the rotor would have just fell apart or could my msd 6al have melted it?

So...I order a new opti this morning, but I was bored and had another opti laying around with a bad optical sensor. The optical sensor in the blown up opti was fine as the injectors were still pulsing and the coil was still firing. I decided to put the good sensor into the opti with a good cap and rotor. This worked great for about a half and hour. I was just cruising around town at about 2k rpm and the car just died. I towed it back to my friends shop and all I've done so far is check that the coil is still firing. Tomorrow I will tear it apart again to see if i blew apart another rotor. Anybody know why this would happen? I would really like to know so that i don't ruin the new opti I ordered.

Oh and the blown up opti had about 50 miles on it and I purchased it new from thepartsladi. The opti with the bad optical sensor had about 500 miles on it and was a cheap ebay unit.

Thanks
James

 

Is it possible the cam dowel pin it too long, and its forcing the rotor forward into the cap? You'll probably find out if that's the case when you open up the second failure.

 

Oh crap I knew I forgot to check that. I remember now reading about the cam dowel length 5 years ago or so. Dang I wish I would have checked that. I was so happy when the car started up after making a good opti out of two bad ones.
At least I got to make a few full throttle runs and hear/feel the turbo.

Have you ever heard of the msd killing and opti? Ive read on hear some people think they do but others don't.

 

I've been running the MSD 8226 Blaster coil with an AC Delco optispark for 8 years now with no problems. I will definitely agree with Fred on the dowel pin length though.

 

Too many of us have run the MSD box with the stock Opti with no problems. I think it may contribute to increased ozone formation, and promote the rust that eventually blinds the optical sensor, but I haven't seen evidence of the MSD causing failure of the high voltage section. I think that the possible damage might be breakdown of the dielectric strength of the epoxy that separates the internal metal strips in the cap, that route the individual cap buttons to the correct plug wire terminal. But that isn't going to cause rotor failure. How high do you rev it? There have been reports of rotor failures due to high RPM.

 

I have the rev limiter set at 6k and today I never took it over 5k. Just driving around on the street there is now reason for me to rev any higher as i have no traction whatsoever lol.

 

 

Before I started tearing into the car I did all the tests for a bad Opti/coil and everything points to cap and rotor. So time to tear it apart.

 

Ive got the opti apart and its another blown rotor...although its not in near as bad of shape as the one above. I got an email from somebody asking if I have the vents properly hooked up. All I have is two vacuum hoses hooked up without the check valves as they previous owner didn't have any vents hooked up at all. Could this be a problem? What is a good vendor that sells the vent hoses with check valves?

pics

 

I purchased a check valve from the auto parts and put it in line with my vacuum hose. Works fine.

 

Is it me or does it look like there is a lot of melted plastic going on in there?

 

I think that is due to me cranking it over trying to get it to start. The coil is still working and arching all over inside the cap. Either that or the turbo is getting it hot(about 5 in. or so from the turbo). I'm going to put heat tape on it(opti).

Update. I remembered I have another opti on my engine out of my ta with an optical sensor that was about to got out. So I tore it apart once again and pieced it together with a parts from the other two opti's. I broke off the vacuum port on the only good cap I have left so i just plugged the hole with a screw and silicone. I hooked up the other vent line with the check valve anyways so it is at least pulling vacuum on the opti and may help for now.

So far it works I took it for a twenty minute drive, ran it up to six grand a few times and it ran awesome! Then right outside of my buddies shop i did a burnout and blew one of the caps for the heater lines on the waterpump. Blew antifreeze all over the ground. Luckily it happened there and not while I was driving around town.

Now I'm just waiting for the turbo to cool down to put a new cap on and put on some heat tape. I really want to see if this will work. I have a new opti on the way, but if it blows another rotor then something is wrong and I dont want to put a brand new opti on it.

Oh and I did check the cam dowel length and there is plenty of extra space. Its only going 2/3 of the way into the opti.

 

Another update. I got the heater lines capped again and no leaks. I put some heat tape on the front of the opti just as some extra insurance. I drove the car around for about a half an hour with zero problems. Did a few burnouts and a few runs up to 6k rpm, along with a few laps around my small town.

I really hope this opti holds up. Maybe more people will rebuild there opti's with old ones they have laying around rather than just buying a new one...but time will tell if this was a good idea or just a huge waste of my friday/saturday lol.

FYI the cap and rotor on the camaro now is the original from my Trans Am with over 100k miles on it. The optical sensor if from the opti i bought from thepartsladi with 50 miles and the backplate is from the cheap ebay opti that was on the camaro when I bought it with around 500 miles on it(opti).

 

It may not have anything to do with your problem but he rotor on my 94 melted when the bearing failed.

 

You know instead of capping the heater lines on the w/p you can remove the tubes from the pump and tap/plug them. This would be a better option, and safer.