Opting out of Optispark?
 

Hi Im relatively new to F-bodies and have a 94 Formula Firebird, and was curious because I was told there is a way to swap out the whole optispark system for the setup ran in the newer LS1s is this true? Are there write ups for it?

The Delteq and LTCC kits are two of the popular ones. Delteq has installation manuals on their site, it gives you an idea of what is involved and what is needed: http://www.delteq.com/support_manuals.htm

Wow! That's pretty interesting. So what kind of plain sight benefits does this have for the LT1 cars?

Didnt GMHTP do a write up on this? Im pretty sure its the current issue too.

Is this magazine in places like barnes & noble?

The Barnes & Noble by me carries it, as does some of the local Wal-Marts and Borders. You may be able to read the article on their website.

I use the Bailey Eng. LTCC Ignition. It uses the crank trigger part of the opti unit. It has a brain box with a soft touch or hard rev limiter, nitrous retard and other extra functions. I use 8 LS2 coils, unlike deltecs 4. I have had it on the car for about a year and a half and several thousand miles. I fabbed brackets for the coils and self installed all of it . It has never missed a lick, I an very happy with it. LTCC- $400, Coils $100 on ebay, still need to get a set of custom magnacore wires ( recommended ) about $100 bucks. Although the Moroso blue Maxx wires I am using have worked fine. Check it out at
www.bailey-eng.com/LTCC.html

Don't be too quick to replace the opti, despite it's reputation it is a good piece. It is lack of maitenence that give it a bad rap.
People leave a cap and rotor on till it fails then blame the design. Thing is cap and rotor are WEAR ITEMS as such they are tuneup parts. Not saying you have to replace them yearly or anything just if you leave it on for 100k and it starts to run poorly replace the cap and rotor and you will probably be good for another 100K.

As you should be able to see by now NONE of the "opti elimination" kits truely eliminates it, they just bypass the cap and rotor and you could buy 3 MSD cap and rotor kits for the price of one of the "opti elimination" kits.

I am not saying those kits are bad or anyting just that the "benifits" are grossly overstated and when folks talk about the giant difference they made for them it is usually being compared to to a neglected stock system that needed some attention and they is why they bought parts.
People in general are not objective enough to consider the fact that replacing 80K mile plugs, wires, cap and rotor with just fresh stock pieces would be a performance improvement and that everything they feel is not comming from the new coil setup but rather replacing worn components.

I couldn't agree more:cool: ........

I agree with above, there is no "opti-eliminator" out. Someone needs to invent a system that uses the cam and crank sensor to determine spark timing. That is how every other DIS system works.

Electromotive built an Opti-Eliminator/Super Direct Ignition (O-E/SDI) system back in the late 90's. Completely eliminated the Opti. I ran one for two years. But it had issues of its own. They put a "hold" on production, and never solved the problems and restarted. The engineer who designed the E'motive system also designed the Delteq.

The problems with the Opti relate to corner-cutting by the GM Corporate bean counters. The seals are poor, particularly at the wire tower. The bearing is cheap and wears out way too fast. Cheap, uncoated carbon steel on the stock bearing retainer rusts and the rust particle blind the optical sensor. The water pump weep holes really could have been thought through better. There are far too many premature failures rusulting form these problems to simply write them off as maintenance problems. GM had an excellent idea (actually, they got the idea from a Chrysler/Misubishi 3.0L V6), but then screwed it up with poor execution. They pretty much admitted to missing the ozone problem, adding the vent system after the fact.

The optical sensor is an excellent cam position sensor, and those of us who deleted the high voltage function for the Opti up to 9 years ago have not experienced much in the way of problems.