I know there are a million posts about the optispark on this site, and I have read several of the posts.

My question is simple, does the optispark go bad gradually or does it just die? I am just wondering if mine is in the process of going bad. I did a series of bolt ons to my car, opening up the intake and exhaust. My car does seem to have a miss especially at idle, but that could just be the way the car is. My car has 66,000 miles on it, with the original opti. What was GM thinking putting this thing on the bottom of the motor, every time you go through an automatic car was with and under carriage wash, it gets blasted with water. I don't do that any more, especially since my car almost died in one of those washes.

What would be a good replacement? I am planning on more upgrades down the road, just not sure what.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

You can't really generalize about how the Opti dies.

It can be a slow, painful death, just like any other distributor, as the plug wire terminals and the rotor tip gradually erode, carbon tracks build up in the cap, the ozone from the high voltage discharge corrodes metal components, and the cap loses its dielectric strength, allowing the embedded wires to start to cross-fire. Or it could be a sudden failure of the optical module, killing the low resolution pulse pattern that the PCM needs to fire the plugs and the injectors.

I honestly believe the best solution is to get the high voltage function out of the Opti. The best way to do that seems to be to run the LTCC 8-coil system. Now the Opti only has to supply the pulse signals from the optical sensor, and all the high voltage erosion and ozone is gone. And, swapping to the 95-97 vented Opti is also a good idea for the 93/94 owners, but that's a significant expense.

You might want to add a signature, with basic info about your car, like the year, model, tranny type and any major mods.

 

ltcc is the way to go imo. seal up the opti with the rotor removed and just use it for the low res pulse signal.