I just recently picked up a 68 Camaro that has a 94 Impala LT1 in it. I found the water pump leaking at one of the press in fittings so I pulled of the pump to replace it. Since that was off, I figured it made sense to replace the opti just in case. Well, I just found out from the previous owner that the opti only has 200 miles on it at the most. Should I still replace it or leave it for now? I hate to spend extra money for the opti, but I also don't want to waste time pulling the water pump in the near future if the opti does go bad. Has anyone had an opti get wet and still have no problems with it?

 

I used to wash my engine regularly before I knew how fickle the opti is with water. No problems with water ever. At 60K one of the screws that holds the rotor backed out, however there was no sign of a moisture problem.
I would suggest taking the cap off and just look inside. (One of the screws from the top plate on the throttle body is the correct size reverse head torx bit. Once removed from the t.b. just hold it with small vise grips to disassemble the opti or take it to the tool store and find the correct size bit.)

 

Jeff, if it only has 200 miles on it I certainly would not think about replacing it. Hell, I reused my opti last year when I did the cam and it had 57k on it and it's been working perfectly ever since. If you can do the work yourself it's not that big of a deal or expensive to get to it and replace it in the future if it ever does act up. If you ever do replace it I would suggest going with a new vented opti (95 and up) There are much fewer problems reported from them than the older unvented style, plus they are cheaper.

 

With only 200 miles I wouldn't replace it.

 

It is a vented opti and I don't really feel like swapping it out if it's ok. Right now the car isn't a daily driver so I think I'm going to leave it on. I've got enough other areas to spend money on so I'll worry about replacing the opti when it definitely goes bad. Working on the LT1 in a 68 Camaro is a lot easier than working on an LT1 in a 4th gen. Anybody looking for a vented opti? $180 plus shipping.

 

 

damn straight, brother!