I am in the process of swapping out my opti right now, but I was thinking... If the main reason why they go out is because water gets inside them, why not just seal up all the joints with RTV and not have to worry? For instance, around where the cap is joined to the main housing, why not run a small bead of RTV all the way around so water can't get inside? Is this not where water gets inside?

 

The opti is nowhere near as fragile as the internet would have you believe and ANY distributor gets water inside it and the vehicle will run badly if atall till it dries out. The stock seals are decent, I might add a little plugwire grease to them and the weatherpack connector seal but that is all I would do, I never even found it necessary to do the housing seals and have just done the wiring one and it works fine.

 

I believe water can also get inside from condensation build up. Sealing up the opti completely will make condensation worse. Make sure the vacuum lines are connected to the opti and the inline check valve is working properly.

 

After watching that video, I just have to ask why?

Aside from that, I also don't think they are as fragile as most people say. Hell, I've had mine on for 10 year and 104k miles and it is the stocker and it just recently went out. Not too bad considering I do a lot of driving in the rain and do hit a lot of large puddles. I also been known to wash down my motor with degreaser and use a high pressure hose to hose out my engine bay. It was just a thought, but seems it would be unecessary, and quite possibly make things worse.

 

Have you ever opened an opti that had been getting water in it? If not then you have no reason to be saying bull****. I've pulled two of mine apart now that had a bad heater hose above them. It leaked under high pressure right onto the plug. Believe it or not the plug isn't sealed well. If water is going to get into the opti, it's best bet is through the plug. Look down into the plug hole of an opti. There's nothing between the outside and the optical pickup. That thing rusts up or the contacts get corroded and the whole thing fails.

By the way, my stock opti didn't come off until 130k. It still wasn't bad then, just had a slight high RPM stumble.