A few days ago i noticed the waterpump was leaking out of the wheep hole, so it's time to do a waterpump and opti install. The WP and opti are both the original (83,000 miles), and even though the opti isnt giving me any trouble i am gonna replace it anyway (for peace of mind). I have read a few opti install guides, and none of them mention bumping the #1 cylinder to TDC. I am used to working on Gen 1 350's, and this is always critical to get the timing right. Just to straighten things out, is there just one slot on the cam so the opti is always perfectly lined up (i mean, is it setup so there is only one way for the opti to fit, and the new one will be at the exact same timing as the old one).

i hope you guys can straighten me up on this, i am slightly confused. I am planning on doing this next weekend, and i wanna know exactly what i am doing.

thanks
trav

 

Most of the guides I have seen, mention moving the crank until the arrow is at 12 o'clock. After you take the pulley off, this position is the only way that the opti will have enough room to slip by the hub spokes. It does not matter if it is at #1 or #6 (it will be at one of these with the arrow straight up). You will be able to tell which is at TDC when you get the opti removed. It really does not matter, though. Just line up the dowel correctly to the opti and you are good to go.

 

quick word of advice before you go opti swapping.

I did the same thing your about to do. My WP went at 94k, i figured since i had the pump off it would be no problem just to swap out my original opti (even though it worked perfectly fine) with a brand spanking new one.

I got it back together, install went good and easy, except for the hesitation that i know developed. So i figured i got a bad opti. Well two days later i put ANOTHER brand new opti in. Still got hestiation.

I now have adopted the thoery of "if it aint broke, dont fix it"

Basically the opti install isnt too hard to do that you need to go ahead and replace it now.

 

thanks for helping me out guys, and by the way, i am gonna stick to the original plan of replacing the opti while the wp is out. Thanks fo the advice though

trav

 

I would go ahead and swap it out, its fairly easy and you will have the peace of mind that its done.
I just did an opti at 135k and it needed it bad, those caps and rotors don,t last like you think they do.