Well I changed my OPTI today and ended up with a bigger mess than I started with. I kinda think I soaked it with coolent when I beld the cooling system. Its running REALLY rough like I have a bunch of wires crossed (but I dont) and it shuts off really slowly, it almost deisels. It wont idel for long at all befor it dies. Does this sound like a wet OPTI to anyone else? Thanks for the help.

Jeremy

 

sorry to hear man, but these Opti-sparks were a pretty bad design. I had my 94Z that kept giving me problems. No one could help me figure it out. After tearing the front end apart and replacing the opti internals with a used one for someone from this board, it worked fine. I looked inside my Opti after I opened it up..and guess what, moisture all over the place inside on the contacts and stuff. I managed to pick up a used 40kmile opti from another 94Z. I tore mine apart, used my exterior components because mine was in better outside shape, then used his interior and cleaned it up abit. Scrubbed down the contacts gently and put her all back together. Turned out my water pump was leaking onto it. The drip valve on the water pump that shows you you have a bad waterpump..is conveniently right above the opti ...so I replaced the WP and the car got totaled the next day...LOL. After 6 months of opti troubles, fixing it and a water pump replacement.

I havent been on the site for awhile and in the LT1 crowd for abit, but there was a distributerless system that just had a 4-coil system instead. I heard it was much better and mounts on the driver side valve cover if i remember right. Id look into a better ignition setup if you want to keep that LT1 for awhile. If not, save up and do a 427 TT setup like i wanted to.

 

I don't see how you can spew enough coolant when bleeding to get the opti wet (unless you are extremely messy). I'd check the wire placement.

 

Well my bleeder on the t-stat housing is turned so that the coolent runs right down behind the water pump when it is open and I forgot about this sence its been over 2 years sence Ive had to bleed the coolent system. I dont know what the deal is. I went out and checked my wires again just for peace of mind and they are right. Is there any way that the OPTI might not be indexed right on the shaft? It sat flush against the timing cover but I guess it might be possible that the splines might not have been lined up perfectly. I know there is a keyed spline on the shaft but I dont know if it ingauged properly. When I try to start it, it cranks really fast then really slow, so slow that my starter started smoking once. It has never done that befor. And I have to mash the gas wide open for it to fire up. Im at a lose here. Ive never had this kindof an issue with an opti change.

Jeremy

 

I would say opti indexing might be an issue, then. Many people have forced it on wrong.

 

Well it was indexed correctly. I guess it some how just went bad sitting on the bench for 2 weeks. I ordered a new one. It will be here in the morning. We will just have to wait and see if that fixs it. Thanks for all your help.

Jeremy