well shes a leaker.it started leaking today,not out of the weep hole but were it meets the block on the driver side.so hopefully it will miss the distributor(which it has so far) and i wont have to replace that to.how long do the opti's last if they dont get wet and short out?

 

I don't know man, if you have to replace the water pump, I'd go ahead and do the opti while your at it. It would really suck if you got a new pump on and then had the opti go out a month later! If you've got extra money to do both, go for it.

 

well do the opti's usually last a good amount of time?if so ill just leave it cause i dont have the extra $400 laying around.you know the old saying(if it aint broke dont fix it)

 

The opti is one of those things you can never predict. Some people have had them die in say 20k miles other people's stock optis last well passed 100k. There's a guy that posted maybe 6 months ago that his motor went something like 260k miles and he was still on his stock opti.

I can tell you this however, that as a general rule no replacement opti lasts as long as your stock unit, and it's really a crap shoot as to wether or not you are going to get a new one that works. There's been many people on here who have claimed that brand new, never used opti-spark units were shipped out to them in a nonfunctioning condition. Even a few people who received 2 or 3 in a row that did not work.

If it were me, I would not replace it. Mainly because I operate under the "if it's not broken" principal. However, I also would have no problems tearing back into the motor in month if it did.

I guess to sum everything up, there's really no good advice anyone can really give you, but I say as long as you think it wasn't soaked with coolant to just leave it alone and replace it only if you need to. If it was running strong, then just leave it.

 

it runs real good.i think it started leaking yesturday and its not pissing all over,it is running down the side of the block and not even touching the opti.so im gonna leave it and see what happens.

 

That's what I would do. And although the factory waterpumps aren't cheap that is the one I would buy. I don't trust the re-manufactured ones.

 

I am still on the original opti and have popped the pump off to do my cam/heads. Put back stock opti. Ran for 10-15k then replaced the water pump and stuck the stock opti back on and I am still good to go...just my 2 cents.

 

I would try to get that water pump replaced ASAP. Even if the opti does get wet, if you let it dry out, there is a good chance you won't have any problems.

 

Any tricks to replacing the pump or pretty much straight forward

 

Its pretty straight forward.

 

I'd just keep the stock opti in, its what I did when I replaced my WP.

As the other guy said, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"

 

Sounds to me that you just had a water pump gasket go bad, not the whole pump.

I just changed my gaskets last year due to a similar very slow leak. Fixed it right up. Plus,it was only $4 or so.

Dan

 

I agree, the pump is not bad from what your describing. I wouldnt touch your opti unless your having problems with it.

I am running a remanufactured water pump with a lifetime warranty. No problems here, just look at your guage.

 

Yeah,I changed my pump without removing the fans or even the serpentine belt,but hey I was a complete beginner and didn't know any better.If you leave the fans on there isn't much room to manouvre but it is do-able.I thought the worst part of the job was scraping the old gaskets off.I replaced mine with a genuine GM pump that came comlplete with a new thermostat and housing already attatched.
I left the stock opti on there too,although at the time I didn't even know what an opti was .

 

well i changed the pump and that wasnt even the problem.while i was taking the old one out i noticed that the bolt that the air pump bracket mounts to was loose.but since i already had it almost out i changed the pump anyway.only had to remove the air pump and thats it.ohwell