Anyone ever see a optispark blow up internally?

Just trying to figure out how and what may have caused this to happen. I've had opti's go bad on me slowly or just die, but never did I have a new one just explode internally.

I was on the dyno the other day and during a pass at 4000 rpm the optispark rotor inside broke somehow, backfired and the car died. We checked and changed the plugs. No problems there. There was spark at the coil, but nothing at the plugs.

I just finished taken apart the front half of the motor and took the distributor out. Yup, that's the problem. I shake it and pieces are rattling inside it. I took it apart and it looks like a bomb blew up inside. The rotor blew apart and wedged itself against a prong which then caused a huge backfire. The seal on the optispark was perfect.. the inside had no other visible signs of corrosion.

I scanned the broken damage. First time I've seen a 1 month old Opti spark blow up internally.

Here is the inside damage to the Opti

 

Some people have reported that the rotor screws were not tight on their new opti and have cause premature destruction. It has happened before.

 

Thanks for the response. I checked that and in my case the rotor screws are perfect and tight. The weird thing is the rotor just broke inhalf somehow. I think it might have got stuck on a contact and just cracked.

 

Definitely a bummer.

If is a GM opti, you should be able to get a warranty replacement.

 

When I rebuilt my LT1 I had it all together and noticed that it had a rattle in the opti. It turned out to be a broken screw head flying around in it. The car had 20,000 miles on it.
GM build quality<--LOL

 

i hope my new opti dosent be gay like that

 

I've seen this more than a couple of cars towed into my work. Y-bodies f-bodies & caprice's. This is over a 10 year period not common mind you but I seen them all do it.

 

No chance that you are pulling full manifold vacuum thru the vent hose etc is there? [that can cause that...]

 

Mine was going that way also... This is what was going out

The small metal piece is held on basically by some molded plastic. Looks like a soldering iron was held to it. I actually had to use JB weld on mine to get it to stay on, the plastic was so fragile. If that got lost in there, it would have just tore everything else up.

-Shannon

 

I have the vacuum restricted with a few filters, so I don't think that's the problem. I'll have to double check it and make sure it's not pulling too much vacuum. Looks like it must have been just a defective part or like Nomad said...the metal piece was not held on correctly with the melted plastic.

Thanks for all the advise.