WhiteZ28

so i just recieved the optipark. i know i have to pull the radiator, fans, water pump, harmonic balancer, and maybe move the air pump. my question is when i take off the old optispark should i mark it or something like the old distributors? and will it need to have the timing done after i put the new one on? also any little tricks i should know?? thanks

brandons99mc

Ok b4 I answer your questions, let me ruin your day, if your on a budget that is. What kind of opti did u get? Brand wise. From what I've seen and experienced, imho if it's anything including msd other than a delco, take it back. I've seen the msd, the cheap parts house opti, and ebays 120$ opti go out in 2 days to two months. also, did u get the vented, or the non vented? If you got the vented, did you get the timing chain cover from a 96 and are you ready to make some small mods to the nose of your cam? Ok now assuming you got the 94 non v ented opti, a quality part, unless u like repetition, u will also be buying a seal kit from your chevy/ pontiac dealer for the opti change, it should include the shaft the drives the waterpump off of the cam, some people say those never go bad, they do, it only takes a little flat spot to destroy your whole day. So replace the shaft, new water pump with gaskets and all of the surrounding adjacent rubber seals. The seals rott fast due to engine heat. Now the timing is not an issue when u replace the opti, on 94s it only goes in one way, and sometimes it doesn't want to go in that way either, just be patient and take your time, yes make a not of how the old one came off, so u don't start to second guess urself if the opti is being a pain. Finess is the name of the game, over tighten or try to seat the unit with bolt torque and u have an optically triggered paper weight. Make sure your surfaces are clean and dry when replacing the seals. And the orings that keep water away from the opti. They don't like water. Now the only way u can adjust your timing is via u having the appropriate software and the 12 pin plug for the obd1 car, u will want a data logger for this too, cause u don't want to advane your timing and not street test it. The lt1 is a 10.4:1 compression engine, little changes affect it a lot, too much advance and u will ping your engine to death or lose lots of power to the pcm retarding from the knock sensor info. Sorry just some precautions to think about. P.s. If you want to know how to vent a non vented opti so u don't have to change the timing cover and modify the very tip of your cam let me know, it's easy. Also when reconnecting the plugwires to the opti I use dilectric grease, especially with new wires, they always see to want to push off the opti b out 1/4 in or less. Other than that? Oh while I had everything apart I would do checks on the iac, tps, and the other few sensors in the front of the engine, especially the coolant temp sensor, very important little sensor, it's spidered to everything practically. And wear gloves when u can. I try but especially when doing opti plug wires, take a beating in those small areas. Sorry for the novel, but it's important to me that people realize the opti is very sensitive, and there is a more accepted way of changing it out, save trips to parts places.

MDTAHOE

Original post is almost 7 months old. He probably has fixed by now.