Help! Help!!! 92 Coupe down, need current (2018) opti info!

[Paul67Car]

Hello everyone!! I recently purchased my 92 coupe 6 months ago and love it!!!. I had to put the car in the repair shop a few days ago due to a no start issue. It was determined that the optispark has went south and needs replacing. I have read quite a few post here regarding the quality of certain optisparks but the posts I have read are older posts (2009-2014). Nothing really current. I do know that you can no longer get the new optispark from GM/Delco. I have looked high and low, just can`t be found. In todays market (2018), who has the best opti out there? Is it the AC Delco re-manufactured unit, MSD, Accel? Is the Petris opti from Zip any good? Need help on what to do here. Does anyone have solid knowledge on the current optis, it sure would be of some major help! I sure would hate to have one put on and 2 or 3000 miles down the road be doing it all over again, that would suck! Please advise!!! Thank you

 

[Toms007]

Paul, first off Welcome to CAC! I'm 8 years out from having my 94, so my info isn't very current. I had to put an opti on, and my thoughts were "GM original" and purchased one, installed it, and within a couple hundred miles, started experiencing issues. Took me several weeks trying to figure out the issue... "it couldn't be the opti, it's new". Well, after finally giving up and taking it to a mechanic friend, he found the opti was crap. I purchased an MSD and never looked back.

 

[Paul67Car]

Thank you for the response!

Hello Tom! Thank you for responding to my post. Regarding the MSD opti, I was leaning in that direction myself. I was at the shop yesterday talking with the mechanic, he specializes in Corvettes. He has a super nice shop loaded full of Corvettes, something like you would see at the museum. He has vintage and current models and everything in between including some very nice custom builds. He is very hard pressed to install the MSD. He is a AC Delco keep it that way kind of guy. I hate to buck the system and install something other than AC Delco that he prefers but what I am looking at is the new vs a rebuild/reman. When you installed the MSD on your 94, how long did you drive it with it installed? I heard on one of the earlier posts that MSD sold out and the quality has degraded throughout the past few years. Its not like it used to be. Same with the Dynaspark. That was my second option. I have heard of few stories that the reman AC Delco opti, that some of the parts are not the same as the originals. Some people have ordered only to find that the optics in the units are not the same, knock offs. A good question is, did they get the opti from an EBay site or did they get it from a certified AC Delco dealer. Is it a hit and miss type thing? If the quality is the same as the "new opti", same optics, then the AC Delco would be the way to go. The one in the car is the original and it the car is siting at 132,000 miles on it.

 

[Toms007]

I would tend to say that if your mechanic feels better using the AC-Delco opti (reman) and he'll stand behind it, go for it.

I traded the 94 not too long after having the MSD installed....maybe 4000 miles. But it ran great, right up to the day I drove it 350 miles to trade it.

 

[Toms007]

Oh, my 94 had about 126,000 on the clock when I traded it off....and wouldn't have hesitated a moment to take off and drive it across the country.

 

[Wayback]

From another forum,but I bookmark it for future reference. If I needed 1 .
LT1/SBC

 

[Paul67Car]

Thank you Tom!!!

Thank you for the info Tom. It took a while to find a reman AC Delco that was legit and in stock. Seems like all of them are being bought up. Almost everywhere I looked, out of stock :/ I guess all is right in the world again, lol. Well, it will be as soon as I get it installed, fingers crossed. Like the 94!!! The Orange Beast is nice too!

 

[Toms007]

Well, I'm glad you finally found one. Never realized that those parts were getting hard to come by.

I really liked my 94...wish I could have kept it. It really felt more like a 'sports car' than my 2001 did. But 007 is a great car. Feels a little more nimble than the 2001 did, but still bigger than the 94.

 

[compyelc4]

Thank you for the info Tom. It took a while to find a reman AC Delco that was legit and in stock. Seems like all of them are being bought up. Almost everywhere I looked, out of stock :/ I guess all is right in the world again, lol. Well, it will be as soon as I get it installed, fingers crossed. Like the 94!!! The Orange Beast is nice too!

Make certain you find out what caused the Opti to go out. Could be internal parts, could be leaking water pump (water of course), could be leaking cam cover-to-water pump seal (oil), could be leaking cam cover Opti seal (oil). Your older C4 does not have forced fresh air circulation. With '94 and later C4's one major problem caused by moisture infiltration to inside of Opti is the fresh air system which circulates filtered fresh air from your air intake and through the Opti fails. Pre '94s do have vents but it is not created by manifold vacuum through the Opti, it just provides venting of ambient air into and out of Opti.

From a guy who just changed out 2 new Optis in a row due to Optis not holding a vacuum associated with the '95 forced fresh air Opti. MSD Opti failed, Jegs Opti failed, OEM Delco worked.