What is the Opti Spark I hear about LT1's?
 

Hey, guys and gals.

I don't know if you all know but I'm a bit new to the forums. 16 in November and license in March.

My question is about a '95 LT1. Near my house is a '95 LT1 Purple Camaro Z28 for 5 grand. I keep hearing the term "Opti Spark" whenever a LT1 is involved. What is it? I'm guessing it has something to do with the engine spark or something?? And what does it do exactly? Any info will be greatly appreciated.

Thank-you.

Ooops. Sorry about posting this in the wrong section. I mean't to put it in LT1 section but accidently placed it here, if one of the mods could please move it to the LT1 section? Thank-you.

The opti-spark is the distributor. It is attached to the front of the motor and is driven off of the cam-shaft. It is right under the water pump. It seves two purposes. It has an optical sensor used for ignition timing and it also distributes spark to each spark plug wire. You will hear alot of bad things about the opti, but about half of them being the truth. I ran my first opti till 110K miles and only replaced it because I put a 383 in and everything else was new.

Alot of them will go bad if the water pump goes bad, because it will leak down on it. Dont ever spray it directly with water, while cleaning the engine bay. I think alot of people will have a problem and replace the opti and come to find out that was not the problem. I have two friends that mis-diagnosed a problem and both changed an opti for nothing.

Oooh, alright. Thank you. The Z28 I'm looking at has 151K miles on it, I don't know if the Opti Spark has been replaced. I'd have to find out.

Thanks, smoknta.

It could be fine with that many miles, but probably not. If it has not been replaced it may need replacing soon.

You'll usually notice a high RPM miss when the thing goes bad. 95-97 had the "better" vented opti, but it still goes bad.

So if it's bad the car won't hit high RPM's? (sorry, I know some stuff about cars and others I don't =\)

No, it'll rev, but it'll be choppy and down on power. A buddy of mine had a stock 95 M6 Z28 and we were racing a 79 Mustang - the Mustang was pulling the Z28 because once we hit like 4 grand, the thing just started missing and acting like a POS.

When they work, they work great - but how often they are actually working...

Opti Spark is the curse of LT1 cars. Housing the distributor under the water pump was a bad decision.

:smokin2:<-----engineer high at the time

:jest: :jest: