LT1-LT4 Modifications 1993-97 Gen II Small Block V8

Dissecting the bad opti - pictures!

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Old Jun 19, 2013 | 06:38 PM
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Default Dissecting the bad opti - pictures!

So I had a thread recently where I mentioned the car ran bad with a new 'thepartsladi' optispark. Today I decided to take it apart and look for anything that was obviously wrong.

This opti probably has a maximum of 2 minutes of engine running time on it along with dozens of attempted starts.

The cap had all this brown dusty stuff in it.





And it looks like it might have come from the rotor here. It looks like it was grinding against something big time.



The little disk has evidence of rubbing on it as well. (On a side note I couldn't believe how flimsy that thing was)



It never threw any codes. I think something was either the wrong height or size and caused all the contact. That probably threw off the timing.
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Old Jun 19, 2013 | 06:44 PM
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This is why you must take apart a new opti and loctite everything.
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Old Jun 19, 2013 | 06:45 PM
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Do you have it hooked up to the vacuum source, it could be pulling the cap into the rotor.
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Old Jun 19, 2013 | 11:41 PM
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I had the vacuum and air line hooked up. The cap is a pretty rigid plastic. Are you sure there's enough vacuum in there to pull it down onto the rotor like that? It definitely looks like the rotor was smashed against the cap though. And the disk was making contact with the optical unit or something.
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Old Jun 20, 2013 | 06:14 AM
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Keep the pulse wheel cause the cheap Chinese pulse wheels with irregular slots are making it into the good optis and they will throw codes. Ask me how I know.
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Old Jun 20, 2013 | 12:02 PM
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FWIW, I just picked up a Cardone reman from autozone for my '93. It has a Mitsubishi sensor and GM trigger wheel. And some nice little plastic washers to delete the rotor for my delteq setup. Be aware that the cheapest one with the lifetime warranty does NOT come with a cap and rotor. By since I'm not using them I just reused the old cap with a bunch of "Right Stuff" gasket maker.
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Old Jun 20, 2013 | 04:39 PM
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Originally Posted by AdsoYo
So I had a thread recently where I mentioned the car ran bad with a new 'thepartsladi' optispark. Today I decided to take it apart and look for anything that was obviously wrong.

This opti probably has a maximum of 2 minutes of engine running time on it along with dozens of attempted starts.

The cap had all this brown dusty stuff in it.





And it looks like it might have come from the rotor here. It looks like it was grinding against something big time.


The retaining screws for the rotor came loose, causing the rotor to "****", and scrape against the inside of the distributor cap. YOUR picture clearly shows there the rotor "sanded" down the ribs inside the cap....
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