What optical sensor does it have?

 

Do you honestly think guys on here are going to jump after Procomp junk, let alone on their Optispark unit?



Facepalm..

 

From what we have been told, its made offshore for ProComp.
When you think about it, Its hard to find anything that isn't made offshore these days.

Thanks
Christian

 

Well let me see DeltaElite121, we just put them on here yesterday and have not sold one. But, we have had them on Corvette forum for around 4-5 months and have sold almost 2 dozen. So far no one has had to use the 1yr warranty.
So "honestly" I think the budget minded person that doesn't what to spend $400-$500 for a GM or MSD opti might by one.

Christian

 

Why I love my 24x??? Oh yea, no opti.

 

True, but this opti might just be a quick fix. You get what you pay for most of the time. Just wondering who remanufactured this piece? Might just be a rebuilt one.

 

ProComp is the manufacturer.
I can assure you that they're not rebuilt.

 

The key to a good unit is the optical sensor...imho. Do you know who manufactures the optical sensor. I'm just curious since the Corvette guys have had such good luck with your product.

 

This is the million dollar question and the make or break for repro opti's most of the time. Mitsubishi optical sensor or.......other.

 

While that statement is VERY true, like anything else, there are good components and "not so good" components, no matter where they're made. What appears to be the "make or break" component for the Opti is the sensor, and the Mitsubishi sensor is the "gold standard" for that. And, I might add, I'm fairly sure that it's made "off shore".....just made off shore to a higher standard.

Not to take a personal shot at you, Christian, but in all seriousness, in a price driven market, where Optis have been on sale since the mid '90s, your product is about 40-45% the cost of other Optis, and your claim is that it's a brand new, high quality unit???

 

Keep in mind that build quality goes a long way even if its not a Mitsu sensor. Pro-tip: NOBODY has a Mitsu sensor anymore unless its a true GM OEM from AC Delco or Delphi unit for $500+ new. Even a factory Reman will cost you ~$350. That is because Mitsu has like a 20,000 unit minimum order to make more, and the market is WAY too small for anyone to risk ordering that many.

With a well sealed housing that blocks out the elements, proper venting to remove ozone inside the cap, and quality roller bearing rotor instead of a cheap bushing, even a generic sensor will last many years.

Also don't ignore user error. I think ANY part will have complaints in the LT1 world due to all the incompetent installers. 0/24 are already some promising initial numbers - but Vette guys probably are also more careful during instillation and are less likely to do stupid things that I have seen on LT1 installations. Improper indexing, leaving vent hoses open or blocked off, reusing old corroded Opti harness, cheap autozone coil wires that arc against waterpump housing, installing under 150,000 mile leaky waterpumps, etc.

 

There are NO "good deals" in this hobby if you want quality.. And that goes for any hobby out there. This world is driven by money, and if they could replicate that part for so much cheaper at a quality level then they'd never be so expensive in the first place. The only exception is tooling changes, in which other companies buy the old existing tooling at a lower price, but still retain SOME portion of the original price to cover the expense and add profit margin. Procomp doesn't do this.

Personally, I won't ever sell their products. The fact some people can justify spending bucko dollars on a corvette and can't fork out the necessary bare minimum expense to drive it properly aren't budget minded... That's CHEAP.

This may come off as bashing, but I am also a consumer and obviously play on your side of the fence as a dealer also. Don't sell out or you'll find out you get a reputation like Skip White for selling a bunch of junk and you'll never erase that. Your initial gains might be good, but you'll pay for it later, guaranteed.

 

I tried an aftermarket opti once, the car started and idled fine, 1st trip above 4500 and it took a crap. My GM opti was actually still good, the rotor screws had come out was my original problem. I had ordered the aftermarket opti before I took my GM unit out b/c I wanted to be prepared. Ended up a decent new cap/rotor, using a touch of loctite and putting the GM unit back in. So far so good....knock on wood as they say. IMO, the opti in these cars is one thing you probably want to keep GM.

 

Hi leadfoot,
We are not the manufacture of this Optispark, we are just selling a product from another manufacture like most venders do. I have only copied and pasted from ProComps description. We did take ours apart to loctite the rotor screws and it appears to look like a quality product to us, but I have not said anything about a "high quality unit" that I am aware of. I think the manufacture may have said that somewhere. I can say that they are brand new not manufactured. We did say we used one on our super charge Camaro and it worked fine. Other then that we leave it up to the manufacture to describe their product.

Christian

 

Hi DeltaElite121,
I don't believe C4 Vette owners are spending bucko dollars and the majority think they are budget minded. Just because they don't buy a expensive factory part does not mean that they are "CHEAP"! Maybe they just don't have the budget that you think all Corvette owners should have.

And I don't believe we are selling our self out. If we start getting calls from customers that are having problems with ProComp products, we will discontinue selling them. So far no problems, but I'm sure someone will have a issue sooner or later just like with any brand product. And when it happens we will take care of it.

We are putting these out there for the LT1 owners as a alternative to a $500 Delco. If we had a bunch of defects coming back, of coarse we would not sell them. That does not benefit the customer or us!

You seem to know a lot about ProComp manufacturing, Did you use to work there?

Christian

 

There is good and bad in all, I have had MDS boxes go out, about 10 years ago I purchased a AC Delco opti from the chevy dealer, back then it was I believe around $300 and it would not start the car, Took it apart and the rotor pin was pressed in 180 degrees out. Ive had friends that had optis back from other sources, paid like $150 spun them to 7000 rpm with no problems, then I have seen $500 units crap out..

 

MoeHorsePower

 

Sorry, I mean MSD box not MDS, How did you know I had a couple of Rolling Rocks

 

From what I have seen the optical sensor is not the problem on aftermarkets. It is the quality of the epoxy potting used in the cap. Because the wires come out each side on this design the traces in the cap are long and come very close together. When the spark jumps across one time it continues to build the path and you end up with 2 plugs fireing at the same time. My aftermarket did not last 6 months but I put a quality cap on it and it is fine now. The optical sensor is only photo transistors and a LED. I have tested them on the bench with an oscilloscope. The outputs are straight off the collectors(open collector) so you must use pullup resistors. The real weak point of this distributor is the fact that the plug wire connections are not directly above the rotor connections like they are on a conventional distributor.