Well me being the dumbass that i am left the radiator cap on vent and it blew off. Well i was rinsing off the engine with water while it was running and all of a sudden it shut off and now it wont start. Its been about 3 and a half hours and it still wont start. Could have the opti went bad in it or do you think that it just needs to sit and dry out?

 

if you have the vented opti the one with the tube going into the elbow take that off and blow compressed air through it for at least five min same happened to be when spraying down luckly it dryed out and is fine now

 

What elbow and where exactly is the opti...right beneath the water pump?

 

yeah the intake elbow there should be a blue 90 with a small black hose from under the car driver side you can see the opti well

 

any luck

 

well all i saw was a black hose about as big around as my thumb from the intake elbow and i could see the opti from the right side. I blew some air down the hose but still no avail. Am i blowing into the wrong hose?

 

no its a small i think if yours is 96 and later its not vented i believe but if it is the is a blue 90 with a black hose you cant miss it if it is vented right like 5in away from the tb on the intake elbow

 

Well mines a 94 and its near the throttle body and its a blue hose?

 

yeah then it wont have it but on the new vented opti its a small blue plastic fitting with a black hose attached to it

 

think you got it backwards unless my brain just isnt working right now, 96-97 have the vented opti, 93-95 have the non vented opti

 

This is correct. The newer LT1 came with the vented opti. It should be a small elbow coming off of the interior radius of the intake elbow going into the throttle body. Sometimes if you blow compressed air into that you can get the water out of the opti.

Did the car just all of a sudden die? Or did it sort of stumble and grumble to a hault?

As far as the car not starting -- does it do anything when you turn the key? Or does it just sit there?

The best trick is to let it sit and dry, time is the only way to really help it out. If you weren't conscious of the opti-spark while you were hosing it off, it is very possible you got a lot of water into there.

I noticed you said that the car looked like it had never had a coolant exchange in the other thread, have you done any other routine maint. on it recently. If not, it might not hurt to check some of that stuff too.

 

Actually 95-97s have the vented opti

 

On the vented Opti - does it hook up to anything else on the motor? last time I put an opti on my car I just slid it right in and it matched exactly what the other opti looked like? . . . . we need pictures showing the diffrence on these damn things

 

I found these pics off the net.

heres the nonvented opti 92-94


heres the vented opti 95-97


The vented opti has 2 vacuum lines(you can see one of them in the pic), and the nonvented don't. The drives are also different, the vented uses the long dowel from the cam, and the nonvented uses a splined drive. Installed though only the vacuum lines from the vented are different.

 

Well the car just died like I turned off the key. So im guessing the opti just went to ****. I've gave the car last night and till about 3 o'clock today to dry out and it still wont start. It turns over but there is no spark at all. Should i either get a msd opti or a newer opti from a later model pontiac.

 

my bad didnt notice i said later i ment earler being non vented

 

ALright guys i replaced the coil and i had the ignition module checked and it was fine. Im thinkin my problem is the optispark. I can get one at autozone for 149.99 with a lifetime warranty on it. Im still not gettin any spark from the coil to the optispark though? Could there be another problem im overlooking? Oh and how long does it usually take to change out a opti with a haynes manuel?

Oh yea will a opti off a later model work on my formula...like one thats vented?

 

Hey guys really quick does a 95-97 opti work on a 94? I got the opti off and the vented one is cheaper...what should i do?

 

vented wont fit unless you plan on putting on a whole bunch of stuff from a 96+, you need a diff cam and hoses and such. Its alot of work, buy the non vented opti it is the only one that will fit.

 

exactly how hard was it to get off i planing on doing mine really soon just to be safe what did you take off to get to it