on an LT1 powered car how do o know if i need just the cap and rotor or the whole distributor.

 

If the opti is acting up just replace the whole thing. Sink 150 into a cap and rotor and still question the rest of it?...i wouldnt

 

Is the car still running "sort of OK"? If so, I would think that your Opti is fairly healthy, and a new cap and rotor would be a good idea.

I replaced the cap and rotor when I had about 40,000 miles on my '96 Z-28. No particular reason other than general maintenance, but there was some general dust in the distributor, and the cap showed the normal wear of 40,000 miles of driving. That was almost 30,000 miles ago, and it's still running just fine....

 

I would just replace the whole thing. That way you know what you have and don't have to worry about it. Before you put in the new opti I would recommend putting a generous bead of high-temp silicone around the seam on the it. That will seal the opti up very nicely and should allow you to even be able to hose down your engine without water getting inside.

 

Sam Taylor sells whole opti's at a killer rate, I always replaced the whole unit

 

do you have link to the site.

 

also can a bad opti cause a vibration at high RPM. my car vibrates at high RPM at first it would only do it at around 6600 and up now it dose it at around 5000, and is worse in diffrent gears. when i was looking at the engine i noticed when i was looking at the opti that i can acturally see the spark between the cap, and distributor kind of like it wasent sealed or tightened correctly. during normal idle it sounds fine.

 

Do a google search, they are not a sponsor. Its pretty easy to find, Ask for Jason Cromer

 

up again

 

If you have alot of miles on your opti then replace the whole thing. Its just as easy to change the whole opti as is to put on just a cap and rotor. So if you have the coin buy a whole opti. As for the vibration could be your drive shaft out of balance.

 

i only have about 3000 miles on the whole thing

 

for just a little bit more you could pick up a delteq system which replaced the distributor part of the opti so you dont have to worry about that part going out.