alright well i am getting to the point where i think my opti is slowly starting to go out... it takes me forever to crank the car to get it to start... it has a really choppy idle when its cold... runs like *** when its warm now and backfires and misses like its going out of style... and basically just runs like its not getting any fire, which obviously if the distributor is going out then that will happen lol... i changed the plugs and wires not even 1k ago... checked and made sure the plugs are good and wires are tight... and i just dont know what else to look at to pray that it would be before going to the opti lol... but my question is, would i get away with just getting the MSD cap and rotor for this? or do i actually need to dish out the $ for a whole new opti? i know there are mixed reviews on the msd opti and all that good stuff, but i feel like risking it and hopefully i can put a good review up for it, but would i be able to just clean up everything all nicely and just buy that cap and rotor kit and be set? the main reason i ask is because i don't really have the money right now to just throw out $ considering the car goes in monday for paint... and if i can pinch a few pennies it would sure help

 

well u might be able to get away with the cap and rotor...but of course the whole thing would be a better idea. did you change the coil wire? you be surprised how much this helps. It may the be coil rather than the opti. If I were you id double and trible check every single wire, including the ignition wire, then move on to the coil, then if that doesnt work, the opti. good luck

 

yeah, i changed the coil wire with the plug wires... and everything looks and feels tight plugged into the coil... but i have a good feeling that it is the opti because the last owner replaced the water pump at like 141k and it has 150k on it now and its always had a small miss on me at WOT, but its just getting awful now and showing more symptoms...
is there any actual way to test if the opti is going out? i know i'm not throwing any codes for it because i just had it scanned friday afternoon because i had the check engine light come on for my EGR, but it was just because i think i knocked one of the lines off of it when i was replacin the oil sending unit and didn't see it... but ya i have a good but bad feeling its my opti

 

buy an msd opti. live happily ever after.

 

If this were a gen 1 motor would you go and replace a whole HEI or would you put a fresh cap and rotor on it??? If this were any other motor with a distributor what would you do???

Point being the opti gets an undo bad rap and the majority that go "bad" are just neglected caps and rotors which should be tuneup items but people neglect to treat them as such and then are such raging morons they blame the whole design rather than their own decision to leave the cap and rotor in indefinetely.

You will find a lot of smart guys running the stock piece and a lot of not so smart ones swearing a 13 second car "needs" an "upgrade".

Especially for a 94 with the unvented opti setup I would recommend an MSD cap and rotor kit as it will convert it to vented for you enhancing reliability, should last at least as long as the current cap and rotor have meaning pretty good chance it will outlast the car.

 

yeah i was just making sure that there wasn't any other faulty parts in the inside of the opti that i would need to worry about of if i would get the same fix by replacing the cap and rotor... so i guess this sorta answers my question, and ill be ordering a new cap and rotor here shortly
another question about this... is a special tool REQUIRED to remove the pulley when going through the process of removing the opti? or are there any other special items i need to get or be aware of before i do this job? i just want to make sure that i am not going to make this problem a lot worse than what it should be... also, do i need to get a new gasket for the water pump? the pump was replaced about 10k ago, and if i have to get a new gasket its not a big deal, but i just sorta need to know what all else i will need in order to have a car that runs and isnt all rigged up

also, would it be a good idea to go ahead and replace the coil while i'm at it? and also, will i need to be looking for a different set of plug wires and will i need to change the gap or anything with the plugs? they are gapped at .050 right now, and i think they are bosch platinum's if i remember right....

basically, if there is anything that i would benefit from fixing now in the front of my motor that others have found that they have had to break in to and replace and wish they would have done it the first time in this change-out, let me know please... i am no genious to any of this lol... i'm just a kid and am trying to learn as much as possible about cars and motors in general and would rather work on my own stuff and mess it up and learn from it than i would let someone else work on my stuff and not know what goes on...

 

You need a two arm puller to remove the crank pulley, water pump gaskets&sealer, form-a-gasket to seal the distributor cap (cause the new cap might not come with a gasket and the old gasket will certainly be shot).

You can go ahead and do the entire tune-up including plugs, coil and wires if you know how old they are. If everything is past 5 years it might be a good idea.

 

well the wires are brand new... prob. not even 1000 miles on them... but i have no idea how old the coil is... should i go with the msd coil as well? or can i get a stock one for cheaper that performs the same or any other replacements that are recommended?