I also took the dist cap off with the throttle body screw and rtv'd all the perimeter and loc tite'd the 2 rotor screws.. We'll see how long mine lasts

 

Hey crab, I bought my opti from advanced as a "new" cardone. Idk if they lied but I think you can get both

 

yah after thinking on it china has been makin new ones. a couple years ago new opti was not so easy to find.

 

I can imagine. My cars running great besides the pulsing hiss coming from the first of second plug on passenger side.. I think I need to tighten it up

 

DO NOT DO THIS!!!

This is a good way to make a flat cam out of a good one. What I am talking about is to take the valve cover off and measure the lift of each of the rockers (at the pushrod side of the rocker) and make sure it has a similar lift to ALL other rockers. The ones that do not are a good sign of a flat cam.

Oh and turn the engine over by hand not with the starter.

Massey

 

Okay, what is the proper method to tightening up to get back to zero lash? And I understand that if i were performing the test it would have to be by hand or that dial would be all over the place, but i was thinking of doing this by noise...which im starting to change my mind about

 

a flat cam can be indicated with a compression test, and confirmed with a dial indicator measuring lift. The dial indicator must be mounted securly and not be held by hand or like you said the readings will be all over the place.

Adjusting the valves I do not know off the top of my head on the LT1 engine but you will need to have the preload set properly. Preload is like lash in hydraulic lifter. Solid lifters need a lash setting hydraulic lifters need preload wether they are roller or flat tappet. Finding zero lash is pretty simple and there are many ways on how to do this online but the one way that I have found 100% of the time is this.

Loosen the rockers until all load is off them. Turn the engine over until the cylinder you are working with is on it's TDC of the compression stroke (when the spark plug would fire). This will guarentee that the lifters are on the flats of the cam. Tighten the rocker while "wiggling" the pushrod up and down. Once you have tightened the rocker to the point were ALL movement is gone but not pushing down on the plunger in the lifter you have achieved zero lash. This is the most accurate method. Others will tell you that rolling the pushrod in your fingers until it no longer rolls is good too but this method is not as accurate do to too many factors such as how well the rocker, rod and lifter are polished at the mating surfaces, how much oil is lubricating the surfaces. You may actually induce some preload before the pushrod stops turning.

On old school flat tappet engines after zero lash you would turn the nut another 3/4 of a turn to preload the lifters. I dont know if this is the correct method on roller lifter engines such as the LT1. Maybe Craby can chime in here and put his LT1 knowlege up here and help me out.

Massey

 

good post Massey

 

Okay heres the update. I put on the new opti today. Its not as hard as alot of people make it sound, it was almost fun... camaro runs much better now, still has small missfire around 3k but it sounds more like an exhaust leak now. I put in dragonfire wires and i think they suck so will be replacing them with stock wires. im also thinking about putting in copper plugs anyone have any intake on this?

But anyway the car runs much better, has a good pull to it again. I dont think it was the opti, but more the cap and rotor, but for 200$ with a lifetime warrante, i cant complain too much

 

exactly bro. i just swapped to the same opti as well. did u make sure to artic silver 5 your icm ? and i install new copper plugs on the z28 as well, they are good. Also, i got some 7mm wires from rockauto.com idk if 8mm are better for performance, i just didnt want to run into fitment problems