Let me know if you guys have any more questions. We've got a larger following (also some vocal opponents) over at ls1tech. We've by far and away the largest seller of aftermarket optisparks on the net.

 

I'm of the mindset of "what have you got to lose?"

I won't spend $400- $500 for an MSD just so I can have three consonants. Last summer it took qty 3 GM optis before we got one that maybe just maybe went through a QA process.

One had a bad optical unit, the other, the rotor fell off 7 miles down the road after it was installed. Lack of QA.

If I have a waterpump leak agan, I'll try the $90 opti........why not? if it lasts a couple years then that's fine. Waterpump will probably have another pipe fall off before those 2 years :-(

Now if i plan on spinning at the redline and racing, then yes, I'll go GMPP.

 

Wow that's pretty bad. What is a GM opti though? Delphi? Someone that claimed Delco? I hate to back another company's product but GMPP or Delco should be pretty consistent. I mean ****, they charge $300-$500!

 

I was lucky (so to speak) as my buddy gets a discount through his shop. I could not believe the lack of quality. But, it was only fitting as a press fit pipe on the WP had let go (WP was 6 months old) so I was already riding the "quality train". To have to go through 3 optis to find a good one just rubbed salt into the wound.

Honestly, if your ODM does a decent job with consistency, then why not give that unit a try?

After taxes I was close to $300 for the GM opti. The local parts stores want over $400.

 

I have taken a few of the optisparks apart and correct me if I am wrong but (aside from cap and button) the sensor is what seems to fail on the things not much else in them...they are not created equal, so why do they not just sell the sensors themselves?????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is what I wanna know.

 

If you havent seen them they arent very big, here is a pic of it. I would even pay a fair sensor price for them, maybe on the order of 60 dollars. The opti is the scourge of the LT1 for sure wonder what the markup really is from manufacture to 500+?

 

I just went through 2 GM opti's and neither worked so I ended up using Accel Ultra Optispark II. It works at least wish I ran across this tread earlier.

 

there is circuits in the opti that you cannot see. if you have water or coolant intrusion into the opti through were the wiring comes out it can get into the circuits and cause failure.

 

The most common cause of opti "failure" is crud and corrosion. Mechanically, it works the same as an old school distributor, and nobody in their right mind would drive their car for 100+k miles without doing a simple cap & rotor change. But the position of the opti made that simple job a real p.i.t.a., so preventative maintenance with the opti doesn't happen. Odds are very good that a new opti cap and rotor, as well as cleaning the optics will bring it right back to life where it should be. But sometimes, the bearings can go bad too, so you'd want to replace the unit anyway. That's where you would have to evaluate the situation once it's all apart, and then hunt the parts down while the car sits. Also remember that a large part of what replacement parts manufacturers cater to is the professional mechanic. And mechanics don't "rebuild" parts like this because of the time it takes, they replace them.

 

I'm really starting to wonder if GM was using Chinese sensors for a while? I mean they said they tried to knock it off and failed, but I know AC Delco doesn't actually have a factory. So I wonder if they just tried selling the Delphi units.

Very interesting.

After dealing with them I wouldn't put it past them, they were shiesters.