oh boy, its not to bad. only took a few hours the second time i did it. took longer to replace plugs and wires. wires on the pasanger side are the pits. u will need to pull the belt, air cleaner unit including the tube that goes down by the radiator, water pump and the harmonic balancer to get the opti out. you will need a ballance puller. i used a older puller and didnt want to buy a new one so i used a small 1/4 drive deep socket on the end between the puller shaft and the crank through the balancer bolt hole, (if you do this make sure the socket is big enough so not to go in the crank bolt hole and damage the threads) and pulled the balancer and the hub at once. keep track of the arrow on the balancer and make sure it goes on the same way it came off. if #1 is top dead center it should be pointing up. keep track of were the opti is, it only goes on one way but its easier to get back in if you know were the rotor is at when you take it out. i think theres a sticky on the site for this so have a look. if not should be able to download off the net. let me know how it goes.

ps drain the radiator and be careful of the anifreeze itll kill your animals or children if drank.

 

If it wasnt for security running me off for working on it i would do it this weekend, so instead ill just start on the bodywork and get it ready to be painted. Hopefully when my actual instructor is here ill be able to actually get some work done on it.

Oh and i know all about anti-freeze from all different kinds of ours (US), what their made of to what Europe uses and Japanese blood red anti-freeze. I even know HOW it kills animals and people when drank and also know what to add Ethylene Glycol to to kill someone and have them not even know its there. Also if for some reason its Propylene Glycol its safe...but i doubt it has that.

(yes our instructors tell us way too much)

 

That is a known problem with the opti, it can only go in one way properly, but it can be forced on wrong, which can cause damage.

 

Ok, so after around 3 hours ive gotten the water pump off, and now i need to go get a harmonic balancer puller. Hopefully ill be able to get it done tomorrow.

 

alright. thats about how long it took me the first time. the balancer is easier to put back on if you bring it around so the arrow is pointing straight up. when you pull it the motor will try to turn over. i stuck a long 1/2 inch extension in the balancer and carefully braced it on the front cover to hold it. i was very worried i would damage the aluminum but the bolt and balancer seemed to come easier than i thought it would. i picked up one of the flywheel stops now so i wont have to do that again. if you got a buddy around pull the flywheel cover and have him or her hold a large screwdriver in the teeth so as to stop the motor from turning over and do no damage. you will need to take the cap or cover off the opti so you can see where the rotor is. make a mark on the opti and the motor to reference. the shaft on the opti has a spot were there is no gears/teeth. that has to line up correctly with the place on the drive-shaft that has no gears/teeth and the drive shaft to the cam also has to line up correct in the same manor.

u will need a torque wrench for putting back together. also i should have said this at first but do not get the opti wet. the circuits are not sealed well and they do not like water. let me know how the opti looks. also the water pump. it usually gets very wet if the water pump goes so its a good idea to replace the opti at the same time. u should not have to worry about this if there both new.

 

well know you tell me not to get it wet, halfthe cooling system ended up all over it (yes i drained the system first)

the opti looks good tho but i dont know what im looking at, Its an MSD opti so i dont know.

 

crap. if you drained it it shouldnt have done that. must have been some locked in there. sorry bout that but i dont know what else you could have done. most of the water should have went along the side of the opti. is it msd or a msd cap and rotor. the msd has adjustment screws on it. msd is a $500. opti. it takes a while for the opti to let you know it didnt like what you did. i washed my other z s motor more than once and never had a problem with the opti. also got it wet like you when i changed the water pump. after learning on this site they dont like water ive been alot more carful. was the cap still on?
ps look on the net jeg or summt has a picture of the msd maybe the oem to.

think theres a sticky on changing the opti too.

 

Its full MSD, it has the adjustment screws on them, i went to autozone and looked at the OEM opti see what all it was and everything.

 

i guess the next question is about the shaft and if whoever put the opti in did it right or messed it up. pet is a yoda on these cars and you read what he said right. you will probly know by how hard the opti comes off. before you do dont forget to take the cap off and note rotor position should be some allen screws holding the cap on.

 

fyi.

quote from lucky