Hey all, it's been a while but I've got a question I'm wondering about. I've had my 95 z for about 15 years and have replaced the opti 3 times. The shop I go to always just uses a brand new GM one and they say they've been improved since the original concept with added vents and such. I'm wondering if I should go with an aftermarket one this time? Was looking at an MSD opti. I know these things are somewhat prone to failure anyways but if I can cut down on it, that would be great lol. Opinions? Experiences?

 

should be getting 60 to 100k miles out of a opti, although that is dependent on your luck... lol. I have had good luck with msd one I have went about 50k miles and started giving me issues. found a guy in cali that makes them with the high end optics for a good price that would better work with my coil per cylinder ltcc setup. once I got it out I found the rotor had come lose and I could have just lock tight'd the screws and put back in. it runs better with this other cali opti though so I'm sticking with it. had msd in it before I changed engines and switched to the newer type and it went for 20k and I sold it to a member up in Canada, far as I know its still goin on his car. ill look around and see if I can get info on the cali opti.

 

I haven't had it diagnosed but I just had the wires changed so I'm assuming opti might be next. It's funny it doesn't run rough all the time, in fact it's smooth most of the time. Randomly at a stoplight it will idle rough or have a little lag when accelerating till about 3k rpm them clears up. Last night it ran completely fine. I'm also going to check into possible fuel issues. I don't think I've ever had the fuel filter changed since I got the car. I have been curious about the opti though. Maybe I can get away with just changing the cap and rotor lol.

 

see if you can get it scanned for trouble codes. obd1 scanner will work, or should anyways. look at 24 here 4th Gen LT1 F-Body Tech Aids

 

test fuel pressure. should be able to do it at parts store, most have gauge they will loan for parking lot check

 

It didn't trip any codes a month ago when it was running real rough but they discovered one of the wires was bad so I had all the wires replaced. Ran good for a couple weeks, then randomly about two weeks ago one drive it was idling a little rough and surging a bit in town. There was also one random day before that it idled rough at one stoplight out of about 6. Since those days though it seems run good. Only thing I always notice is, on cold start it starts and then acts like it wants to die for 1-2 seconds, then idles just fine. I've been thinking maybe it could be a fuel issue too. To expand on what I said before, at about half throttle accelerating, it just doesn't feel like it's quite full power or where it should be, but it's smooth, then at about 3k rpm, same throttle amount, it's almost like a v-tech feeling, you can feel it pickup yet it's still smooth. I've got an appt. tomorrow to drop it off in the evening so I'll let them know what's going on and see if they can hopefully track it down. Being as I'm in a wheelchair now from a motorcycle accident, I don't do much of my own work anymore. But hey I got hand controls in it so I still drive it
Edit: It does seem to have full power though if I give her the beans, she rips!

 

So a little update on this. It's actually running pretty good. I'm not going to worry about any misfire till it gets worse. I had my main shop check on some oil leaks though because it's leaking on my headers. They said the rear main seal and the timing cover are both leaking. The head's are also leaking some oil. They're thinking a lot of the leaking is from a tube that wasn't venting the crank case properly so they replaced that and said to try that first. Problem is then quoted me $900 for the rear main seal and $1700 for the timing cover. Do these sound right? Online estimates are quoting quite a bit lower.

 

wow, rear main is way harder than front cover. at least for me they are. yep they are more than I would think it should be. I would be looking closely at the intake for oil leak, the front and rear of the intake is a common fail point that oil is known to come from. the gasket maker gets pushed out of shape letting oil get by.

 

I just had the intake done cause it was leaking like mad. the guy that did my head work 2 years ago used red sealant instead of the black and it gave way. I thought that was my main leak but but I'm told the front leak and back leak are as I said. I've got another shop that treats me a lot more fair on price that I'm going to call about tomorrow. I'm hoping the heads stop leaking oil since they weren't leaking much, because I got the venting fixed. "rear main is way harder than front cover" Don't you have to remove the distributor and water pump for that? I'd assume that would make it harder? I don't know what all is in the rear main though. My main issue with the rear main is, it's leaking enough that it's getting all over the oil pan AND the exhaust. I can always smell it burning at stops...

 

front main, you dont have to take much off, just balancer and balancer hub. front cover you gotta take off distributor and water pump. rear main you gotta take the trans out and flex plate... lets just say im not a fan of trans removal... lol