Msd opti and rotor?

[ws6drbob]

Have any of you guys seen this or tried this???

http://store.summitracing.com/largei...?part=MSD-8481

[Injuneer]

Its not a complete Opti, just the cap and rotor. Last I heard, MSD had not shipped them to any distributors yet.... I think its scheduled for later this month.

[ws6drbob]

Its not a complete Opti, just the cap and rotor. Last I heard, MSD had not shipped them to any distributors yet.... I think its scheduled for later this month.

Hmm... What all do you need to complete it fred?

[Injuneer]

The Opti has two pieces. The back section is an alloy housing, with the bearing, bearing retainer, optical sensor and electronics and harness connector. That part probably fails 25-30% of the time. The simple friction bearing wears out. The bearing retainer rusts and the rust particles clog the optical sensor. That's what happend to mine at about 50K miles. In the vented opti, there is a vent nipple on the alloy body.

The front 1/2 of the Opti is the plastic cap, contacts for the spark plug terminals, and the rotor. The cap will carbon track like any other distributor. Moisture from the water pump weap holes can cause problems. The rotor has been know to break up, or come loose from the metal mount, the terminals burn like any other distributor. There is also a vent nipple on the plastic cap in the vented Opti.

[ws6drbob]

The Opti has two pieces. The back section is an alloy housing, with the bearing, bearing retainer, optical sensor and electronics and harness connector. That part probably fails 25-30% of the time. The simple friction bearing wears out. The bearing retainer rusts and the rust particles clog the optical sensor. That's what happend to mine at about 50K miles. In the vented opti, there is a vent nipple on the alloy body.

The front 1/2 of the Opti is the plastic cap, contacts for the spark plug terminals, and the rotor. The cap will carbon track like any other distributor. Moisture from the water pump weap holes can cause problems. The rotor has been know to break up, or come loose from the metal mount, the terminals burn like any other distributor. There is also a vent nipple on the plastic cap in the vented Opti.

So does this mean you will have to have remove parts from an opti and use them with the msd setup?

[Injuneer]

No. You take the old cap and rotor off, leaving the back 1/2 of the Opti in place, and put the new cap and rotor back. It's just like changing the cap and rotor on a conventional distributor.... the body of the distributor, drive mechanism and electronics stay in place, and you put a new cap and rotor on.

The problem with the stock cap -according to some people - is that the insulation breaks down and the internal wires that are used to line the plug wire terminals up on opposite sides of the cap start to cross-fire. The situation is supposedly made worse by multiple spark discharge setups like the MSD-6 series boxes. The MSD cap is supposed to be made from a plastic with a higher dielectric strength, to resist this breakdown.