the best opti in 2012

[steveo]

some years ago when i had an LT1, a brand new GM opti was the only way to go

things seem to have changed a little bit

seems its hard to get real GM optis now, the part# up here changes to a reman part number

have accel or msd ironed out the problems with their replacement optis these days?

has anyone put decent miles on one yet?

if you had to get one now, what would you buy?

[Mystery Bird]

Dynaspark.

[Racy Roadmaster]

I purchased a new GM Delphi about 3 years ago and have approx 20k
miles on it. I also have two additional GM units that I have as backup/spares,they are a GM Delco with about 5k miles on it. I got that on an ebay deal and I pulled another GM Delco opti from an LT1 rotating assembly that has about 80k miles on it. My LT1 is a 96,as you probably
know GM changed their OPTI design just about every year, the early ones are not interchangable with the later ones,the drive systems are different. Depends if you can wait,but I would look on Craigs list and e bay
for someone selling an NOS GM Opti for your year motor. If that dosent work I would talk to MSD and then GM to see if they could order you a new and not reman opti. I believe the very late GM Optis and GM remans
dont use the very desirable Mitsubshi optic sensors. If you decide to follow in my path,be prepared to spend anywhere between $300-$450
for a good opti. ed

[cocobolo95]

My MSD opti in my 95 hasn't missed a beat in 4 and 1/2 years. If it fails down the road MSD will rebuild it with all new parts for about $120. That's about 1/4 the original purchase price.

[ShowNoMercy]

EFI 24x.

wait. wut.

I can't complain bout my MSD opti, or my GM unit.

[Roger Mabry]

They work!

[sweetbmxrider]

My msd pro billet has been great. Like coco said, about $120 to rebuild if it does die. We'll see how it likes the 7k shift points at the end of the month

[Keesling]

Whatever you can find that works. I ended up with my stock optical and an accel cap and rotor. I think it was 25$ and it has brass terminals instead of aluminum. But even new ones don't always work it's all about luck

[KW Baraka]

Originally Posted by steveo

some years ago when i had an LT1, a brand new GM opti was the only way to go

things seem to have changed a little bit

seems its hard to get real GM optis now, the part# up here changes to a reman part number.......

Did you check Summit Racing?

KW

[paulmon]

I did a ton of research on this an decided to ditch the opti altogether and use a Bailey Coil on plug. Best decision ever! It's a little more than an MSD but far better than still using any form of Opti. The distributor becomes just a timing source and should last forever-ish.

Bailey LTCC setup

Here's a picture of it installed:

[steveo]

im just not a big fan of that solution, because personally most opti failures i've had have been the optical side

[Racy Roadmaster]

I bought my LT1 Roady wagon about 4 years ago,Before that time I never heard of
an optispark. Once I could find it I ,thought it was just a standard style distribitor,that some engineer
integrated into the LT1 design. The only advantage that I saw was an improvement to timing accuracy compared to the older smal block Chevys. Anyway
most of you know that the optispark is a pretty sophistacated device. Well now I was real pleased with myself for having that ignition set up on my new used
Buick warm rod. Once I started to gain knowledge about it, I wasnt as pleased as I initially was.
I bought my Roady wagon for two reasons,one to carry big stuff around and reason two was to make our 2-4 yearly trips from South Jersey to our place in Northern Maine. Having to drive the 650 miles one way ,part of it thru NY city traffic and all kinds of interstates now the opti became a big reliability worry. Anyway I did what
one of the guys did above and bought a new Bailey one plug one coil system. I also coupled it with a new Delphi opti. Yes I knew it removed all the high power away from the opti and to Bailey's box and the only electricity we had to worry about was the low power thru the optical sensor.The only other thing that I can say is the system has been up and running for about 2.5 years without any problems. Now I know alot of Opti guys are running without Bailey's system for that long also, I guess I trust in
Bailey because it has worked flawlessly,A side note, I changed the plugs about 6
months ago ,they only had about 5000 miles on them,when I pulled the old ones out
they looked so close to the new ones that I had to do a doubletake. Now I know plug color has to do with fuel jetting ,but I was pretty taken back by the old plugs condition. ed

[red96tam6]

M S D. wish i would have bought it years ago.

[wdmickjr]

I am doing the rebuild of a LT1. I considered the MSD. Then thinking why not the MSD Opti KIT (near or at $1k) .. for a few more dollars and the LS1 PCM, 24x is perfect for me. I was stranded in Chipley, FL with opti problem and said this will NEVER happen again.
MSD has a warranty. But you know that's still down time.
I am doing the 24x conversion this time. Only replace coils somewhere near 100k miles.
But if I was going to get an Opti, it would be the MSD. Not the Accel. But that's just my opinion and my opinion only.