Question Replaced optispark now wont start

[90rs]

So I pulled my old fried opti the other day and got the new one on, and i cant get the car to crank now, all the wires are hooked up correctly and my msd ignition coil is connected and grounded to the heads. Maf is also connected. I did put on the water pump, connect the air pump or the fans. The car will turn over fine but it never catches it just keeps spinning. Ive tried to clear the codes by pulling fuses, and I know the car is getting fuel and spark.

Any thoughts of what I am missing?

Note: Only mods are a small cam, 10mm plug wires, and MSD ignotion coil. All of which were installed prior when the car ran fine.

[steveo]

it's freaky common for optis to be dead out of the box. happened to me 3 times, and couple of them were GM ones. dont discount the possibility that it's just DOA

that's why you should always just fire the damn thing up for a few secs after install, before you reinstall the cooling system and fill 'er up. just a brief check running it air cooled would never hurt anything.

other than the connector not seating properly or the plug wires being on totally wrong.. or the coil wire not being pushed in far enough on the opti.. if you did it all right, what else could the problem be?

[90rs]

ive been trying to run it that way, Ill double check all the connections. Any other thoughts on what could be stopping it? I cant pull codes

[icepick]

do you have spark at the coil and the plugs? or just the coil? if you have spark at the plugs then its somthing else, knock sensor, crank and cam sensor

[cocobolo95]

You don't mention weather your using the type 1 spline drive or type 2 pin drive opti, but either one I've seen people mount them with the drive in the wrong position. It's hard to do, but not impossible.

Did you check out the opti wire harness that runs between opti and passenger side of intake. It goes bad fairly often.

Also you need to hook your car to a code scanner. If 93-95 obd1 computer system, dtc 16- opti low resolution signal missing, dtc 41 & 42 icm related codes, all do not light the ses and all will disable your fuel injectors and ignition system when set.

If computer is from 96 or 97 obd2 car, those codes do light the ses and still disable fuel injectors and ignition.

[Jc803]

Like Cocobolo95 said, we need to know what year it is. If its a 96-97 its pin driven. If you didnt put the pin coming from the cam in the correct hole then it wont run.

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[90rs]

its a 95, obd1 with the 16 pin. I put the new opti in clocker to the same position as the one I pulled. It is pin driven and theres only three slots in the back of the opti for the cam pin to go could it be that that is playing a role? And I'm going to check spark at the plugs in the morning just bought a spark tester. And I will double check the harness at the opti

[Jc803]

My bad, I forgot 95's are also pin driven. Check the spark and get back to us. But if its in the wrong position it will still spark, just the timing will be off.

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[XtremeOracing]

I've seen people put 96+ optisparks on wrong even with the new design. You probably have it on wrong...

[90rs]

ill check for spark in a bit, how will i know if the timing is off/opti needs to be rotated?

[cocobolo95]

shbox.com has a pic of the type 2 opti drive mechanism and where the cam dowel pin fits in. It's #52 in the component views section.

If you have a timing light, you can paint mark on crank pulley for tdc on cylinder #1 and matching mark on something else. The mark on crank pulley will indicate tdc cyl #1 and the match mark will give you a reference point as lt1 engine didn't come with timing marks. Put timing light on $ 1 cylinder and see if marks match up with timing marks when engine is cranked. This is if you have spark, which timing light flashing would help confirm. If timing light doesn't flash, you don't have spark on #1 at least, and probably all cylinders.

If that's good, you might want to go to the sticky threads at the top of this section and watch the diagnosing the opti video contained within. Then run the tests.

Don't forget to check the opti wire harness. Check the wires, the connector pins and the connectors themselves. Look for burnt wires, pins, corrosion, etc. Take an ohm meter and see what the resistance is on each wire in the harness. As wires get old with corrosion building up, loose fitting, bent, or burnt pins, the resistance goes up causing problems in the system. Compare resistance in opti wires with a brand new wire of the same gauge. Remember to disconnect both ends of opti harness before doing ohms check.

[DUDBIRD113]

Cant get it to crank at all? Or when the motor turns it wont start. I installed my spline driving opti backwards before. Sounded like the timing was way off and would pop when it tried to start.

[USMC]

When you installed your opti did you just have to push it on or tap it on? Its likely clocked wrong.

[wdmickjr]

Originally Posted by USMC

When you installed your opti did you just have to push it on or tap it on? Its likely clocked wrong.

the opti when installed correctly will go on all the way before using the fasteners to pull on to the block. if you had to use the fasteners to pull opti mounting tabs up to the block, the opti is ruined, or will have premature failure. or it may even start but after a little rpm it wont be able to read cause the optic wheel may be bent. and/or too much bind on the pin drive bearing. sorry if this happened, but you are not the only one. I did it once too and then got a brand new ..DOA.
Good design but in the wrong place.

[90rs]

the opti didnt just slide on but i didnt use fstners to put it on either, im not getting any spark at #1 cylinder and i have plenty of power. The car turns over fine it just doesnt fire. So I'm going to call up summit racing and tell them i need a new part, i believe its defective.