mrmint69

Do you know exactly where the leak is. Usually the water pump leaks and soaks the opti. Fix your leaking problem if you can or at least prevent it from spraying your motor.

LT1Jeepin

It's NOT the water pump. I know this. The motor is in a Jeep. I use this Jeep to rock crawl. The thing has twisted so much that it has separated the tubes from the tanks on the upper part of the radiator. It's not "pouring" antifreeze but its leaking enough to get thrown back as the air flows through it. I don't know if the distributor cap would have broken down by now, seeing as it's only about a month old with only about 150 miles on it. I could be completely wrong but thats how I feel about it. I think it's more along the lines of its spraying back and getting into one of the connections moreso than the cap itself. Regardless, the first thing to get fixed is the radiator, then I'll worry more with the code. Like you guys said, fix the leak.

Injuneer

Right under the surface of the Opti cap is a system of thin conductors that route the cap buttons to the wire towers on the sides of the cap. These conductors are carrying the same 20,000+ volts that the plug wires carry. The top of the cap is filled with a high dielectric strength plastic the insulates the conductors from each other. That plastic can lose it's dielectric properties. Whether that can happen in a month is unclear but you have to be aware that Bruce is addressing a real problem.

Yes, check the ends of the plug wires and coil wire for coolant. Check the harness connector for coolant, corrosion or pin damage. Find the leak and stop it from soaking the front of the engine.

LT1Jeepin

Oh yeah, I'm well aware of the "Opti suffers death by moisture". That was my one big fear of this motor. It was fine until I did the tune up. Thats the whole thing that really bothers me. I understand that the rotor was broken. That was a real problem. Now that I've put it back together with new parts it starts this crap. That is the crazy part. But it is what it is. I have to pull the radiator and deal with that first. There is no use to drive it any if it's going to leak on everything.

bw_hunter

It isn't really death by moisture.....lots of LT1's have gone 50k plus miles on one. It 's hard to imagine that the opti doesn't get wet in that many miles.

No, the problem is often associated with antifreeze somehow saturating the plastic itself....

mrmint69

The brand of opti is the most important part of how long or well it works. Water is not really the problem, as much as how much coolant affects the opti. I think the radiators where you said your is coming apart is pretty common on these (Camaro) LT's. Not sure if you have different radiator for your setup.

LT1Jeepin

I'm just saying I know how it works. The cap is the exact same kind that it had on it when I bought it. I've had it in my Jeep since about 05 and I never even cracked the cap on it to see if anything was broken. Just took the guys word for it and bolted it in. Thats been the better part of a minimum of 75k miles ago. Not to mention what the car had on it before I got it. That goes to show the durability of them I know. I know that its bound to be getting wet. Lets face it, we've beat a dead horse explaining how coolant + opti = bad news. Everyone on here that has an LT1 knows that. I knew it before I even posted on here. But I'm saying in all honesty is that it's just very frustrating to put brand new parts on a motor only to have it do this. Thats all.

The radiator is from a company called Advance Adapters that make conversion parts to make swaps go together smoothly. It's an all aluminum two core crossflow radiator. The Jeep is so flexy on the rocks that it has pulled the tubes out of the tanks. So on that note the radiator is getting pulled and I'll post up when I get it back from the shop or I get a new one. So thanks for all the help you guys.

timnfxr

Although I'm the 3rd owner, I have every piece of paperwork since the original purchase. The 1st 2 owners were related and were methodical about keeping it serviced, mostly by the Chevy dealership. According to the papaerwork, the opti was never replaced. It still has the original Delco opti (220k+). So I guess they can last, or maybe I have a fluke? I hope I'm not jinksing myself.