Oh no! Not another opti?

yup
I was trying to track down a slight lack of power other than the fact it is a L99. It just seemed to be held back by something. So I found the inlet hose not attached to the cap on the opti. This is not good. It means anything passing by the hole. Dirt, oil, moisture, will be sucked in by the vacuum. I found evidence of all three. So break out the wrenches and try to beat my own record of 2.5 hours. Not even close. It was hot, and I dragged ass to the tune of 3.5 hours. Figured it would be a great time to take pics of how things should be during assembly. I purchased a new opti, fel-pro front cover gasket kit, and went to town.
The opti in the car seems to have been replaced with a basic ebay unit.


I could see the seals on the front cover had been replaced when the opti was done, but there was a lot of oil everywhere. So I replaced them with the ones from the front cover kit.
When installing the water pump output shaft seal, it is critical to understand that there is two seals within one. The black one needs to face the motor, and seal in that direction too. The yellow seal should face and seal away from the motor. To do this you need a tool, or make your own tool out of a magic marker like I did.





When putting the water pump in, it is important to seal the threads with teflon tape. I wound once up the threads and once back. Then I push the 4 long bolts all the way through the water pump, and install the w/p gaskets. Now put some teflon past on the ends of the bolts and install the water pump loosely. Now install the two small bolts and tighten down the water pum. But watch the gasket to make sure it does not move, as the holes are too small for the hols in the gasket, and can sin and break the gasket. I have had this happen before. Now tighten down to torque spec.




And back together


But that is not the end of the story. I had found 6 of 8 wires touching metal as not were secured up, and two boots cracked wide open, and two plugs loose. So I installed new wires a few days ago. The wires and the new opti helped, but did not cure the lack of power. So after a beat run, I replaced the fuel filter. Still felt like something was missing. I could tell it was no running good when I could grab the throttle linkage on the throttle body and rev it up only to have it bog down, then the rpms would go up, yet slowly drop back down. Finally, I replaced the ignition control module with a known good one. This time, I found a crisp snap of the throttle and she not only responded, but came down as quick as they went up. So I took it out for a beat run. Holy crap! I forgot what a L99 should feel like when it is running great. It pulls hard in the mids now. Still not much at the bottom, but still decent power.

Easy now champ, its still an l99. After reading, this is the Shit that scares me to bring my work to anyone. Well, that guy is definitely off my list. (he's also the gentleman that took a year to get my trunk lid back to me and has had my buddies 9c1 for 18 months). I'm glad you are taking the time and effort that car needs. Good show!

MASShole9C1 wrote:

Easy now champ, its still an l99. After reading, this is the Shit that scares me to bring my work to anyone. Well, that guy is definitely off my list. (he's also the gentleman that took a year to get my trunk lid back to me and has had my buddies 9c1 for 18 months). I'm glad you are taking the time and effort that car needs. Good show!

I hear ya. the guy I bought my 1A2 from a few years back mentioned he just had his mechanic do a tune up on it. The car ran like crap when I got it and had a miss. The wires were rubbing everything possible and the plugs on the passenger side were not only old, but one was screwed in half way causing the miss

More reason why I prefer to do my own work.

95brmw wrote:

MASShole9C1 wrote:

Easy now champ, its still an l99. After reading, this is the Shit that scares me to bring my work to anyone. Well, that guy is definitely off my list. (he's also the gentleman that took a year to get my trunk lid back to me and has had my buddies 9c1 for 18 months). I'm glad you are taking the time and effort that car needs. Good show!

I hear ya. the guy I bought my 1A2 from a few years back mentioned he just had his mechanic do a tune up on it. The car ran like crap when I got it and had a miss. The wires were rubbing everything possible and the plugs on the passenger side were not only old, but one was screwed in half way causing the miss

More reason why I prefer to do my own work.

I have always been the same way. I prefer to do the work myself. But if I have to sub it out, I send our cars down to Dover Chevrolet. They are close, competitively priced, know the cars, and only do what I ask. Of course they make suggestions on other things that need attention. But if they did not do that, they would not be doing their job. Up sells are very important to a service department.

I also forgot to mention that the opti was installed wrong. The spacer ring under the reluctor wheel was sandwiched between the reluctor wheel and the rotor instead of between the body and reluctor wheel. It put the wheel in contact with the optical sensor. Someone not familiar with optis might make this mistake, but the loose plugs and dangling wires are no excuse. I do not ever run the wires the factory way, but at least I secure them the best I can, so they do not rub on anything. I run number seven wire down between the o2/knock sensor wire harness, and back up to the other wires instead of the troff behind the manifold, as I have found more wires with cuts and burn marks at the point where the wire comes out of the troff as the wire drops at that point.

See that just goes to show all you ppl who buy cars from CL or such, just because parts are changed doesnt mean they are done right, and just because they are installed right doesn't mean they can't fail. One time I had a box caprice that the wires touched the headers 3 times and kept burning up! I now always make sure they are secured out of the way when I do them on my cars. your kicking ass Bill! Kept up the good work!

You forgot to mention they used that high performance brown anti-freeze

sdstick wrote:

You forgot to mention they used that high performance brown anti-freeze

You didn't know that was good for an extra 10 hp in the L99 and 8hp in the TBI's?

Way to go, Billy! I told you to try the spare ICM!

Wanna come install the opti on the marshmallow? Lol. I may tear into that motor on the stand tonight.