Optispark vacuum leak

I randomly happened to notice today that there's no vacuum on the line from the opti to the fresh air intake elbow. Quick diagnosis indicates that the distributor itself is leaking somewhere. That's something I hadn't even thought of testing before I installed it.

I'd rather not rip the whole thing apart again. I'm wondering if I pulled off the balancer if there's enough room to get around the cap with RTV and seal up the gaskets from the outside.

lamune wrote:

I randomly happened to notice today that there's no vacuum on the line from the opti to the fresh air intake elbow. Quick diagnosis indicates that the distributor itself is leaking somewhere. That's something I hadn't even thought of testing before I installed it.

I'd rather not rip the whole thing apart again. I'm wondering if I pulled off the balancer if there's enough room to get around the cap with RTV and seal up the gaskets from the outside.

I think if you were to stop "randomly noticing things",. things might be easier for you,..?

Is the car running rough?

Easy test. Pull the other end of the vent hose off the intake, cover the fresh air side of the harness with your finger and suck on the hoe you pulled off the intake. You should feel it build a vacuum pretty quickly, if not then the seals are leaking.

The car is running fine, and I'd like it to stay that way!

I did slightly pressurize the distributor and I can hear air escaping, but I'm not sure where exactly yet.

I've got $10 that says it's either the old vacuum lines are cracked or the seal between the cap and the body is leaking.

I replaced the hoses along with the whole distributor, so it seems more likely to be the cap seals. Hence my asking if anyone has managed to fix that problem without taking the water pump, etc off.

When I did mine, I followed the advice of several who suggested a film of RTV in the gasket space before installation. Trapped by mechanical pressure, it can't go anywhere when it sets.

Your thought of putting a bead around the outside might work, if you can apply some vacuum before the RTV sets to draw it into the leak. It might be worth a try -- worst case scenario, you have to take the opti off again, which is what you are facing now anyway.

It seems to be leaking from the top, under the water pump where I can't really investigate, so looks like the next time I'm in there the water pump needs to come off. I'll update the thread when I find it, but I'll probably dig into it in a couple of weeks. The amount of coolant I've had to recycle out of this car so far is astounding, makes me want to figure out how to rig up some way to drain it out without contaminating it so I can put it back in when done.

lamune wrote:

The amount of coolant I've had to recycle out of this car so far is astounding, makes me want to figure out how to rig up some way to drain it out without contaminating it so I can put it back in when done.

Coffee filter.

Use a big funnel, a strainer (or even the basket out of an old coffee maker) and a new coffee filter. Set the funnel on top of an empty jug, put the strainer in the filter funnel, line the strainer with a coffee filter. Pour the recovered AF through, taking care not to overflow the filter.

^^^^^THIS^^^^^
I have also used old nylon stockings stretched over the funnel as a filter.

Even paper towels like the coffee filter works. But that is really slow.

Just take your time when pouring as it loves to spill.