Goodbye 2 barrel, emissions and computer!

GM definitely overthought their distributor when they went to Optispark, and look at the nightmares caused by that.

Im not familiar with optispark. Whats it's setup like?

The early '90's LT engines had a flat looking distributor with a optical pickup rather that Hall Effect, points, whatever...

These things went bad often. In mysterious ways.
Well, until it became common knowledge that Optispark was a bad implementaion.

My younger brother had a '93 Camaro.  
It was a thorn in my side until he got rid of it.

Ok. Yeah, I have heard of those but never owned anything with one. Didnt know they were called optispark.

You know, I am a designer. I use CAD both 2D and 3D, been in oil/gas, firearms, automation, piping, and material handling. Im listed as an Inventor on a valve patent. I have a pretty good understanding of design and manufacturing. Sometimes ideas sound better on paper or in your head than in reality. Ive seen a lot of "engineers" and people with BIG degrees do some really dumb things, overthink, not look at practicality, or keep the end goal in mind. Sometimes "good enough" is the best way to go. I always ask myself when designing "Am I Keeping It Simple, Stupid?" KISS method works. And yes I call myself stupid daily.

I heard a story once. A toothpaste manufacturer kept getting empty cardboard toothpaste boxes at the end of their line. So, no toothpaste tubes inside their boxes. They tried coming up with all kinds of solutions to identify which boxes didnt have a toothpaste tube inside it, including spending hours and hours of r&d on a weight scale conveyor, software etc etc...

They go to install their fancy Over Engineered system.  What did they find? Well, the guy at the end of the line stacking the boxes got tired of the empty ones. So he took a $10 box fan and set it on a table level with the conveyor belt. The empty boxes blew to the far side of the conveyor and fell into a trash can at the end of the line.

Moral of the story. Not every problem needs an expensive, fancy solution.

And that is why I didn't say the idea was unsound, just the implementation.

I see over engineering in the building trades all the time.

I'll look at a print and  ask myself 'Why spec something so complex, costly and labor intensive, with multiple modes of failure when there is a simple, foolproof solution.'
And often it is to cya on some irrational scenario while there are already a dozen weaker links in the chain.

I hear ya on that too!!

We didnt win 2 world wars by worrying about everything like we do today.

The enemy of progress is the hope for a perfect plan.

Optispark sounds very similar to the led type modules that Mallory were using in some of there distributors. I have one in my 302 powered fox mustang. Its gone bad a few times and had to be replaced. Next time that distributor comes out I'm gonna change it for a simple duraspark one with hei module, same set up as Ive just fitted to my truck. As you say Ray, KISS. I'm a great believer in that.

Jim. the problem with the optispark was it's location, directly behind the water pump where a small seal leak would soak the electronics. Solution was to enlarge the seal drain line to 1/4" tube to get the coolant away from it. GM also changed the vent system to get the unit purged.

I spent a portion of 2017 working on an LT1 engine stuffed into a 1967 Mustang convertible for a friend (the guy who owns the yard your Saginaw came from).

I don't think my brother ever had coolant leaks but maybe rain effected it.
I replaced it three times and I remember it being a pita.

What Pete's doing sounds sacrilegious to me.
But I suppose that he has hundreds of vehicles to dismantle. So why not give the '67 a heart transplant?

Thanks to both of you for my Saginaw conversion!