Hi, I bought an 88 Camaro with a V6, A/T from a friend at work that had left it sitting in his yard while both of his sons were in the USMC. The car sat for approx. 4-5 years. He said he did start the car every couple of weeks for the first year or so but when both of his sons deployed to Iraq, he had a lot on his mind and forgot about it.

I bought the car for my daughter. So far I have replaced the fuel tank, fuel pumpand sender unit, fuel filter, spark plugs, wires cap and rotor, timing chain, battery, engine oil and filter (twice so far) and coolant.

I have finally been able to drive the car, mostly around the block but after getting all the legal stuff done I have driven it on a couple of longer rides.

When the engine is at idle, it idles fairly smoothly, when I just give it more gas and hold it steady the engine seems to bog down, sometimes will back fire what sounds like through the intake but will slowly start to build up rpm until it reaches the rpm it should be running at the postion I am holding the accelerator. All this takes several seconds or so but happens at most of the mid-range rpms. Pretty much the same thing when driving the car. From a stand still, if I try to slowly roll on the gas, it will hesitate, back fire through the intake. If I pretty much floor the throttle from a stop or while the engine hesitates, it will take off without the hesitation and popping. When I am driving at a constant speed, the engine seems smooth but seems to be burning a lot of gas. While driving the Check Engine comes on and stays on but not until the engine has come up to temp or so. When I drove it to work(2:30p.m and 100+ degrees), a 25 mile on way trip, the light came on after the engine warmed up and stayed on but when I left work(11:30 p.m. 80 something degrees) the light was off until the engine warmed up and atayed on until I got home.

I have cleaned the maf sensor, no change. Checked for codes using an OBD-1 computer and it says it has no codes stored!? I have checked all the vaccuum lines I can see and all seem to be ok, I have a new maf sensor, installed it, engine acts the same. Any ideas? My daughter is going to be getting her license SOON and there are still are a few electrical issues, the a/c, and some interior things I need to do before I can let her at it. Thanks in advance.

 

you have 2 spark plugs wrong... or at least you have all the symptoms for that... check them out

 

I checked the wires and they are routed correctly.

After trying to set the timing to the chilton's manual 10 degrees BTDC, that causes the engine to stumble and back fire through the intake. I adjusted the distributor until the engine sounded better and went for a ride around the block and power is greatly improved and there is no backfiring. I used a timing light to check the setting but the mark is way off the scale. The timing chain and gears were recently replaced so I may have to pull it apart again to make sure that the gears are not off a tooth. Or I could just set the distributor to were I get the best performance and leave it be. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

no problem,,, good luck with it

 

there is a wire that need to be unhooked when timing the computer controled ignition system. did the manual say that? if you dont unhook that wire the computer advances the timing and you get a adjusted/wrong reading with the light.

 

^ Good thought craby, but that was already covered three days ago: https://camaroforums.com/forum/82-92-v6-tech-44/where-aldl-diag-connector-52721/
Don't you just hate when the same question is spread around in different places?
Doh, what gave you that "unplugging the wire" inspiration anyway?