Ok so I’m a huge fan of the Camaro and I’m also a huge do it yourselfer. My nephews 98 v6 3.8 automatic Camaro broke down today and im trying to help him find out what’s wrong I also have a Camaro and im the one who urged him to get the car in the first place because of their reliability and now I feel I need to help him out. He Called me last night telling me it stalled out while backing out of a drive way and that it wouldn’t start up until the cranked it about 5 times which has never happened before. Today he calls me and told me its stalled out while driving and did the same thing but this time when he got it started again he said there was a ticking sound from the engine. I asked him to be very specific about the sound and he said it wasn’t a loud banging but a mild ticking. He pulled it into a gas station, checked the fluids and found nothing discolored or low. All the gauges were normal and he says it wasn’t overheated. What could this be? Could the transmission cause the engine to stall out like this?I had noticed a slight rattle in the transmission when accelerating but didn’t think anything of it before. Could this have been a sign of a problem? If you have any ideas PLEASE reply! Thanks!

 

The transmission won't cause it to stall because of the torque converter being engaged all of the time. As far as the ticking goes and making it stall, it could be a great number of things... Rods, valves, lifters... I'm not exactly sure so maybe somebody who has had this problem can enlighten you. Only time my car ever stalled out was when the MAF went bad and the car simply would not run unless I gave it some gas.

Ask more about what happened WHEN it stalled... It could have killed a plug or something by stalling like that. And ask if he hot rods the care a lot...

 

My nephew swears he hasn’t hot rodded it and we're pretty close so I don’t think he's lying. I asked him again about the ticking and he mentioned that when he accelerates it ticks faster.

 

Well its not a rod, that would be a loud thunk, and kal, stalling wont kill a plug dude, what are you talking about? The ticking is probably just a lifter, 3800s get that quite often. The stalling could be a number of things, is the check engine light on?

 

The check engine lightwas not on and all gauges had normal readings.

 

Does it start kinda hard only when its been running for a while? Id check the fuel pressure regulator. You can have a mechanic do it or there is a tool you hook up to the schrader valve, and with the vehicle running it will show you real time fuel pressure. Its just a huge dial gauge, just like a compression tester but for fuel pressure. Shut the car off with it still attached, the fuel pressure shouldnt drop much, if it does, you know where the problem is.

 

i had that same problem and it was a MAF for me. i have a 97 camaro3.8L. it would stall out at a light and start up again after like 5 attempts. only once did it start with the clunking sound. try a new MAF?

 

I forgot to mention that when we bought the car the guy who sold it to us told us he had replaced the oil pump and I had noticed that while driving the oil pressure gauge moves around a bit.It doesn’t movea whole lot or into the red but it does move a bit.My dad says this is a symptom of something but he couldn’t remember what. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

Your oil pressure should fluctuate... Around 30 at idle. At idle speeds it should be around 40. And be closer to 60 when you give it some gas.

 

yes, your oil pressure should fluctuate. The oil pump is splined to the crankshaft and speeds up and slows down with the crankshaft. There for the higher the RPMs the faster the pump spins and the higher oil pressure you will have and the opposite for slower. Hook up a fuel pressure gauge to the schrader valve on the fuel rail and see if the fuel pressure is in spec (I believe its 41-47 psi but not 100% sure) if everything is ok take the vaccum line off the fuel pressure regualtor and plugthe linewith your finger and see if the fuel pressure raises. Also check the condition of the vaccum line on the regulator.