Hi Ya'll

Well here is my story... ready? Growing up i have always loved camaros, so a couple of months ago i bought a 94 (5 speed) with a 3.4 motor and around 128k miles on it, I love this car the exterior is mint and its pretty quick with the upgrades the previous owner did to it. ok since i bought it i have replaced rotors, brakes, plugs, wires, O2 sensors, cleaned the cold air intake etc... you know basic stuff, well yesterday i got a tank a gas and the moment i left the joint, the car stumbled while acceling out of 1st and then 2nd and so on. it just seems to be lacking power. the best way i can describe it sounding is...... well like some stuff banannas in my tail pipes... just really bogging down. the dual exhaust sound like Sh#t right now (sorry) and its backfiring. I have never had a problem with bad gas. Could this be it? So yesteday I bought a new fuel filter and installed that along with running some sea foam through the power booster. Still..... No change. maybe a vacuum leak? I dont know, My chiltons manual lists quite a few things that could be wrong. i dont have the money to be trying out 8 possibilities. so in closing i dont have the right equipment to test for vacuum leaks, any idea how much i should be expecting from a shop to look and test for leaks? or do ya'll have any other ideas what might be going wrong? it is having terrible fuel econmy to since the "alledged" bad gasoline. fellas any help would be greatly appreciated...


Thx

Nsbjim

 

im thinking it could be your fuel pump, the same thing happen to my saturn and i had to replace that, you're injectors could be plugged up try some fuel injection cleaner thats probably not whats wrong, but injectione cleaner is ike 3bucks and kit cant be worse on you're car. but id say you're fuel pump, meybe z28pete wil chime in hes awesome

 

check your timing and vacuum advance on the distributor. its gonna be hard getting back under the firewall to get to it though. that sounds like it could be an issue. possibly a plugged up cat too. if you can, try it once with the exhaust off and see if that does anything.

 

Check your EGR valve, take it off and make sure it's clear of carbon buildup, if it is, you may want to go out and buy a new EGR valve.

 

Hey guys I appreciate the responses, My camaro has a distrubutorless system on which the wires go from the coils to the plugs. And as far I know the EGR is a digital setup.(any way to test that)Is there a way to test the coil to see if they have gone bad?

Microkid--- taking the cat off and running it will that harm the engine at all?


Thx

Nsbjim

 

First: Is the check engine lite lit or going on & off? If it is, you should get the car scanned and fix that problem. Your car is OBD1 so most likely have to pay $30-$50 to get it scanned, but still cheaper than getting parts you don't need. Scan for both active and retained codes.

Popping out of the exhaust is usually caused by misfires and the gas then lighting up in the exhaust system. Misfire could be ignition or fuel related.

Check the fuel pump and pressure regulator before changing the pump. Changing the pump is expensive and a lot of work, so you really don't want to do it unless absolutely necessary. Checking the pump and regulator requires a FI pressure gage, Most parts stores sell them for about $25. Check the sticky in the LT1 section for the procedure

Being that the problem started right after you filled up, it could really be due to bad gas. Bad gas usually means there is water mixed in it. This usually happens if the gas station did notstick the tanksfor water and let it get high enough to getsucked up by the pumps. This also happens if you gas up while the delivery truck is dumping gas into the tanks and stirring everything up.
Anyway,an easyway to get rid of water from your gas tank is to add alcohol to the gas and soak the water up. A gallon of straight alcoholshould do the trick, or fill up with E85, or put in 5 to 10 cans of dry gas. Alcohol, ethanol and methanol, attack old style gas plumbing if used for an extended length of time, so put the stuff in anduse it up as fast as you can,and refill with clean fuel and replace the fuel filter.

 

Hey Ya'll

Thanks for all your input.... no get ready for this... the tank of gas that was, what i thought might of been bad, might of actually been good, when I refilled this morning it was still running like crap, Now for the fun part, upon closer inspection i noitced right by the EGR one of the plug wires was rested right near the hot part below the EGR, forgive me i'm drawing a blank on the name of the metal tubing running from the EGR..


anyways i fliped the plug wire around right at the plug it self and noticed burns and cracks in the wire itself. pulled it off and about 2 inches or so of the wire was cooked on the backside!!!

So went to parts store bought some new wires and some heat protected sleeves for the wires and she purrs again!!!!

just goes to show you even know you look for the obvious it doesnt hurt to look again


Pete,Micro 95slvr, and Kyle thanks for all your input, I learned quite bit and glad there is website were amatuer mechanics like me can seek some much appreciated tutledge.

Nsbjim

Go Gators!!

 

Not a problem, I told you to check your EGR