Hi! New guy from Kentucky here.

I have been looking at buying a friend's '94 Camaro Z28, but it has one small problem that worries me. When you stomp the gas it hesitates for a second, backfires through the intake, then takes off like a rocket.
The backfire isn't persistent, which is what confuses me. It idles fine, and runs great after it takes off. I'm assuming that it is a timing issue, because it wouldn't backfire through the intake unless an intake valve was open and premature detonation was occurring in one of the cylinders, right? Just an assumption, though.

- The car only has 96,000 miles, but is it possible that the timing chain has developed enough slack to advance timing for a few seconds when you stomp the gas, and then return to normal when it takes off?
- Is there anything on these engines that electronically advances and retards timing?
- Any other ideas?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

you may have a lean condition, mass air flow meters are very common on those if you change it replace the pigtail at the same time, get a scanner or monitor the o2 sensor with a dos or fluke meter and look for a lean condition, hope this helps

 

I didn't even think of it running lean. That makes sense. Thanks!