SicilianStud

Heyy guys, I've got a '92 RS 3.1L V6 and up until now it's ran great. I just changed my starter and installed a new battery. Immediately after that the car began running like it had a timing problem. I changed the distributor cap and rotor, bought new spark plug wires, and cleaned and regapped my plugs (since they only have 2,000 miles on them). Then I retimed the car (using a timing gun) to the specified degrees nd even to other degrees to see what happened.Now when i start it, it idles fine but if i try to rev it or even drive around the block the engine will not go above 2000 RPMs and sounds like it is loosing power. I can barely make it up the hill on my driveway because of the lack of power. I also thought maybe i had water in my gas tank so i added 93 octane fuel to the tank so the tank is now bout 70% new gas and the problem did npt change at all.Does anyone have any ideas as to what could be causing this??

ScottieB

try chaning the fuel filter. is this carb or FI? when is the last time the carb was cleaned/rebuilt? when is the last time you have ran injector cleaner?

SicilianStud

It's fuel injected....I've had the car just over a year and I haven't ran injector cleaner in it. I'll try that and changing the fuel filter. Thanks!

SicilianStud

I found out the problem by checking my codes on my ECM...It's my Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP) Sensor

SicilianStud

Nevermind that wasn't the problem. Plus I changed my fuel filter and now it's worse the car won't even start! Any ideas?

HPE

Where you experiencing any backfiring or was the car 'bucking' at all?

ScottieB

did you tighten the filter back on properly? are the injectors getting gas?

HPE

No Offence partner but that answer is a gimme. The first time he turned the key and pressureized the system he would have fuel all over the ground- I think he'd know that himself.
SS, I will give you a freebee to have checked out since you have not answered my first question. I am guessing you are having problems with either your IM (Ignition module) or your pickup coil (which is not you regular coil) A pick up coil is inside your distributer. Its the windings at the base of the rotor. First take out your ignition module and take it down to an AutoZone- they have a machine that the can plug it into very quickly behind the counter and tell you if it is good or not. If it is not good then ask for an AC Delco unit (they do not sell them but this will get you out of buying one of their crappy Wells unit. Ac Delco IM's are workhorses and worth every penny- most others are notorious for short lifes and problems.

RSFreak

My '91 RS had a similar problem; it turned out to be a clogged cat. Got so bad that the car would only idle but died when the throttle was opened. Second Camaro of mine to do this BTW.

SicilianStud

Someone on the Team Camaro forums said the same thing. I'm going to try this next. Thanks!

pletch

my 89 305 did this same thing, i took it to the shop and they found out it was just a vacum leak. drive a pipe thru the cat and they will never know

ron91rs

Another possibility is your fuel pump.Mine died a VERY slow death over a period of 3 weeks, same symptoms...Use a fuel pressure guage at the shrader valve to varify 41-43 psi.

Another thought..when you originally replaced your batterty if it was disconnected long enough (20-30 min) your computer may have to re-learn its peramiters(spelling??) therefore drive like crap till it does.

When you checked-set your timing, did you disconnect the tan wire first??

SicilianStud

How do I reteach my computer it's perameters?No I didn't disconnect the wires I spun the distributor with the wires connected while it was running. Was this bad?

ron91rs

Im by no means an expert but the ecm(computer) relearns by you driving the car for 20 or so minutes at as close to 40mph as possible.No rapid starts and stops..try to keep it steady and smooth.It then starts re-averaging data from all sensors.

As far as setting the timing goes, you start the car, disconnect the tan wire with black stripe ( located on passenger side of engine bay on top of inner fender and kind of under the silver ac component(dont recall its name).Its a single tan wire with black stripe and a black wire connector for easy disconnection.
This MUST be disconnected before you can accurately adjust your timing.
Then use lite to set to 10btdc.

JohnSjr

anytime the distributor is moved ( judging by your upper quoted post ) it must be locked down enough to hold the timing you placed it at.
sounds like the timing is severely retarded. ( that happened on my project car that im currently working on ) all i did was loosen the dist .. turn slightly .. tighten and try.. ( i was stuck on a back road with no timing light guys )
for a few tries it was trial and error.. then i hit the sweetspot and she fired up enough for me to make it back home.
hope this helps some cause it sounds like you just lost timing via a loose dist.