boostdprobe91

Hello everyone, My names Matt and I'm a newb to the Camaro scene, I recently got my first Camaro today. It's a red 88 2.8l multiport fuel injected engine with auto transmission and t-tops. Its got 98,xxx miles on the car. Runs okay, not the greatest. It does have a pretty bad miss fire under a load. Havn't gotten the chance to look at it yet. My guess is it's probably a bad fuel filter. But, I'm going to buy new spark plugs, wires, and fuel filter and hope it makes a difference.

My main question is do these cars have coil packs like the 2.8 cavalier? Cause if they do it might be a coil pack causing it to miiss fire. I'm very unsure. Also its kinda hard to start. any sugestions on getting it to start faster would be helpfull.

Thanks.

Six_Shooter

iTrader: (2)

No, the 2.8L in the F-body does not use coil packs.

boostdprobe91

What do they have then?

58mark

iTrader: (3)

traditional Distributor, cap, rotor, and coil

boostdprobe91

Nice, so it's pretty much old school! Ok so it shouldn't be hard to figure out why its missfireing should it?

K-slice

iTrader: (2)

By far the best laugh I've had all day!

SKELITOR117

iTrader: (3)

n00b. But hay man, welcome to TGO. CAMAROS RULE! These cars do have the traditional Distributor, cap, rotor, and coil. Just like mark said. Changing the fuel filter probably wont fix the misfiring, but on a car with 90k on the clock its still good matenance. Once you stop the misfiring give it a treatment of sea foam (I can give you a link to a thread that tells you how to use it). Good luck man.

boostdprobe91

OSS

Welcome to TGO! Post some pics of your ride!

-OSS

boostdprobe91

I'll get some pics up soon. I'm just trying to get it to run right. The loose battery cable didn't help it

boostdprobe91

Does any one know what i should start with to get my car running riight

OSS

First of all, what is your level of mechanical ability? Is there a way you can perform a fuel pressure test? spark test on all cylinders? How old is the fuel in the car? Plugs? What's the battery voltage?

-OSS

SKELITOR117

iTrader: (3)

Is the timing alright?

boostdprobe91

I can do just about anything. It does act like its starving for fuel. Thats why i thought it was te fuel filter.

boostdprobe91

as far as the timing idk. It drove fine until i was 15 minutes away from home.

OSS

Wouldn't be hard to change that out..any chance the fuel pump sounds like its starting to get weak?

-OSS

boostdprobe91

Also as far as plugs I dont know how old they are. and I cant tell if the fuel pumps getting weak or not? Is it a car that I would have to drop the gas tank out of to change the fuel pump?

Ray the Rat

iTrader: (1)

First things first. If you don't know how old the plugs/wires/cap/rotor are, replace 'em.

When I bought my 88 2.8/T-5 "economy car" it was running on 5 cylinders. The attached photo otta explain why. I also experienced the car just dying on me when it got warmed up, so I replaced the coil and distributor module. That cured that problem.

In my experience, many, if not most fuel system problems can be solved by making the ignition system work properly.

After an obscene amount of work, my little "grocery getter" runs pretty nicely, in spite of having 100,000 more miles on it than the seller alleged. It's fun to drive and costs me about half of what my Suburban (race car hauler/salt flats camper) does.

Now...if I can just get my race car fixed by next September....

camarosrock1989

iTrader: (1)

Welcome BOOST to the best F-body site! Any info you need is here. Take your time and do it right, that's the best advice I can give you. Enjoy

boostdprobe91

Yeah, I got it running right now... Thanks everyone!

Ray the Rat

iTrader: (1)

What did you do to correct the problems? Your solution may help someone else.

boostdprobe91

I did a bunch of maintaince work to it, including air filter, oil change and oil filter, spark plugs and wires and cleaned the distubtor!

Ray the Rat

iTrader: (1)

I'd bet that the plugs & wires and cleaning of the distributor helped a whole lot. It's worked for me many times.

I once got a Monte Carlo from a guy who said that the motor was junk and he just wanted it gone. I paid next to nothing for it and after a compression check and replacing the plugs and wires, it ran perfectly. I sold it for several times what I paid for it.

upsidedowngrl

Matt - Welcome to the Camaro Scene. I too have an 88 2.8. Picked her up for next to nothing and she wasn't running all that great. She had a few issues. I think they've all been worked out (knock on wood). Now she purrs like a kitten.

Changed out her plugs, wires, rotor, map sensor, and replaced some hoses (check all your hoses, some may have small leaks that can make a big difference in how she'll run). Get one of those stethoscopes so you can hear the air hissing out (pick one up at your local auto parts store). She could have some hoses that have small cracks.

Best of luck with her. Happy Holidays!

Ray the Rat

iTrader: (1)

Upsidedowngrl makes a good point. Vacuum hoses on car of that age can crack and leak and cause the thing to run terrible.

There's another way to find vacuum leaks, but ya gotta be real careful. Use rattle-can carb cleaner or starting fluid. Spray a LITTLE bit around vacuum hoses and/or intake manifold and see if the idle speed increases. If it does when ya spray in a certain spot, then start checking for broken/cracked/loose hoses.

I've done this several times in my Camaro and found a ton of cracked lines. I've also been driving it as my "winter" car (it's a lot cheaper to drive than my Suburban) and it seems that the more I drive it, the better it runs...which wouldn't be hard cuz it ran like sh*t when I got it and it's been a slow process to fix all the little issues. I think my next thing (my last one was getting the 6-month old battery replaced...what a pain) will be the IAC valve because I still have an unstable idle. But I can live with it until temperatures get back above freezing. I hate winter.