A friend of mine has an 87 IROC 350 TPI with no "cat" and no belt running to the "air pump" so basically he isn't emissions legal at all. After about an hour of driving his SES light comes on and stays on till the car is shut off. The car doesn't act any differently but he is curious as to way it would do that. I thought it was related to the fact that he isn't running any emissions on his engine.

Any insight that you people could offer us would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance...

 

why don't you scan it and see what code you have then it'd be a lot easier to take a guess at what your problem might be.

 

First, you'll need to acquire a GM OBD I ECM Diagnostic Trouble Code Retrieval Tool (commonly known as a paper clip to TGO members).

With the engine and ignition turned off, locate the ALDL connector under the dash, just to the right of the steering wheel in the driver's foot well area. There should be a small rectangular cover over the access hole in the lower dash trim.



Insert a tool as described above (paper clip) into the 'A' and 'B' terminals on the ALDL connector:



WITHOUT STARTING the engine, turn the ignition to the "RUN" position. Watch the Malfunction Indicator Lamp (MIL) - it will begin to flash. This is also commonly called the "Service Engine Soon" or "SES" lamp. The first code will flash three times, and will usually be a code '12'. This is encoded by one flash of the lamp, a brief pause, then two successive flashes of the lamp. Each code will repeat three times, so you should see a "Code 12" flash three times. Any other error codes will follow in numerical order, and each code should flash three times. After all codes have been displayed three times, the "Code 12" will again flash three times, then all other codes will follow as described earlier. This cycle will continue until the jumper is removed or the ignition is turned off.

After you have made a note of all error codes, turn off the ignition and remove the jumper immediately. If you forget to remove the jumper and attempt to start the engine with it in place, you could damage the ECM. For this reason you should remove it immediately.

Once you have a note of all error codes, check this file for the decoding:

GM Error Codes.pdf.

(You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view/print the file.)

Personally, I'm guessing you'll get a '32' or '44'.