I have an 89 trans am with the l98 and 5spd. I bought this vehicle with the l98 and 5speed in it. Originally it is a 5.0l car. I do not know if the computer was changed as well or anything else for that matter. Exhaust has a glasspack in place of cat, and flowmaster 40 series as muffler. These are a couple small details to give you an idea of what is going on. I bought the car as is making no changes to the vehicle except a new timing set, thermostat, battery, and changed the oil.

Problem: Most of the time i have to hope the battery has enough voltage to start, my thought is i am losing power somewhere. I have unplugged the headlights as the motors do not work and unplugged them as a just in case. Still struggles on maintaining voltage while sitting.

Problem: When i start the vehicle and let it find idle after a couple minutes (unknown problem as well), whenever i hit the gas it has a horrible hesitation to throttle response. While driving there doesn't seem to be "Trans Am" power, and it kind of cuts out in upper rpms.

Problem: While driving the vehicle, it maintains oil pressure at 30psi for a while then as it continues to warm up it slowly struggles to stay above 20psi. Only will it get back up to 30psi when i downshift and get the rpms back up. After a while it will drop to 15psi or so and that is when i decide to bring it home and shut it off.

Problem: While idling i get out of the car and can hear a click click click click noise that matches the rate of a single rpm of either the valve train assembly or the lower assembly. This noise is also prevalent with all rpms while driving.

So i guess my main problems of concern are.
1: lack of power
2: hesitation of throttle response
3: struggle to maintain oil pressure
4: thought of exhaust setup causing any of these problems
5: tick sound in rotating assembly
6: rough idle during warm up
7: struggle to maintain proper battery voltage

any and all help would be greatly appreciated. thank you

 

Lack of power/hesitation/rough idle:
- if the PO did not change to a 350 prom chip in the ECM (still has 305 prom)
- if PO didn't change to a 350 knock sensor (could also cause issue 3 spark knock)
- O2 sensor still in car?
- getting any codes from computer?

Battery Issue:
- take car to advance/autozone, have battery and alternator tested for free
- fully charge battery, remove all fuses, test for amperage draw, thyen replace fuses one by one, testing for amperage draw with each replacement - might track down at least what circuit is using juice when key off

Tick sound:
- could be a valve needs adjusted (rocker arm)
- could be an exhaust leak

 

i will check what you said. does anybody else also have some ideas to the problems i am faced with?

 

i know people know more, come on guys and gals i really need help with this

 

well i found out what the voltage draw was. The passenger side fog light was removed, but the connector was cut of right after the connection thus resulting in frayed wires a connecting to a ground. Battery now starts fine and holds its charge.

I still need help on the other issues please.

 

hopeful bump

 

any codes, have you checked the prom in the ecm

 

No i havent checked the codes yet. I have started another post in the ecm threads and im checking with what they are saying there. I did just realize yesterday when i failed my inspection because of the exhaust that since my car doesnt have a cat on it anymore, but still has the AIR system. I wonder if this would cause any problems?

 

still have problems bump