code 43 is your knock sensor,without it hooked up accleration will be very poor

 

don't mess with your pcv. leave all that stuff alone.

 

It's pretty easy to replace a pcv valve...

 

pcv valve is for heating the carb or whatever, it take warm air and pushes it into the carb for vaccuum or something, anyways the breather you saw just take the heat and lets it go in the engine compartment.

 

if the pcv is for heating a carb, why do tuned port cars have them? PCV= Positive crankcase ventilation, has nothing to do with heating anything. Tpi cars generally don't use open air breathers, the driverside valve cover has the pcv valve in it, on the passenger side there is a 90 degree elbow that goes to a tube that ends up in the side of the throttle body. If you are going to leave the open air breather make sure the port on the throttle body is plugged otherwise you will have a huge vacuum leak.

-Jim

 

hmmmmmmm, then i dont know why my dad plugged mine into the carb. im gonna have to look into that and i didnt say i was right i just knew excess gas came out of it but for what purpose, i dont know

 

Bit of an issue with my car now.

I drove it to school today, about 10 miles (give or take a few), with no issues.

When I went for lunch I went around the corner to Taco Bell and my car died when I came to the parking spot. I started it up, put it into reverse, backed up, and put it into drive and it died. No bog nothing, just shut off. So I let it sit for 30 minutes, it started and I got it into drive without it stalling. On the way home from school it was a decent drive, kinda hesitant but idle was the same as it always is. When I got close to home it started to stall again. I called my mechanic and he said it seems like the MAP or the TPS. If you wiggle my MAP sensor a little the engine shuts off because the connectors are bad. If I accelerate to quickly the engine feels like it's going to shut off. I have to ease on the accelerator to get the car going or it most likely will die.

Also, my antifreeze has disappeared. I put a full jug in about 2 weeks ago. When I opened the engine coolant reserve today it was just about empty. I haven't noticed it dripping on the floor. Could it be that my engine coolant is going into my engine? And if it could be then how do I get it out and to stop it from going in the engine?

 

haha what color is your exhaust if its thick and white then that supposed rebuilt engine wasnt reuilt very good because you head gaskets are prabably leaking or something along those lines, seems like regardless your car has some very bad electrical based issues. and how do you normally drive, do you just floor it off the line because your kinda suppose to ease on the accelerator, i mean unless you feel like 3 mpg is suitable and wearing drivetrain parts out quickly is suitable then go for it

 

I don't have any exhaust smoke coming out the back, no backfire either. And I usually ease on the accelerator but if i'm in a hurry like I was today I tend to press a little quicker. But I NEVER floor it off the line, i've always wanted to though.

And yes my wiring kit is kinda bad. I'm replacing a lot of the connectors for the 91' from the 88' wiring kit when I have a free day.

 

make sure you replace the connectors correctly, its not a electrical tape kinda job. soilder/crimp/shrink wrap those suckers, so they dont come loose

 

Thats what I did with my temp sensor. I crimp the new wires then put some black epoxy so they won't come apart or corrode.

So is my engine issue most likely electrical related? Idle is fine, just when I put it in to drive it's kinda sketchy.

And i'm a little more concerned about the engine coolant. If there is a leak I'll take my time looking for it but if it's leaking in to the engine then i'm not driving that car until I get money to fix it. I don't want to risk ruining this engine.

 

I was researching this issue and a lot of people said it could be the torque converter, fuel pressure regulator, MAP sensor, vacuum lines, or wiring harness. Sound right?

I also just realized something about my coolant. I guess I can understand filling it all the way and then having only a little left after a week, most likely because there was air that needed to be filled around the engine. When we first started the engine there was no coolant ( to get all the crap out that was in there). We put my radiator coolant back in the radiator (green liquid). When I had time I bought some antifreeze for the engine coolant reserve (orange liquid) Is it possible that the liquid that I put in evaporated? And I had a little of the orange coolant left, we replaced a sensor that caused coolant to leak from the engine and we had trouble getting the new part in so we had quite a large puddle of coolant after we got it in, causing the reserve to go down even more. Maybe thats why I don't see any leaking? The coolant I used was 50/50 antifreeze/coolant by Prestone.

Not really sure what else I can trial out.

 

Issue resolved!! It was a bad coil and connector. This sunday is my day off so i'm gonna be replacing all the connectors on the 91' wiring kit from the 88' kit.

 

Did you mix dexcool (orange) with green anti freeze????? That's going to be a problem... Also were you pouring ready to use fluid in or the concentrate? either way the cooling system will take 2-3 bottles to completely fill. You fill the radiator up, run the car with the heat on full blast, fill the radiator more as the motor fills. Eventually the thermostat will open and it will most likely drop again. Then your coolant system will be full.

-Jim

 

Several gallon "bottles"? I put a full gallon in already.

 

yeah 15Quarts which is around 3-4 gallons actually. Also, you did not answer did you mix the orange coolant with the green coolant?

 

Most likely. Green coolant was put in the radiator, orange was put in the engine coolant reserve.

 

well you probably have some sort of gel in your motor now...

 

der der der

 

How do i get rid of it? And what could it damage?

 

it can damage the whole motor, not sure if a flush will take care of it, depends on how long its been in there etc...

http://autos.aol.com/article/coolant-color/

 

Well. We filled the radiator with green coolant when we put the engine in. About 2 days later I put orange coolant (1 gallon) into the engine reserve. That was maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago. I only saw green coolant when we replaced the temp sensor last week. Since the orange coolant is gone from the reserve, i've added water.

Would a radiator flush work?

I also read that most antifreeze nowadays is interchangeable, to a certain degree.

 

you always suppose to have a 50/50 mix not just water and not just coolant

 

not just a radiator flush a whole cooling system flush would be best

 

This coolant said to not add water. Where would this "gel" be located anyways?

This is the antifreeze I put in: Dex-Cool Approved, Prestone, 50/50 Prediluted-Extended Life, Antifreeze/Coolant, 1 Gallon, DO NOT ADD WATER. Went into the engine reserve box.

I didn't put in the recommended 3 - 4 gallons either. I only put in a 3.78L (gallon) jug.

 

it was already predeluded so it added the water for you, its cheaper to buy a whole bottle of straight cooalnat and mix it with your own water, its more cost effective. and the gel would be found in the coolant passages and jackets inside all of the engine, water pump, itll gel up the thermostat lines radiator and anytwhere else the coolant goes. like the article said its better to not go anywhere near ixing anything with dexcool, even if it says its compatable

 

What does the gel look like? Should I take my water pump off and see if there's anything in there? Take a few hoses off?

 

most of the build up will likely be in your engine block, because the gel has walls and things to grab onto, if you take off your waterpump your have to know how to refill it, all your coolant will come out and you need gaskets and all that

 

The orange coolant I got is the same as the green coolant. Both have Ethlyene Glycol. Just ot be safe i'm going to drain the radiator, part of engine (found a temp sensor that has coolant rushing by it, i'll drain it there), engine reserve and fill it with green coolant.

The Dex-Cool I put in has water, ethylene glycol, diethlyene glycol, sodium 2-ethyl hexanoate, sodium neodecanoate. All found in green coolant.

"Most coolants nowadays have the same ingredients, just in a variety of colors; mostly red, green or orange."

 

ive only used green, if u think itll be fine then leave it, theres a drain on the radiator itself justopen that and check the consistancy of the coolant coming out

 

So have I. But I didn't think there was much of a difference between colors (which there is not, it depends on the brand you buy). Prestone doesn't use the acidic chemical that GM used back in the day. The chemical that also causes the "gel" when mixed with the "green" coolant.

Still, i'm going to put ONLY green coolant in after I flush all the Prestone stuff out. A lot of it is diluted because of the extra gallon of water I put in.

 

Hay man. Hows the car coming? You should post a build thread.

 

It's alright. Engine is great. It currently has 2789 miles. Still going strong. I currently had to replace the heater core because it exploded and coolant went everywhere in my interior. That thing was factory original! Still have a long list of repairs but it's comin' along fine. My job is paying VERY well so just about every cent I make goes to gas and my car. I'm about to upgrade my front brakes to slotted disk and new calipers.

When I have time I replace the pigtails on the 1991 wiring kit with the 1988 wiring kit.

I'm mostly looking for new interior, fuel line/return line repair, oil pump, bigger heads, upgraded pistons/rods, front/rear brakes, new rear end (hopefully I can find one from a junkyard that has rear disk brakes, I can't remember the name of the rear end though), new instrument cluster. And a few little things here and there.

The only MAJOR issue i'm having right now is one of my fuses keeps blowing. Like constantly. It will sometimes work for 2 weeks then it will blow, i'll replace it, and 20 minutes later it'll blow again. It's the fuse for the Hazards and lights when you're braking. I have a box of '20' fuses in my center console in-case it blows while i'm driving. If the hazards don't work, the fuse is blown. Not really sure what it could be. It started happening about 2 months ago.

I'm also thinking about buying a new car as my daily driver. Instead of driving the camaro while it's still a 'project' I can drive the new car and put the camaro in storage and when I have money i'll throw it into the camaro. When it's fully restored i'll start driving that. I won't leave it outside and not start it for 4 years straight like last time.

EDIT: Quick question, would this fit on my rear end? http://sarasota.craigslist.org/pts/2642190682.html

 

no that rear wont work trucks used leaf springs our cars have coils. y do you want bigger heads on a brand new "high performance" engine it will lower you compression greatly and new rods and piston. once again why if your engine is already rebuilt with supposed good stuff

 

To increase horsepower a little more. Slightly bigger pistons were put in after rebuild because of the bore.

Do you know the name/numbers of the rear end i'm talking about? They had a year or 2 of camaro that had front and rear disk brakes.

 

If it were cheaper you could buy it and put its posi carrier into yuor 10-bolt. But it's probably not really a posi. It's likely a "Guv-loc"... known as the "grenade-loc" in many circles. When one tire starts spinning it will notice it and suddenly lock the axles together. If you put a lot of power through one and you're one-wheel-peeling, it will suddenly lock and... kaboom like a glock. you're better off looking for an F-body unit. 82-92 will swap right in. 93-97 will swap right in if you get 4th gen offset wheels for the rear. 98-02 will swap right in if you get 4th gen offset wheels and a special bracket to get the e-brake functional. The 4th gen axles tend to have posi carriers in better shape cuz they're newer, and you might be able to find a nice Zexel Torsen posi carrier. if so swap that over to your 10-bolt and call it a day.

 

I found a few rear ends on ebay.

This one seemed like it would fit. It's a 9 bolt from an 86 Trans-Am and has 3:27 gears.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Camaro-Fireb...item3a6bceba05

 

youd be better off checking a jy or craigslist for any local deals. to me 450 is a little steep. when i can get a ls disc rear and redo it and buy all the required parts for less than 450

 

But would a rear end like that fit? There are a few Trans Ams at my local junkyard that have rear disk brakes like this one.

 

Avoid the 88 and earlier rear discs. They're kinda crap. If you already had them you could do a couple of recall repairs and adjustments and get them to work okay, but the 89-92 are much better. The 93-97 F-body disc brakes are interchangable and only cosmetically different. Also they switched from an adjustable e-brake setup to a self-adjusting one in I think 1990, so if you get a 90-92 brake setup you can use your current e-brake handle/cable.

Also, you need to be careful with your terminology. You dont want "bigger" heads - you want heads that are better. Better heads flow more air at the RPM ranges and displacement you're working with. Heads with big combustion chambers will just lower the compression ratio greatly and make your car slow and crappy. Heads with big intake ports will flow well but only at higher RPMs the rest of your engine may or may not be able to take advantage of. That's why you see the word "combo" thrown around a lot, because it's all about matching a good combo of parts together.

The reason is that internal combustion engines are inherently limited on what RPM ranges they work best at. Pushrod engines are even more limited due to valvetrain weight, but that's another story. In order to make more power you have to shift the power band higher. you can make a drag strip screamer that does 9 second quarter miles on motor, but you wont enjoy driving it on the street. Or you can have a 350 TBI style engine that has the torque curve of a diesel and drives like butter up any hill you throw at it even if it's idling in 5th gear at 600 RPMs down the road.

Each part has a certain RPM range it performs best in, and even if you match a bunch of high RPM (read: High horsepower) parts together in your engine, you'll end up making more power than the bottom end parts can handle, or you'll blow up your transmissions, or any 10-bolt/9-bolt taht was factory on these cars.

So what you have to do is figure out a power goal and see what it takes to get there, and see if the sacrifices you have to make, both in practicallity/streetability and in terms of cost, are worth it. If not, re-evaluate your power goals.

How much power do you want to make?

 

i thought it was a dd. you dont need excessive power for daily driving conditions. upgrade it later on if anything. like InfernalVortex said you have rather poor word choice. i think you need to understand what your doing better otherwise youll be hassled and lectured about why its bad. just about everything from 82-92 its interchangeable within fbodys thats basic rule of thumb. thirdgen discs arent all that specail if you want disc that bad go 93-97 or 98-02