first of all, whats up everybody? long time lurker of this forum but just recently actually bought a camaro.

here's what i got

so i pick up a 92 rs(305tbi/t5) a couple weeks ago, drives great runs fine. couple weeks go by and i have it running with the hood up. i hear this very light ticking. i get closer and i can see that some of the spark plug wires are arcing. change those out and car starts up and runs even better than it did before. drive it for the rest of the day. next morning start it up and the idle is really low and its stumbling like its gonna die then the idle shoots up to 1800-2000 rpm and the SES light comes on. then it steadily creeps back down to normal idle speed but now smells extremely rich with a little white smoke. paper clip'd the aldl and got codes 33(map sensor reading low vacuum) and 44(o2 reading lean).

question

tomorrow im going on the hunt for the vacuum leak but the white smoke and lean reading make me think misfire. distributor maybe?

any help would definitely be appreciated.

 

I would do a full tune up on the car. Every car i have ever bought the first thing i do is plugs,wires,cap,rotor,air&fuel filter, and i also go threw the brakes. It's also a good thing to check all the front end components. When i bought my 89 i drove it for a month with the centerlink to pitman arm nut loose as hell with a broken cotter pin.

It also wouldn't hurt to replace all the vacume lines.

 

I would check the vacuum line going to the MAP. That would cause a low vacuum reading for the MAP (maybe its disconnected or the vacuum line is broken)and also cause the lean code from the vacuum leak.

 

Agreed with above- full tune-up (cap, rotor, plugs, wires), check the vacuum line to the MAP sensor and lastly a fresh O2 sensor.

Beyond that you're going to have to get a scan tool to tell you what's going on. I could speculate about a bad coolant temp sensor (TPS) but you're really just guessing without seeing things the way the ECM sees them beyond a certain point.

 

Couldnt hear the leak at first but traced all the lines and found it. It was the line going to the MAP. Thanx jermdm

 

Glad you found it and glad I could help. Happy driving.