I have an 87 Camaro 350 tpi, 700r4. Has some exhaust mods and thats all.

I purchased the car and it was in pieces, so there is no 100% all there.

I've driven the car a few times and it runs odd. 1st gear has no power, it feels as if im going into a wall, then when its finally ready it slams hard into second. It feels a bit better in the following gears, still hard shifts low power.

When pulling up to a stop it almost sounds as if the car is gonna stall and die out. When idling in park it has a very steady realativly fast idle, drop it into gear it drops a bit. (i don't have a tach at the moment)

Today, I got the idea to check temp of headers, the right side was 600+ Degrees after a drive, and the left side was only 200 degrees.

Any ideas?

 

My first idea would be to check the fuses "INJ 1" and "INJ 2" in the fusebox under the driver's side dashboard .

If both of those are good , my next idea would be to get a "Noid light" on those driver side injectors to see if the ECM is sending them a spray signal or not .

Ohm readings on the injectors could be VERY telling , as well .....

 

Fuses are fine, don't have a noid light. But I pulled plugs on both sides, the hot side is running very rich which makes sense but other side is normal if not lean. What causes one side to get more than the other, does the computer control flow or fire rate to specific injector?

 

The way it works is , the 2 fuses marked INJ give +12V to the injectors when the key is on . One fuse powers the left 4 injectors and the other fuse powers the right 4 injectors . The two banks of injectors (left and right) get their - (negative) side switched to ground by the computer to spray fuel . Now , since all the right injectors are in parallel with each other and all the lefts are in parallel with each other , it stands to reason that one shorted injector on either side will disable the other 3 injectors it's in parallel with . This is actually the most common reason for loosing a side of injectors , one shorted one dragging down the other three . That's why some basic test equipment is SO needed here , you need to make sure if or if not the left side is getting power , has the proper resistance so the injectors can make use of that power , and is getting it's switched negative side from the ECM . The two needed things are a meter that will read both Ohms and Volts , and a noid light (optional but really helpful in these kinds of instances) .

Is there + 12 V at the injectors ?

Is the resistance of the injectors within spec ?

Is the ECM properly switching the negative side of the injector bank in question ?

All wiring correct ?

One of those four WILL be your problem ....

 

I'm sure these would all cause very poor engine idle and performance correct? the engine idles some what normal, it isn't missing or anything. As I can tell from vacuum.

 

Ok , lets look at this objectively , shall we ?

First and foremost , your symptom is the engine not making any real power . Your temp scanner told you that you have NO fire happening in any of the left hand cylinders . Sure , an exhaust of a running engine will easily reach 600 degrees , this tells ya the right hand side is fine . But 200 degrees ? That's ROOM TEMPERATURE to an engine (your coolant runs 200 degrees !) and indicates that there is NO firing of fuel happening on that side . And yes , with enough backyard monkeying with things like the idle screw , TPS , and timing it's quite possible that it may idle ?ok? but the 200 degree reading don't lie and you will need to troubleshoot the left hand injector circuit as I've previously described to determine why it don't run "right" .

Good Luck ......