Hi!

You might remember me from posts such as "Sudden Engine Power Loss"

Well, I must say I was very happy with how my car was performing with Open Air, and the manual fan switch helped a couple of times when I had to skid a bit to dig out of snow ( I like sliding in the snow, especially when there's a snow-storm warning...), nothing better than hitting gas and brakes at the same time... and my brake fluid is ripe for bleeding -- completely contaminated..

Anyway, I know Vader and grumpygreaseape probably answered questions like this a zillion times, but here we go again:

I have a 305 TBI 1992 Camaro RS.
New fuel filter, new fuel injectors.
Manual fan switch, 14x3 Open Air

After fixing the clogged fuel injector problem that temporarily made my car run like a FIAT, everything was cool, except

my idle is low and erratic.


Other than that, everything is great, the power is excellent, the engine sounds great, etc.

And yes, the car does frequently shut off during low (or no) throttle. In fact, most recently it did that while I was doing a U-turn. Not fun, not fun at all..

Now, there's a billion things that I am going to check, but here's some info in case it's something super-obvious:

When Pat and I installed Open Air, the intake air temp. sensor was just hanging there. We thought it'd be good if I run the car a little on the rich side, especially since I'm getting a lot more air now.

So, I put the intake air temp. sensor a little in front of wipers, below the aftermarket hood that just begs for cowl induction. I put thin tape over it to avoid it getting directly exposed to the elements.

When I start the car, it first runs @ ~1000 RPM until the engine warms up. I presume that it enters closed loop then. The RPM starts decreasing and at around ~800 RPM I can already feel the car shaking at little.

I can also very clearly smell fuel, indicating that it's running very rich..

At ~700 RPM the engine threatens to shut off and already when I see my lights dimming the ECM manages to rev it up to 700 and avoid shutting off. Sometimes it doesn't and I end-up with my engine off in the middle of a manouver, even when my coolant temp. is around 190...

My engine feels like it needs at least 900 RPM to stay stable.
So, is this normal?
I read other posts and saw several things. Should I just adjust the minimum idle? Or put the intake air temp. sensor back where it belongs? I suspect my cat might be clogging up, it's really old..could that be it? Do I need to check my TPS or IAC?

There's so many things that could be wrong here. The AIR valve? The EGR valve?

Grr.. I was just hoping something obvious is happening. Could that taping have fubared the air temp. sensor...
I'll be looking at it as soon as the snow stops falling, and I was wondering if you guys have some suggestions..

 

First off, your o2 sensor isn't what you're talking about. The o2 sensor goes in the exhaust, the intake air temp sensor is most likely what you were playing with. Trust me, if it was the o2 sensor you would be spitting out error codes and car would run worse than what you've explained.
As for running ruff below 800rpm and "smells" rich, check out your ignition system, pull the plugs and look at them ALL. It sounds to me like you have bad wires and some spark plugs aren't firing (passing unburnt gas through the exhaust). I have a strong feeling there is something wrong with your ignition system be it base timing or spark related.

 

Yeah, you're completely right, it's the intake air temp. sensor I've been talking about... I guess my post count explains everything
Timing/spark is what I've been hearing a lot.. thanks! I'll give that a check, b/c I don't like unburnt gasoline...no, sir..

 

Still I wonder, wouldn't I lose power if the offending sparks weren't firing at all... I didn't notice any power-loss while "testing" the modification on the highways...
So I'm thinking on just checking the timing first.... My serpentine belt is not disastrous, but I could use a new one, so this might be a good occasion to put the new belt on and readjust the timing... And the sparks will be due soon anyway... What sparks do you recommend?