the following problems with my car:
popping and cutting out noise at high speed under full throttle
hard shifts that kick bumps cause the tranny to move upward slightly (noticably)
power-steering fluid boils out even though I added fluid
replaced a coolant temperature sensor and still not a working guage.

3/30/09 EDIT: seafoam and a distributer has stopped cutting out and smoothed idle
found different bolts for the torque arm, doesn't kick very much. also new rear shocks
new power steering fluid and hoses stopped the boiling

Important facts:
new plug wires
3.1 w/ about 50K
new fuel lines
new cap and rotor
timing set to 10*
reman water pump
no egr, air pump, or evap systems

any suggestions are appreciated

 

I've been doing some work on the torque arm and thinking about new spark plugs. fuel injectors might be leaking, which could cause the cutting out at high speed.

 

The noise at full throttle/speed could be the limiter/cutoff programmed into the ecm

The bumping when the tranny shifts; the rubber transmission mount is shot. You can get a replacement rubber piece or get a polyurethane one. Not expensive and simple to change.

The power steering fluid boiling... check to make sure the stock oil cooler loop is still there. Long metal line that runs from the fluid return of the steering gear box, under the radiator support, and back around to the pump. It your steering stiff? Does it bind? Maybe some schmegma has built up inside the lines/pump/box and is blocking the fluid from circulating

There are 2 temp sensors/sending units in our cars. The one under the intake plenum by the thermostat housing sends info to the ECM only. There is another one in the forward section of the drivers side head which sole purpose is for the gauge in your dash. You need an Ohmmeter to check if it is working correctly. My shop manual gives a list of resistances which correspond with specific coolant temps. If that is ok, pull the cluster and see if you are getting a reading there. If so, the gauge is no good. If not, there is a short in the wire. I could email you the page if you wish

The best way to check if any part of the fuel system is leaking is get a fuel pressure tester/gauge. Attaches to the test port on the fuel rail directly behind the intake plenum. I think I got mine @ Autozone... only $40. Great investment
http://www.autozone.com/R,1795781/st...ductDetail.htm

 

Our 2.8's have a limiter? cause mine doesn't, and yeah i just went through the whole transmission lifting everytime i let go of the clutch and put it in gear thing. Went to the local chevy dealer and they were charging me 240$ just fo the mount!!!! i was like hell no, so i got a trans crossmember off a z28 and installed it with a new t5 trans mount for 50 bucks, cured my problem.

 

There seems to be some debate on this. See the thread, V6 top out... take it to the limit. I personally never tried for myself so that is why I said "could be"
I have the 3.1 which is "speed density" your 2.8 is "mass air flow". That could be the difference right there...

 

well, I got new spark plugs and new o-rings on the injectors, they looked pretty messed up so hopefully that'll help. I ordered a new speedo cable, it'll be in on friday.
I have no idea how fast I was going when it started cutting out, but I don't think it was a speed limiter. the car was still accelerating and gaining speed, but it couldn't maintain engine speed.
how fast do these cars go in mid to high 4th gear? it felt close to 100.
I'm hoping to get all of the guages working over the winter. I'll look for those resistance values in my manual, but I'll tell you if I don't find them thirdgenfcarnut.

 

my t5 v6 bird does 90 + in 3rd so 4th i guess could have been the limiter, i havnt hit the limiter in this car - need to do some work to the brakes and suspension first ! but my last bird hit the wall at 115mph and if you kept your foot down it really didnt like riding the limiter.
was the car ok at all other speeds through the rev range ?

 

all the 2.8 bins ive looked at have the speed limiter set to 255mph i.e no limiter

 

you could kinda hear it at cruising speeds in 5th too. even if you played around w/ third sometimes you can get it to cut out a little bit. hopefully I'll get to take it for a test drive soon. old plugs were pretty bad and cylinders 3 and 5 smelled pretty strongly of gas. thats were gas would sit when the csi was leaking and probably seeped through the o-rings of injectors. causing them to burn a little rich. csi problem solved though.
I've hit speed limiters before and this wasn't one. I doubt mine has a speed limiter because my friend has a similar camaro w/o one. project89 you never got back to me, where can I get a fpr that will work with a turbo setup (increases fuel with rpm).

 

oh dam i didnt even relize u asked.

areomotive reg can be used in the return line.
or u can go cheap and get an ebay one they work as well.
i modified the fpr off a grandnational for my car

 

try unhooking the maf and see if that helps w/ the cutting out

 

opps i seen u say increase with rpm not boost i dont think there is anything liek that there all vacum/boost refrenced unless u go with a pump controller, which increases voltage to the pump to make it pump more at certian rpm setpoints or boost levels

 

no, thats my bad. I was refering to boost, which increases (to a point)when rpm goes up. sorry.

I installed a new speedo cable so we'll see if that works so I can get an idea at what speed the cutting out happens at. I'll try unplugging the MAF but I already cleaned it a little bit ago and it really helped so I don't think its the problem.

 

ok, so it seems I really need to clean out my radiator. lots of crap floating around. any tips on flushing it out?

much smoother shifts, could be a little better, but very much improved. speedo wasn't working so I'll look into that. if I shift into a gear and the rpms are below 2k it dies, is that normal?

its still cutting out. its hard to describe, but I think it has to do with engine load. It sputters even in low gears (2nd/3rd) and worse at higher speed. if you mash the throttle, bad, but if you take it easy its fine.

 

things are gonna be a little more difficult now because there's snow on the ground. my upper radiator hose is misshaped. when I was on my test drive my heater hose popped off the water pump a little and sprayed coolant everywhere so the hose probably overheated. should I replace the thermostat also? did this happen just because I lost a little coolant? I did the hand test on the filler neck and there's no vacuum or pressure that would be block/head damage causing the hose to suck up. thats a very good thing.

I found the fpr you were talking about. expensive, but it seems perfect. found one by msd on summit racing, its 5/16 inlet though and I think our return lines are 3/8. not sure though. could you look at it and get back to me? thanks.

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...895+4294880900

 

is it just me? it seems like f-bodies can hardly move in snow and ice. all the gas pedal does is make noise and burn gas now that my driveway has a thick covering of snow. i guess having 235s doesn't help any for snow traction.

my speedo cable isn't working and its really annoying. I bet my coolant guage is bad because its been sitting above the range of temperature ever since I first got the car. looks kinda bad. that doesn't nessesarily mean the guage is bad though. anyone need any pics of what I'm talking about? I'd be glad to take pics.