WockaFlocka

Hey ive got an 88' 2.8L v6 camaro.
Its a beautiful car but under the hood is another story.
About a week ago I noticed my oil was milky, mechanic told me I had two blown head gaskets... well 3 weeks in the shop and $1,000 later they have shaved the heads, replaced head gaskets and intake gaskets, replaced spark plugs and wires, new distributor and coil and changed the oil 3 times.
And the car is STILL running like crap. It has about half the power it should,misses really bad and sounds like ****. At an idle it sounds great and revs up nicely but going down the road is another story.
My mechanic recommends just going ahead and putting a 305 or 350 in her.
But after putting around 2.3 grand into the car that I purchased for $2250 it just doesnt make sense to me. I feel like ive got this much money into this car that another $1500 for a new engine would be a waste but I dont know
Any suggestions PLEASE let me know!

copyfixr

iTrader: (3)

Any other issues with the car? If your happy with the 6 look into a 3.1/3.4 swap. Looks to be a lot easier and cheaper.

58mark

iTrader: (3)

Sounds like your mechanic has no idea what's involved in a v8 swap on these cars.

I like the 3.4 idea or even another 2.8 or 3.1 short block, but if the problem is not with the block you are going to transfer the problem to the new engine

You need to find out exactly why it's running like Crap. Sounds like your mechanic may be slightly incompetent

ex-x-fire

Make sure what runs the engine is working good, like the fuel pressure, the timing advancing, properly routed ign. wires, all sensors, ect.
Make sure the valves are adjusted right, compression test, any codes?

//<86TA>\\

iTrader: (14)

sounds more like the mechanic has no clue what he is doing. i would take it elsewhere, long before letting them put a different engine in since they cant even get this one running...

firebird904

Could the timing maybe be off? When I had my firebird I had put a new dizzy in and set the timing by ear. Car sounded great at idle and when revved up but under load it would miss and even stall sometimes.

WockaFlocka

What should the timing be?

firebird904

10* btdc with the EST wire disconnected.

bl85c

iTrader: (2)

90 camaro cj

is the cat converter breaking up? my friend blew a head gasket and when the water got into the coverter broke up and pluged the exuahast. simmilar to what you said, ran well at idel then when he got on it it bogged down and fell on its face... but id defenitly have a difernt mechanic look at it

GTA50

Definitely take it elsewhere. Two things from my experience - check the timing properly (as mentioned above, disconnect the brown connector at the firewall - passenger side). Also, if the cat is bad, change it. If the plugs, wires, dizzy,...etc. have been changed, you should be good to go.

If you still have problems, then you need to fall back on the basics of "have you got spark and/or fuel". If your mechanic can't figure that one out, then he should change his career options (and no offense) from "I can fix that" to "would you like fries with that".

Camaro-454

iTrader: (1)

OK, here's what I would do.

First off, if you paid $1,000.00 dollars on engine work and your car's still not running right, and the mechanic is Not going to make it right, then I'd tell him like Donald Trump would. " You're Fired ". Clearly bro, you were Robbed. If your mechanic isn't competant, doesn't stand behind his work, can't figure out the problems and fix it, then yes he's in the wrong business. ( and you actually paid him for that? )

Secondly, I'd begin to become an expert on tuning up my own car. Buy yourself a Haynes manual for your car, and read over all the trouble shooting and tune up proceedures for V6 cars. Check your spark plugs. what do they look like? are they properly gapped? are they oil fouled? check all vacuum hoses. are any of them disconnected? broken? have holes in them? do you hear a " Hissing " sound when the car is running? how's your engine's compression? do you have good vacuum? what does your oil look like now? is it milky again? ( after 3 oil changes that he supposedly did ).

Is your engine carbed? or fuel injected? is your engine block cracked? is it leaking fluids? finding puddles underneath it when it sits at rest for awhile? is your distributorhold down plate tight? does the distributor move freely? ( it shouldn't, as that WILL effect how the engine runs if it's out of timing ). what' your gas milage like? good? poor? All these things should be looked into as a start.

Always ask yourself two questions. What is the car doing? And what is the car NOT doing? From these two questions you immediately can start narrowing down what's wrong and what's working fine on the car and it helps to save some time oin pinpointing the problem areas.

Take your time, do the simple checks first, learn all you can from the book, ( as well as right here in TGO ), get a timing light, socket set, digital multi-meter, vacuum guage, compression guage, screw drivers, open end box wrenches, a paper clip, ( to check the on board diagnosis computer codes by the fuse box ), and start learning how to tuen your own car. You'll save lots of money, have fun while doing it, gain a new respect for your own abilities as an auto mechanic, have the pride and satisfaction of knowing that you can do it yourself, and you will get your car running better at a much lower cost. ( ok, ok, you might also learn a few new cuss words while you're fighting with your car, but you hang in there and don't let it win, be patient and persistant, and you'll win out in the end ).

Sometimes it helps to talk sweetly to you car while you're working on it. hey, it can't hurt right? *S*

Camaro-454

Camaro-454

iTrader: (1)

I forgot to mention that a little carburator/fuel injector cleaner might help your car run better. you might want to try that idea first.

Camaro-454