On the way to work this morning i noticed my Camaro started running a bit strange, but on the freeway i couldnt really notice. Once i got into town and pulled over it was terrible, the engine sounds like a diesel tractor, loud and clankly. It smelled hot but the temp gauge was still reading low. The car now has very little power. And ideas as to what happened? I'm at work and cant trouble shoot it at the moment.

I just put $700 into it to get it running great, and i have been commuting 80 miles a day for a couple weeks now trouble free.

 

check engine light on? deffinatly sounds like a huge timing change. exhaust smell differant too? and what was the $700 used for (parts?)

 

No check engine light. Sometimes it comes on because of an egr vacuum hose leak but that's it.
700 went into injectors, pcm, temp sensor, plugs, wires, general tune up, labor...
It does sound like timing being wayyy off, but i dont see why that would of happened so suddenly.

 

it can happen suddenly if electronic spark timing circuit is disturbed with an open. and you shouldnt have any vac lines going to your egr valve. the 3.1's have a digital valve. and even that can cause some drivability issues like ur stating.

 

Ah yes, you are right. I had looked up why my SES was throwing an EGR code when i decelerate, and some people said it was because of a vacuum leak. But i guess that was for the older 2.8s? I did replace the EGR gasket as part of the process to get the thing running a few weeks ago and it made a big difference, and its been running great even though it still throws an EGR code.

I will check the timing on my lunch break haha.

 

Sure your exhaust hasn't come loose somewhere?

 

I initially thought that it was an exhaust leak, but i dont think that would explain the loud clanking and loss of power.

 

Looks like it was worse than i thought...
Car leaked out all the oil! Looks like it leaked out the broken oil sensor on/near the oil filter. So the clanking must have been the lifters and such not getting oil. What are my chances of the engine not being toast? It was only a few miles, and it still starts and runs fine besides the pinging noise.

 

throw some oil in and dont start her again. Im in the process of replacing my lifters and cam because of oil. So what ever you do, do not start without oil again.

Once you put in some oil theres a slight chance you didnt hurt anything like i did, and she may be good to go. Its costing me $650 for new lifters, cam, and labor.

 

There is oil covering the whole bottom of the engine, looks like i may have blown a seal. I'm hoping i dont find any metal shavings in the oil filter tomorrow....