1992 Camaro RS

[Camar068]

@bucket aint worth fixin', I'll take it off your hands

 

[bucket]

@bucket aint worth fixin', I'll take it off your hands

I forgot to tell you, that medical stand thing you gave me is going to come in extremely handy. I'm going to attach it to my little welder cart to hang the noodle, ground cable and helmet from. It will work perfectly!

 

[bucket]

Today I changed the front tires, removed the locked up smog pump (that was a b!tch because the lower bolt was seized in the bracket), installed a delete pulley and installed a new belt too.

These kind of tools shouldn't be needed to remove a smog pump, but that's just how my night went.

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All back together, along with the proper belt so the alternator can actually charge.

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It went out for it's maiden voyage. Not out on the road, just on the drive lanes here to verify that the transmission and brakes work.

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All in all, I'm super happy with this purchase. Besides buying the car itself, the only parts I had to buy was a $29 fuel pump and a $9 strainer. Oh, and some 5/16" fuel hose. Everything else I already had, even the new serpentine belt and exhaust clamps.

 

[bucket]

Well, I ain't in the clear just yet. Last night, the thing was running so damn nice like a sewing machine. Smoth as silk and quiet as a church mouse. Just like a nice old 283 would run.

But now today, it was very hard to start, ran like poo and eventually cleared up except for a dead miss. Along with the dead miss is a mild engine noise that coincides with the miss. My hunch says it needs a full tune-up and it's running poorly due to all the moisture in the air. But the noise is concerning and it makes no sense to me since it was running perfectly just last night.

I did get a neat picture though, after one of the many storms today ran through.

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[JamesSam]

You will get those kinks worked out. That's a BA looking Camaro Andy! Sick score.

 

[bucket]

Unfortunately, the car needed more than a tune up. Yeah, the plugs were fouled and yeah, the pickup coil in the distributor was very crunchy. But the car still ran like poo. I even tried to drive it to "clear it out". At least once, there was a noticeable POP noise from under the hood. I pulled some plugs again and they were dirty, along with the #2 plug that was soaked as bad as it was before.

So I pulled the valve cover for a look-see. Something was definitely rotten in Denmark.

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With the cover completely removed, I found another flaw in the slaw.

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I was able to retrieve some of the pushrod pieces with a magnet, but not all of them. So off came the intake.

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Unfortunately, not all of the pushrod pieces were there. One must have made it's way all the way down a rear oil drain back hole and down into the pan. It wasn't even hiding under the lifter retainer spider.

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[bucket]

Upon teardown, I did find out that the head gaskets have been replaced with FelPro gaskets. I'd guess those were done in '08 as well. Maybe that's why the engine was "bad" in '00. Maybe someone got around to fixing the car up in '08, drove it for 30 miles before the new fuel pump died, then parked it again. That's just speculation though.

But anyway, the pushrods. They bent and broke because the #2 and #8 intake valves were stuck. They might have stuck because of the terrible rotten gas that had been in the system. When I changed the pump, I blew the lines out, but I'm sure there was still remnants of that crap in the system.

With various penetrating lubes, the #8 valve freed up nicely. The #2 valve though was being stubborn. I got it to where it moved OK, but it was a little gummy feeling compared to all the others. I put it all back together anyways. I ain't doing heads on a 305, especially one with a chunk of pushrod floating around somewhere. I even reused the intake gaskets, which is something I've never done before. I figure if it lives, that's great. But if not, not big loss lol.

 

[bucket]

The next day, I turned the engine over by hand, in case that #2 valve was getting sticky again. Then I started it and it ran pretty good again. Smooth idle and no dead miss when you give it throttle. I let it idle for about 2 hours, then drove it a few miles, then let it idle for another hour.

Then the following day, I barred it over by hand again before starting it. Just to be safe. It started up and ran well.

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If the car sits for more than an hour or so, it runs a bit rough on a startup, but then smooths out in a few seconds. Like the #2 valve is still having trouble. Saturday morning, I started the car up without barring it over first. It definitely started very very rough and there was a distinct valvetrain noise, but it did clear up after a few seconds. I gave it a Seafoam treatment down the throttle body to see if that helps things. I forgot to mention I have also dumped in a full tank of fresh gas, along with a bunch of Lucas fuel system cleaner.

Overall, I've driven the car over 50 miles now and besides the sticking valve, there's a couple driveability issues. One is it hunts for idle speed and the other is a hesitation or stumble that probably has something to do with the code 32 that pops up when driven.

 

[bucket]

I drove it to work today, about 70 miles of backroads, round trip. It's starting to run better. It drives and handles fantastic.

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[BN 99]

I drove it to work today, about 70 miles of backroads, round trip. It's starting to run better. It drives and handles fantastic.

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You’re going to have to hide this car from @SK 99 so it doesn’t end up in my driveway…he’s already talking about wanting to buy it from you lmao

 

[82sbshortbed]

The inside of the fuel tank is NASTY. I worked at a salvage yard and removed a lot of tanks from cars that sat a long time. But I've never seen one this ugly. Here's what the sending unit looked like:

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Luckily, I had a nice one in stock.

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Pumping the old fuel out of the tank. Mmm, yummy.

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The rubber hoses used for the pump installation were date coded early 2008, which matches the battery. Someone must have made a revival attempt then. However, the rubber hoses were not fuel hoses, they were trans cooler hoses. They had turned to goo inside.

At any rate, I have the replacement pump installed and the pump runs with the key, but there is no injector pulse. Looking into that now.

Looks like you're changing the oil not gas. Lol

 

[Catbox]

Going to look at a '92 today for my daughters first car....