New Member, New(used) Car, New Question!

First off, Let me say "Hello everybody!", then lets get right to it!

I bought a used 1996 Camaro with a 3800 V6 and a 5 speed today. It runs very well to say the least. I was taking various pics of the car to upload for my site and while I was taking a pic of the engine, I noticed a wire unplugged. (See pic below)

http://www.rcjimsplace.com/images/camaro/camaro9.JPG

What is it and should I plug it in or leave it be? I have no engine lights on and the car runs great!

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Here are a few more pics of my car.
(Dont make fun of my hub caps, my wife promised me new wheels/tires for christmas!)

http://www.rcjimsplace.com/images/camaro/camaro1.JPG

http://www.rcjimsplace.com/images/camaro/camaro2.JPG

http://www.rcjimsplace.com/images/camaro/camaro3.JPG

Nice car, and good luck with it. The 3800 is a very strong engine.

Difficult to tell what that plug is from the pic (don't know much about the V6 cars), however, whatever it is, it's not designed to be left hanging there. Plug it back in. Sometimes those connectors work themselves loose, or people forget to reconnect them after they work on the car.

Get a manual for the car - that will help a lot too.

Greg

Car looks really clean :thumb:

Wish I could help you, but I don't have a 3.8 v6 :(

Thank you for the advice Greg.

I figured you guys would tell me to plug it in, which I did when I noticed it was unplugged...

I thought it might have been a performance trick or something (you never know what tricks people are doing to make one run better) LOL!

I'll get a manual ASAP! :D

The car has one throaty exhaust aswell - man do I like that rumble.
http://www.rcjimsplace.com/images/camaro/camaro5.JPG
http://www.rcjimsplace.com/images/camaro/camaro6.JPG
http://www.rcjimsplace.com/images/camaro/camaro7.JPG

I think it runs everybit aswell as my 85 TPI 305 Iroc-Z did!
http://www.rcjimsplace.com/images/camaro/camaro8.JPG

Anyone have anything to add?

My sister-in-law had a 99 3.8 Camaro (auto) and it would beat stock 305 IROC Camaros all the time. Those 3.8's have a lot of power.

Greg

Nice car and welcome.

That plug hanging there is the Intake Temperature sensor. It sends the temp to the computer so it can set the proper timing. The guy who had it either unplugged it cause he thought it would automatically advance the timing by unplugging it, or it worked its way out of there. Just plug it back into the intake tube and move on.

My sister-in-law had a 99 3.8 Camaro (auto) and it would beat stock 305 IROC Camaros all the time

I guessing that the 3.8 had something done to it, cause i have seen many stock 3.8s get burried by 305 IROCs. That TPI with a manual was a good combo.

Originally posted by fbird95
Nice car and welcome.

That plug hanging there is the Intake Temperature sensor. It sends the temp to the computer so it can set the proper timing. The guy who had it either unplugged it cause he thought it would automatically advance the timing by unplugging it, or it worked its way out of there. Just plug it back into the intake tube and move on.

Thank you very much for the information! :D

Nice car. Those stripes look really good.http://www.rcjimsplace.com/images/camaro/camaro1.JPG

Thanks again!

Whoever had the car did a superb job on it. They did just enough to it by adding the stripes and whiteing out everything on the front end.

I want to add red lettering to the "CAMARO" on the rear end and I was thinking about putting some small red vinyl camaro logos on the front fenders just ahead of the doors.

http://www.rcjimsplace.com/images/camaro/camaro4.JPG

Then I want to get a set of rims/tires and just enjoy driving it!

congrats on the car man...yep, the 3800 is a GOOD motor. its ridiculously reliable and used to ABSOLUTELY TEAR THE DOORS OFF my old V6 mustang. i got beat by a few of those and i had to get an LS1 to redeem myself;)

enjoy the new ride!

Yeah I was gonna say it does look like the IAT(Intake Air Temp) sensor.

it plugged into the Black rubber intake right? It it did that is exactly what it does. Guy that had the car before you probably had a CAI on it and took it off and sold it. :)

There is sort of a mod you can do with it but lots of people say its useless, helps or hurts your car, either way if it helps doesn't help alot and killed my gas mileage. The mod is basically you get a 4.7k ohm resistor from Radioshack, they only cost like $0.09 for a pack of 5. And jsut put it in the connector of the resistor, it tricks the car into thinking it is 50ish degrees out and advances the timeing. I have read that a 8100k ohm works better tricks the car into thinking its like 30ish degrees out and advances the timing further but that was done with an ls1.

Either way not much of a gain from either, doesn't advance the timing that much.