Need4Camaro

Keep us informed!.. My car isn't V8 but a 97 V6 RS... but it feels JUST the same, like it's losing ***** until you get passed idle and about 15 MPH... Not TOO bad but very annoying and it feels like it has NO ***** under the gun... You all will say "thats because it's a 6" and I'm not saying they're incredibaly fast either... but my car HAS spun and chirped through 1st and 2nd being an A4 and It had AMPLE more get-up and go than it does today... (....I lost to a pure stock civic) I'm going to try those same methods when the dough starts roling in.

Keep us informed and good luck!

sharpe

Okay, I just got back from the guy-who-was-going-to-cut-off-my-cat's house. We got her up on his lift and could tell that my problem wasn't a clogged cat right off the bat. Three guesses as to how we could tell so easily.

I still haven't gotten around to doing every thing else, but I made an appointment with a friend to do so tomorrow.

Right after writing that last line I remembered I have an appointment from 6 PM to about 10 p.m., so that isn't going to cut it. I guess I'll be taking it by a shop to have it all done.

I'll write Tuesday and tell you all if my car is any better.

By the way, if it isn't a clogged cat and I change the plugs, wires, fuel filter, air filter, O2 sensors, and ran a bottle of injector cleaner thorough her, what could be the problem?

sharpe

Good luck to you too.

Like your sig.

TraceZ

Coil? I know they get weak sometimes.

sharpe

Somebody had said something about wearing a lobe on the cam as a worst case scenario. Is this even possible? Could this conceivably be the case?

Remember, I drive this car like a mad man. It sees red line in the first four gears daily. Before it started getting doggy, I would spin donuts on dry pavement and stuff. I race hard core almost weekly. I take her through fields. Yeah, I seriously abuse this car.

One day, I'll throw on some Jet-Hot long tubes and full Hooker exhaust and later down the road, do a cam and heads swap, but right now, I just want to get her back to running right no matter how much cash-ola it takes.

Then again, in the second week of September, I'm planning on getting a 90 cent raise. Since that will get me approved for a $15 K car, I may be looking at LS1 M6s...

10 seconds

My first choice for "real performance" would be; get rid of the cat with a replacement tube and save the cat. for testing if that is required. Second= replace old and may not be flowing as well as it should cat. with a new high flow one from Summit/etc. SPEED SECRET= if your cat. is say 2 1/2" dia. inlet or smaller, buy a 3" one (high flow) and adapt it up with reducers. A 3" cat., all things being equal will flow more than a 2 1/2" cat. These are the kind of things that got my 400 smallblock runing 11.0s @ 123 mph a long time ago (before 1995) on pump gas (no cats. through).

sharpe

Unfortunately, I will never find the time to do all of the fixes myself. So, I just set up an appointment to bring my car into the local shop in two hours to have everything done.

As a recap, I'm having them change the plugs and wires, fuel filter, O2 sensors, and the air filter, along with a bunch of other miscellaneous things that aren't relevant to this thread.

This means that I won't know what was causing the problem if I get the car back and it runs fine. I was going to change my fuel filter first then drive it, then change the spark plugs and drive it, then change my O2 sensors and drive it. That way, I would have known just what it was that was causing the problem. Now, if it is fixed, I'll only know that it was one of those things.

If I get the car back and it isn't running any better, I'll shoot myself in the head and you'll never hear from me again.

sharpe

I just called to check on my car. It's 4:30 PM here now, I rolled her onto their lift at 2 PM, and they said they would "try" to have it done by 5 PM but, it didn't sound like they would to me. They said they had changed the oil, fuel filter, air filter, and one side of the spark plugs. They said it took them an hour to do that side.

Hopefully, they are charging no more than $40 an hour like they said they would a long time ago. So, I probably looking at $120-$160. Not too bad from what people are saying on here.

Oh, and the O2 sensors won't be getting changed, I forgot. I didn't have the money right on hand to get them at the time to buy them, and from pictures I see on the Internet, they look really easy to change. If the car doesn't run well after this, at least I'll know if it was the sensors the whole time if I change them and it runs like it should.

Need4Camaro

$160 ?!?!?!?!?!? AT THE MOST?!?! You live in Camaro HEAVEN!!!
My CHEAPEST Mechanic is charging me $220 just to change the SPARKPLUGS on my 3.8 V6!!! AND JUST $160 FOR A V8?!?!

sharpe

Okay, I won't give the full report yet since the car isn't done, but let me say that even though the driver's side plugs haven't been changed, the car runs at about 75%, up from 50%. In other words, there is a huge difference.

The one guy said that the fuel filter was horrible. I looked at the four plugs and they were very worn down, but looked great other than that. Only one had any problems, and it was just that it had gotten a too hot. Considering how I drive and the age of the engine, this is a miracle.

They couldn't get the back tiers off because the wheels each had some weird lug nut on it. Did Camaros come with special theft deterrent lug nuts? They will be gone once I get them off. Also, they found that one of my front seals was leaking. I told them it was probably a result of my driving habits.

By the way, the plug wires that came out of her were the Taylor 8mm Spiro Pros, and the plugs were the $11.50+ TR55 Iradiums!!! The guy who I got her off of must really have taken good care of her. He was pretty rich. I bet he would cry if he saw her now. Soon, though, soon...

While being surprised and finding out that my car had no cat the other day was cool, being surprised today by finding out the car HAD NO AIR FILTER was not. It looks like I'll be adding a K&N FIPK and MAF and all those mods sooner than I thought -- like, next week.

But, the car still "wakes up" at 2500 RPMs, it just isn't nearly as doggy until it gets there.

I'll give a final report tomorrow or Thursday. As it stands, the problem was probably my fuel filter.

Ha, ha, ha!

Remember, I haven't got the bill yet.

kefkafloyd

"They couldn't get the back tiers off because the wheels each had some weird lug nut on it. Did Camaros come with special theft deterrent lug nuts? They will be gone once I get them off. Also, they found that one of my front seals was leaking. I told them it was probably a result of my driving habits."

Yeah, Z28s came with locking lugs on their alloy wheels. If you don't have the key (there's a holder for it in the center console), you're SOL without a lug breaker. You can get them off by sacrificing a socket, but I'm not sure how.

sharpe

I took my car in at 1 PM, it is now 4 PM and the idiot who is working on it said to give him until 5 PM and then call. He said the last plug will be the hardest. So far, by my count, that is 4 hours of work for 3 plugs, not counting the three hours for the other four.

The two that I saw when I dropped by had almost no electrode on it at all. The strange thing is, they were all needle thin, including the other four... Is this a symptom of something wrong?

sharpe

Well... I got the bill.

Like I said, I pulled her in at 1 PM. I just got back. They worked 45 minuets over closing time (5PM) as I stood over them and bull ****ted. That's a total of almost nine hours...

And the final, grand total of the bill was...

sharpe

...dramatic pause...

sharpe

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$165

YAAAAAAAAH!!! WAHOOO!!!

<--- Need4Camaro

I almost fell over dead! Guys, I am like, soo happy right now. $165 labor for all of that stuff!!!

WAHOOO!!! YEEEEEHAWWW!!!

I couldn't tell if the car ran any better because it is pouring down rain really bad. But, I'll give a full report soon. Later.