Injuneer

The line with the two little blue and white discs in it is the vacuum line that vents the Optispark.... not part of the AIR system.

When your car left the factory, on the back of the air inlet ducting, there was a 5/8" nipple. There was a hose connected from that nipple to the AIR pump inlet. It looks like someone pulled the hose off the nipple on the air inlet duct, and put a small "breather" type air filter on it (the little filter that shows in DSC03802.JPG).

There was a "recall" on the 95 and newer AIR systems. They added some vacuum lines and other stuff. Hard to tell if its been done on yours. Shoebox also has a diagram of the recall components and how they were installed. You might want to check out that diagram.

Geoff Chadwick

I saw the picture with the air pipe and went "wait a minute!" on that one. The air system (pumps, valves etc) is designed to pump unmetered filtered air into the exhaust system, pushing more air into the catalytic converters and get them to operating temperature for emissions purposes. However without that check valve, you might have exhaust gasses going the opposite direction (someone correct me on this if I'm wrong, it shouldnt be a huge problem espicially as the air pump's intake is no longer plumbed after the air filter) but it shouldnt be related to the problems you're having now directly.

The heating/overheating problems could have easily pushed some coolant into the oil through the headgasket but not actually cause the headgasket to permanantly fail. There are several factors to be looked into. Again, that compression test would be nice about now.

...Gotta love the dead bug in the milkshake...

Also the PCV (why do people keep calling it pvc?) system may have been messed with by the mechanic who was working on the car. If there was a blower install in progress then that would make sense, as the pcv system wasnt meant to handle boost on our cars. Most people drop to just a breather (or two) in said circumstances, however that will only ventilate pressure and blowby, not fully cycle a bit of air through and use vacume to draw stuff out. It depends on what the mechanic decided he wanted to do when he was working on your car.

Do you have a vacume gauge handy? I'm curious to see how much vacume you pull at idle.

EDIT:

Yeah.... that recall.... Honestly I'd be more tempted to say give ALL the vacume lines a solid double check and make sure things are routed right... Not just the AIR system.

bunker

I had the same thing towards the back of the valve covers since the engine is slanted back, seemed to have gone away when I did this:

Switched to Castrol 0-30 German Sythetic (sythetic is more resistant to evaporation)

Swtiched the thermostat to 180*


I am sure you can get away running super cold with regular oil on a small cam setup but when you have barely any vacume with a big cam like 60 map at idle reving at 1000rpm your PVC doesn't function so well

kainZ

As for oil, I've been using Mobil 1 10w30 on a K&N air filter, and a 180* tstat since I got the car..

As for the vacuum / compression gauges, I don't have them, but I've been thinking the same thing as you, that it'd REALLY be a good idea to test all that right about now..

As for vacuum lines, I have a feeling that there may be a few which are routed wrong.. in addition to the PCV line NOT currently going underneath the TB.. I'm going to have to look and see where it IS going.. I didn't think it was on a vent..

I'm going to go out and check that stuff out again, and take some more pictures of everything.

Also, does anyone have an opinion on the valve stem seals (are they on all the way or not? Did the old one [the one one the right] look good? [I thought it did].. Did you notice the difference in diameter between the old and new?

I'd be overjoyed if my headgasket is fine, and the smoke was just a result of the overheating from the bad radiator cap and leaking TB!

kainZ

Okay, I've got more pics:

They're at

http://www.rpi.edu/~roghab/camaro/

inside the problems folder.

They're broken down by issue..

The quick list:
air diverter issues - missing valve and weird breather
optispark vaccum lines - all messed up, and i think im missing lines
pcv system - all messed up and not totally sure how it should be -- see pics
tb vacuum lines - all messed up and not sure how it should be - see pics
vacuum check valve - i broke it, trying to inspect it *doh* (talk about brittle!)
the milkshake pictures (which I think is very likely from the PCV after seeing how it was hooked up -- see PCV section for that)
valvesprings isn't really a problem.. but there are pics there.
and valve stem seals -- i'm still not sure if i got that one on right..

Anyway, right now I'm hoping that the smoke was from the overheating, which was from the Tstat / thermostat / TB leak problems which are now fixed.. and that the milkshake was from the PCV problems..

But now, I'd like to get it straight how to hook everything back up the right way.. mainly its the TB vacuum lines and pcv that i'm not sure of.. and that mising line from the opti..

oh and what to do about the air breather? whether or not i should just disconnect the system?

maybe this should become several threads?

Anyway, i appreciate all the help so far, and any other help or suggestions you guys can give me will be much appreciated!

slimdawson

You should edit those pictures so we, who have dial up, can help you too.

kainZ

Dialup users can now find smaller versions of the pictures at
http://www.rpi.edu/~roghab/camaro/dialup/

slimdawson

Thanks for the reduced file size of the pics. I can help with the pcv. Most of the other stuff isn't applicable on my LT1.

It looks like your setup is pulling a vacuum in the crankcase. Unfortunately, I can't see the valve covers to see if you have any type of breather on there. If you don't, you aren't getting any fresh air into the crankcase. If you do, I don't see where your pcv is at fault. That is, unless the port on the throttle body isn't actually pulling a vacuum, but rather providing a source of metered air like the stock one would. Pull the hose off and check it at an idle. If it sucks on your finger, that's great. Just put a breather in the valve cover. If not, you need to reconfigure your setup.

You see that plug under the throttle body? That is where the hose from the original pcv setup went to. Not the throttle body. That port pulls the vacuum.

As far as the emission stuff goes, sorry. I do not have that to worry about.

kainZ

First, nope, I don't have a breather on my valvecover.. I do have another line coming from the passenger side valve cover to the TB though. If you guys want, I can take some pictures of that tomorrow.. But I think that line is stock, and so I wasn't too worried about it.. Also, hoping I can get my car running tomorrow

As for where the PCV should connect to:

Did you see this picture?

http://www.rpi.edu/~roghab/camaro/di...am_current.jpg

That one underneath is where I assumed it should be connecting to..

I'm going to hook it back up to there tomorrow..

The question I have now is: what SHOULD connect to where I have the PCV connected right now?

Should it be the line pictured in these images?

http://www.rpi.edu/~roghab/camaro/di...or_problem.jpg

http://www.rpi.edu/~roghab/camaro/di...r_question.jpg

If so, doesn't it need an adapter to go from the smaller line diameter of the line to the larger diameter of the TB input?

If not, where the hell on the TB should it connect to??????

slimdawson

That line starting at the pcv valve on the driver's side of the intake hooks to the plugged port just under the throttle body. It doesn't need to loop all over the intake like that. You can just run it down the side and right to the port. Although, since it is plugged now, you will need to find a nipple that will fit it.

The port that it is currently going to, you can cap that off. Make sure that the pass side hose(coming from the valve cover) is not getting a vacuum at the t/b. The hose should lightly suck at your finger at an idle.

The blue connector on the elbow is used for the opti.

kainZ

Cool, thats what I thought, but I wanted to be sure this time. I think that one is just a standard pipe thread, so I'll pick up a nipple at autozone tomorrow..

Nothing connects to this port??

I did figure that part out.. But my questoin is: what does the line which was previously connected to that blue nipple connect to? On shoebox's site, it said that line should connect to the TB, but I didn't know where to connect it to on the TB. So, my question was: does that line connect to the spot you were talking about capping off in the last paragraph? That is the only thing that seems logical to me, though I would need to adapt the diameter of the line to the diameter of the TB port.

Anyway, thanks everyone for all the help so far, its exciting to finally be getting this stuff straightened out! I hope somebody will know where to plug that small line (which shoebox's site says to plug into the TB) into..

slimdawson

I didn't look at shoebox's site but the blue connector on the elbow is for the opti. It is supposed to have a line that goes straight to the opti. The other line coming off the opti hooks to the driver side of the intake. Basically, the intake pulls a vacumm on that line. Pulls fresh air through the opti that it gets from the blue connector. As far as the throttle body goes, I am not familiar with that t/b. Maybe that the port you have it hooked to is for the t/b coolant line. I don't know if aftermarkets even have provisions for that.

kainZ

The TB coolant line runs underneath that TB, and I have it bypassed (capped at both ends with vacuum caps).

This TB has two active lines coming out the side of it. I am 99% positive that one of them goes to the pass. side valve cover.

Currently, as you can see in the picture, the other is connected to the PCV, which we have determined to be incorrect.

I will correct that by connecting the PCV to the line on the intake, underneath the TB.

That leaves this last line (of the two active ones) on the TB open.

That also leaves that little black line open.

Logic would tell me that since the picture from shoebox's site (which I have hosted on my site, and pasted into that image you looked at) says the tiny line goes to the TB, that they mean the tiny line goes to that port.

I just want either a confirmation or info on where it SHOULD be going if it is not to that second port on the TB.

As for the TB, I think it's the same connectors as stock 96-97 intake.

If you have a (stock enough) lt1 fbody and some free time, you should be able to go outside and look under your hood to see where the line circled in this picture goes to on your car. That would be a tremendous help to me.

Dialup users:
http://www.rpi.edu/~roghab/camaro/di...or_problem.jpg
http://www.rpi.edu/~roghab/camaro/di...r_question.jpg

Broadband users:
http://www.rpi.edu/~roghab/camaro/pr...or_problem.jpg
http://www.rpi.edu/~roghab/camaro/pr...r_question.jpg

Another note: You might need to download the broadband version to read the text and really be able to understand the point I'm trying to make.. I'm not sure.. I have trouble seeing the 640x480 version at my resolution.

Also, if anyone could figure out which of the two lines on the TB the passenger side valve cover is connected to (so I'll know which one is right), that would be a help too.

I appreciate any help anyone can provide!

Also, I should note that I now fully understand the way that the opti vacuum system is supposed to be setup, and I know that it was connected wrong on my car, but please try to ignore the part of the pictures that show the elbow with the blue nipple connected to that vac line coming from the black box on the pass. side of the intake mani, as thats not the problem I'm seeking assistance with at this point. (I'm seeking assistance with figuring out where that black line should be connected to.)

Injuneer

The passenger side of the TB has two ports on it. The line from the passenger side valve cover connects to the large diameter connection. The smaller diameter nipple is for the EEC purge solenoid vacuum source.

When the car left the factory, there were 3 lines in a group coming out of the drivers fender liner, and doubling back to the rear of the intake, where the fuel supply and return lines conencted. The 3rd line in the group is from the evap emissions canister in the drivers rear fender. That line peels off the group about midway down the drivers side intake manifold, connects to the thin U-shaped pipe. That pipe reverses the direction of the line, wraps around the front of the engine under the throttle body, then connects to a vacuum solenoid on a bracket on the passenger side of the intake manifold. From the solenoid, a vacuum line goes to the small port on the side of the TB. In the 93-95 cars, that's all there is. The 96/97 OBD-II cars added a flow detector switch in the line from the front of the engine to the EEC purge solenoid.

http://shbox.com/1/evap_sol.jpg

Is there any chance your engine used to be supercharged? A lot of what was done seems like the things someone might have tried if there was a blower on the engine.

1st 4th gen

Are you sure the heads are'nt cracked?