Jon8903

Hello citizens of Z28,

I'll give you guys a little background on my situation.
I'm a 21 year old senior at Clemson University and acquired my first Camaro in a trade two days ago. It's a 1995 Z28 with 189K (45K on motor rebuild) and I am glad to have the car I've wanted since I was 14.

Here is a timeline of the problems:
I did not get a proper PPI on the vehicle before I traded for it. I know this was a huge rookie mistake but I'm paying for it now (literally) and now I know better. I did get the codes scanned and got flags for the EGR Valve, MAF, and I believe the air compressor.

I took the car to a mechanic after a dye test I was told that the compressor is shot. I have a new compressor, clutch, expansion valve, and dryer coming in next week and a local guy lined up to vacuum the system and replace the parts. He's also installing the new EGR valve.

Today I noticed a hose dangling under the hood. Here's the hose:

I immediately went to the closest mechanic, fearing the worst. He said it was the hose to the smog pump.

The car has been shuddering/vibrating from idle up to about 2000 rpm and I get the sense one or more parts needs to be replaced. If it's just the EGR than that's great because I've already bought a replacement but I'm wondering if the air intake or smog pump is having any effect.

Here is what I assume to be the smog pump with a hole for what I assume to be the hose I found.


Is the smog pump a necessary component? The previous owner said he put a cam in this car and a stage 2 pcm in the car so I would not put it past him to have deleted the smog pump. However, I do not know where it is or if it is important to have it checked out.

The mechanic also found fault with this hole in the air intake elbow. Apparently this hole is sucking in air and negating the effect of the MAF I spent $110 to replace.


Here is the whole system


I guess my questions are: What do I need to do about that hose and the smog pump? As you can guess I'm not flush with cash so if it's not essential I'd just as soon leave it disconnected. What is the cheapest safe solution for the air intake? Would a complete eBay kit like this RED 94 95-1997 CHEVY CAMARO Z28 FIREBIRD 5.7 5.7L V8 LT1 COLD AIR INTAKE | eBay I know this won't offer much performance over the stock system but if I can fix the intake problem for $50 versus a $150 diagnostic fee plus parts from the mechanic then I'll be happy.

Thank you for reading this and I welcome any suggestions or further questions.

Injuneer

The AIR pump runs for about 2-3 minutes are startup to help the catalytic converter heat up faster. This reduces emissions, because the cat does start to work until it reaches about 600*F. After 2-3 minutes, the AIR pump shuts off and doesn't run until the next startup.

It has no affect on performance, whether its hooked up or not. It only affects emissions.

The hose runs from a nipple on the air intake duct to a connection on the AIR pump. Shoebox has a photo of the AIR pump:

http://shbox.com/1/temp_sensor1.jpg

It bolts to a bracket on the front of the engine below the driver's side head. It has a discharge pipe that splits in two, and feeds filtered air to the driver's and passenger side exhaust manifolds. The cone shaped device is a check valve that allows air to enter the exhuast manifold, but prevents exhaust gas from flowing into the AIR system.

With the nipple on the air intake duct not plugged with a vacuum cap, you are allowing dirty, unfiltered air to enter your engine. It isn't bypassing the MAF sensor, so that is not a problem.

A lot of people delete the AIR pump. Personally, I kept in on my 800HP 381ci LT1 stroker as long as it was street driven, because it doesn't hurt perfromance in any way, except for about 10# of added weight.

Simply reconnect the hose.

As far as the air intake elbow, I don't see a hole. Was the mechanic referring to the connector that points downward, and appears to have the plastic, sealed air silencer tube missing? If it's a "stock" elbow, the one supplied on all 93-95 LT1's except the 1LE option models, having that hole open would allow air to bypass the MAF sensor - not good. But it could be the elbow from the 1LE option. Looks the same, has the same connector hanging down, but is not open.

The 1LE elbow is a popular replacement item. Look at Shoebox's photo of the AIR pump. At the top of the picture you can see his 1LE intkae elbow, and the fact that the hole is not open.

Reach under and up into the opening, and see if it is in fact sealed to prevent air from entering. If it is, good. If not, there is a top from a Prell shampoo bottle that will fit in tight and seal the hole.

If there is actually some other hole in the photo, please point it out, so we can respond.

Jon8903

Thank you so much for your response, I took a second look at the engine after reading your post and here's where I'm at.

I think that hose is missing a clamp, unfortunately I'm not very experienced in the hands-on aspect of car repairs and I have limited tools at my disposal so I do not know if I will be able to reconnect that hose to the AIR pump before I take it to the mechanic next week. I'll try not to drive the car much because, as you said, I am letting dirty air in through that intake and through the missing silencer plug. I felt up in there and there is no tube/plug/shampoo top. As far as I can tell, there are no other missing parts or holes.

If you had to guess, would you say my rough idles/low RPM shudders are from the bad EGR valve, missing intake silencer cap, or some other problem?

I suppose limiting my driving until I can find a plug for that hole and get the hose reattached is my best option.

Thanks again.