I was just "GIVEN" a 1995 Camero. 3.4L SFI V6 Auto trans. The previous owner told me the engine was bad. I opened the hood and saw what appeared to be dried rusty water all over the engine compartment. Every thing else appeard in order. No leaking oil, the oil is clean not milkey so not water in the block. Checked the radiator and there was nothing in it, or at least nothing that I could see, just some gunk the same color of the dried rust. The stuff was mostly concentrated around the hoses that go into the radiator I put my battery on it and started her up. I figured even with no fluid it would be ok to run it for a short time so I could listen for knocks. She has been sitting idle for a few months so it took a few tries and pumping the gas to get it gong, but once going it sounded great. Idles smooth and reves loud. There was some white smoke coming from the tail pipe, but it did get less and less as the car ran. Eventually it only came out when I reved the engine. So from what I can tell I need to replace the radiator and termostat, get a battery, new oil, plugs and wires for good measure. Can anyone think of anything else I should definately check before attempting to drive this car as my daily? Also does anyone have this same engine, and what do you think of it?

 

i also drive a 95 auto 3.4L cam

its been a good car so far

 

Getting ready have 189,000 miles on my 3.4, been a great little engine and I'm a V8 guy. Im pretty impressed/pleased with this thing. I would suggest checking for head gasket issues, the white smoke sounds like possible head gasket problem. You might luck out and it be nothing serious, but being how it was out of water and it went away the longer it ran, I would be cautious. Fill the cooling system and run it full for a while before you start throwing new parts at it that will be useless if you have to tear it back down. Check the sparkplugs, run compression tests on each cylinder, watch for more smoke, lost coolant, etc. Hope you find everything to be good to go, good score--- nothin wrong with a free Camaro, even if she needs work.

--- Head gaskets dont always leak into the oil so dont rule it out by clean oil.---