Ok, so my car is and has been sitting in my driveway all summer. I'm working on insurance right now, so that's why it's sitting.

Anyway, I still use it when it's nice outside. I'll at least drive it up and down the driveway to pick up my little brother after school. So, I had the engine replaced with an engine from a 95 a little over a month ago. The engine runs perfect when I get it back, it really purrs. Anyway, I go down to pick up my little brother, and it runs fine. A week later, after no use because it was raining, I go out to start it up and it runs like crap.

It will barely start up, and when it does it runs like crap. High idle, horrible throttle response, and it just dies when you put the gas down hard. Then after it dies it will turn, but it won't fire up. So, it does this on and off for a while. Sometimes it starts up fine, most of the time it doesn't.

It seems to run better when it's hot outside. It was burning up the other day, and it started up and ran fine. It still acts like crap sometimes, but not as often when it's hot.

I thought that maybe the fuel filter was getting clogged, and it only costs 7 dollars so it wouldn't hurt anyway. So, I couldn't get the old one off, but I did check to see if the fuel pump was pumping out when you turn the key, so hopefully that's not it.

Any ideas to help me out here?

 

Oh come on guys, I really need to get this car up and running soon. I need it not only for myself, but to get back at my ex.

 

Sounds like an ignition issue to me. Make sure you're getting normal-strength spark to all your cylinders. You could pull your spark plugs and inspect them, and check gap while they're out (may as well). Do a visual inspection of your plug wires and coil casings and the connections to your coils. Make sure your battery terminals are clean and that the cables fit the battery snugly. If you have a multimeter, you can check the ignition system more thoroughly as instructed by a shop manual. Start with the cheapest stuff first though. Good luck!

 

Ok, here's some more information. I looked at the spark plug wires, and they look normal. I haven't gotten to take out the plugs yet. The clamps can't be loose on the battery, because I use the part where the wires screw into the battery.

When it does start and bog down, if you hit the gas hard, the engine knocks (as in making the sound knock), then it revs up.

 

I forgot that the battery terminals are the screw-in kind (I haven't had my Camaro for very long) but they can still be loose. Make sure they are threaded in snugly if you haven't already done so. You say you had the engine swapped out.. do the wires look like the ones that were originally on that engine, or have they been replaced? I've heard that the positioning of the wires and the engine on the 3.4 results in premature plug wire failure because the heat from the manifolds isn't adequately vented. Your wires could pass a visual inspection but still be malfunctioning. When I replaced the plugs on mine (86k miles, sat outdoors for ~6 months) one the wires came apart. The previous owner had complained of poor operation and loss of power. I'm not guaranteeing that's the problem but when your motor has issues starting or with power, the fuel delivery and ignition systems are usually suspect. You could also try running some fuel injector cleaner through the system; I wouldn't be surprised if clogged injectors would result in the symptoms you're dealing with.

 

Ok, I was planning on buying better plugs and wires eventually anyway, so I'm probably going to buy some Accel wires tomorrow, and some high performance plugs. This seems to be the most common response from what everyone has told me. It is always this or the fuel pump after I talk to people, and I talked to a guy that came in a Camaro down at my store, and he said his does the same thing, and he replaced the fuel pump. Apparently that didn't fix his car, so I'm going for the plugs and wires for now.