The Camaro Club (UK)

In both January and February the 305 tpi decided take a day off and not start (made a post in the general forum about it at the time). First time, it was flooded and ran rough when finally started until giving plenty of revs for a while to clear it out. Second time around, it started and died, then when trying later it started and died. Breakdown guy checked and no spark. Narrowed it down to ICM (Ignition Control Module). Which we believed was a cause of flooding - bad spark. It's been getting rougher and rougher. The other day after driving home, went to start the car after about 30 minutes and i had to keep revving it as i could feel it wanted to die out.

Ordered a new ICM, coil, spark plugs, leads, rotor and PCV valve (just in case). Waiting for the delivery, was hoping it would turn up today. Decided to pull the spark plugs and they sure needed a clean (will post pics). Also, a lot easier to get to the plugs without the AIR system in the way. Used a wire brush and carb cleaner and they looked almost new afterwards (about 1.5 years they've been in). Closed the gap on them to 0.035 thou as they were a bit wider than that, so hopefully that's helped a bit. Also took out the intake pipe and used MAF cleaner to clean the sensor, just incase the air intake was misreading.

Started up straight away (which it always does from cold) and seemed to run a bit smoother, but still has hesitation. You can hear and feel it jump every now and then, kind of like a misfire (probably is a misfire). Doesn't seem to settle at idle, goes up a bit, then down, then up a bit, then down. Never settles to a smooth idle though. Interesting when i took the spark plugs out, on the drivers side i could smell fuel vapour when removing them, but not on the passenger side. Car had been sitting about 15 hours.

Fingers crossed having cleaned the spark plugs will get me through another few weeks as it was starting to get a bit sketchy especially in stop start traffic. Then fingers really crossed that changing the ICM, rotor, leads and coil will make the difference. Leads look original, they've definitely got a few years on them. Disti cap - contacts are clean. Rotor was looking worn. Coil is original. ICM has been changed before, and i've read that people have had issues with non AC Delco ones.

Other than that, gave it a well needed wash today and got some wax on half of it before it got too dark.

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Do you have the "extra" injector for start ups, I think it
richens the system for the initial start.
I´m really not sure on that one, I believe the earlier TPI´s had them.

Junk the tpi and manifold, stick a Holley ontop and kisss those pesky injection problems goodbye for ever, I ran a Holley and Malory dizzy on my 305 3rd gen ten years ago and it's still going strong today

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1997 30th Anniversary SS SLP
1993 GMC Typhoon

Good question - i think the ECU is setup to dump extra fuel in when it starts up. That's what i've read on a couple of forums and the recovery guy said the same, so i think that's what it's doing.
I didn't know you had a 3rd gen! Is it still in your possession?

Here are some pics of the sparks when pulled:

Drivers side bank (cylinder 8 closest, 5 farthest) :

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How to post pics: When writing a message, scroll down and use the "attach file" option. Where possible, a photo sharing service can be used such as Flickr, Imgur etc. The image location (usually ending in .jpg) can be copy and pasted between the ][ brackets that appear when you click the 'Img' button (you can find this button at the top of the message box).

How to post youtube vids: Click on the 'youtubeHD' button at the top of the message box and in the middle of the ][ brackets that just appeared, copy and paste everything from the youtube web address that appears after the = sign i.e if this is the url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2cNqaPSHv0 just copy "K2cNqaPSHv0").

i had an IROC but sold it about ten years ago to a friend, it was a rare graphite grey colour but his girlfriend demanded he resprayed it pink for her to drive and purple! i think i probably shaved 30lbs off of it when i binned all the emissions smog control garbage and put a carb on though.

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1997 30th Anniversary SS SLP
1993 GMC Typhoon

are you aware that you can run diagnostics on those engines using a paperclip?

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1997 30th Anniversary SS SLP
1993 GMC Typhoon

Yikes! Has he convinced her it's better in the stock colour? Don't think i've ever seen a pink 3rd gen!
Ye, i got rid of the smog pump and piping, definitely lost some weight and access was so much easier on the spark plugs. Did the whole passenger side in about 10 minutes, the way it should be
I've heard about that but not yet tried it. I think you place a paperclip between the top right and bottom right connections, then turn the key and it flashes the service engine light and you count the flashed to get the code number?

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How to post pics: When writing a message, scroll down and use the "attach file" option. Where possible, a photo sharing service can be used such as Flickr, Imgur etc. The image location (usually ending in .jpg) can be copy and pasted between the ][ brackets that appear when you click the 'Img' button (you can find this button at the top of the message box).

How to post youtube vids: Click on the 'youtubeHD' button at the top of the message box and in the middle of the ][ brackets that just appeared, copy and paste everything from the youtube web address that appears after the = sign i.e if this is the url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2cNqaPSHv0 just copy "K2cNqaPSHv0").

http://www.thirdgen.org/service-engine- ... ror-codes/
you can also buy or make a convertor of some sort to allow use of an obd2 code reader

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1997 30th Anniversary SS SLP
1993 GMC Typhoon

Thanks for the link! Ye there's actually a place in the U.S that makes a unit - called something like red river or digital river, that plugs into obd1 and transmits via bluetooth. You then use ALDLdroid App and that app interprets the code and gives you full access to the ECU and displays it all, so you can read everything as well as the codes. Quite cool as you can use your phone as a live read out when driving, good way of seeing how accurate the gauges are. Think i will ask my friend to bring one over in May. In the meantime... paperclip.

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How to post pics: When writing a message, scroll down and use the "attach file" option. Where possible, a photo sharing service can be used such as Flickr, Imgur etc. The image location (usually ending in .jpg) can be copy and pasted between the ][ brackets that appear when you click the 'Img' button (you can find this button at the top of the message box).

How to post youtube vids: Click on the 'youtubeHD' button at the top of the message box and in the middle of the ][ brackets that just appeared, copy and paste everything from the youtube web address that appears after the = sign i.e if this is the url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2cNqaPSHv0 just copy "K2cNqaPSHv0").