The Camaro Club (UK)

Pleased you got it started, and running at least. Hopefully the gremlins will show themselves at the weekend...

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“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

The gauge (0-100PSI, fluid filled) cost me £22.99 and connectors (blue anodised) £12.93 (had to make a right angle so it fits out of the side of the plenum.

How about £15 all in, including postage? Brand new, never fitted. I can send you links if you want to have a look?

If you are interested just double check your fittings, you could buy an adaptor if needed, but all mine is supposed to be 1/8 NPT

Let me know :-)

Cheers

Jon

Cheers Stu, i will first try what Neil suggests about checking the fuel vacuum pipe. The car has always been running rich / unburnt as the smell from the exhaust can be quite potent. Maybe the valve stem seals haven't really been the cause of the smokey start, but unburnt fuel instead. I'll see if the guy can send the adjustable fuel regulator over - he's also holding a clutch for me for when i'm vising the area to save on postage, but for just the fuel reg it'll probably quite cheap to post.

If it's not the fuel pressure reg then only other i can think of is leaky fuel injectors. There's a refurb place in Long Island near when my friend lives, so may take them with me when i visit.

In the meantime i'll also change the timing, as you suggest Jon i'll disconnect the electric auto spark timing bit and adjust the dizzy to get it closer to 6 degrees as the manual suggests. The acceleration is very good and you don't need to put your foot down much to take off, so if i lose some acceleration it's really no loss.

Price sounds good for the gauge and fittings, thanks for that Can you shoot me a PM please with your paypal address and i'll send you the cash along with address?

Thanks again for all the help!

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Ran out of time on the weekend, there's a 2nd gen that seems to like all the attention
I'll do the fuel test this weekend and also look at the timing...

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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).

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Ok i finally got around to working on the 3rd gen. Loosened the distributor, unplugged the brown&black wire by the passenger firewall, unplugged the battery for a minute, then started it and with a timing light adjusted timing to 6 deg btdc. It seemed to run better idling at 800 rpm. It actually seemed to run even better at 0 deg tdc, whilst i was adjusting it. The idle did drop a bit to about 600 rpm but seemed comfortable there. Anyway, brought it to 6deg as that's what the sticker under the bonnet says, so i'll give it a try. Looks like it was about 30deg before adjusting.

After that, reconnected brown&black wire, unplugged battery to reset fault code, then started up. Seemed to run a bit better but still seems a bit off. Still idles up and down a bit. like it's still hunting and doesn't seem to want to settle. Going to give the Idle control thing a clean, if i can find and remove it. Also will clean the throttle body incase that's causing something.

Wanted to replace the 02 sensor also, but thanks to the AIR pipes, no chance. That's another story in itself. I still can't get them off and it's really getting at me. I spent £100 on 2 sets of tools designed for removing flare fittings (crow style and full round style). Neither worked. The both just deformed and rounded off the nuts. I think i'm gonna have to pull the headers off and then weld a bar onto each nut and try that way. They completely block off access to the spark plug wires, let alone the spark plugs, 02 sensor etc. What an awful design. I wouldn't mind upgrading to proper headers, but nowhere seems to make them that fit the stock output location

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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").

After checking the next day, the timing was back to quite advanced, so think this is related to the electronic spark timing. Went through the process again and moved the timing to 4deg advanced and it does appear to run a bit smoother and the idle seems to be more consistent. Seems to have better vacuum as the brakes feel more solid. The idle does dip sometimes when slowing down to a stop but recovers more quickly and stays stable, but not as frequent as it used to be.

Interestingly, with the spark timing disconnected, i got no puffs of smoke when restarting and couldn't appear to smell unburnt fuel. As soon as i plugged in the EST, smoked came out and the fuel smell is back

I will have another long weekend next weekend, so i will pull the headers off, remove the AIR (even if it means cutting wire pipes and welding them shut) and then i can swap out the O2 sensor, see if that helps anything.

Also took the dizzy cap off and cleaned the terminals, looked pretty clean but ran some sand paper over to get rid of any corrosion.

Found a bit of a slow leak, appears to be coming from the lower radiator hose. Do have some replacement hoses, so thinking about doing a coolant flush over the winter and swapping them out, along with a new thermostat.

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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").