scooter2479

Ok I just bought a 88 camaro iroc-z 2.8 v6. First thing is when u start the car, it idles ok for about thirty secs and dies. It does this twice and on the third start the service engine soon light comes on and it runs fine. We took the egr valve off, cleaned it, it moves fine and has vaccum it. That's what the prev owner said theprob was and its not. So Im stummed.

2nd the air control is stuck on defrost. The air conditioning comes on and so does the heater. We followed the lines and the seems to be no vaccum coming into the interior to the servo that controls the vent switch. Now Ibought a chiltons book and tried to trace all the vaccum lines and we found one line that's not connected and we can't for the life of us figure out where it goes. Here are the pics of the hose in question. Any help or insist would be greatly appreciatied. Thanks.

Edit. I'm posting from my phone and it won't letme upload the photos. I'll post them in a few.

ASE doc

First of all, if your car has a 2.8 v6, its not an IROC Z. 88 IROCs had either a 5.0 TPI or a 5.7 TPI. The 2.8 is either a base Camaro or an RS.

The vacuum line in the photo goes to the HVAC controls. There should be a nylon tube poking out of the main engine harness that connects to this hose, look for it. As far as the EGR valve and your stalling are oncerned, is the spring in the valve okay. Just because it has vacuum and you can open it doesnt mean that its not openning at idle. If the EGR opens at idle the engine will stall. You say it has vacuum. It should not have vacuum at idle. Vacuum will cause it to open and again, the engine will stall.

Once you verify that the EGR is in fact staying closed at idle, check out the idle air control valve. Make sure its working okay. The engine should idle at 450 even with the idle air control unplugged so look at the throttle body. Is it dirty and clogged? Clean it with carb cleaner, a bore brush and a rag. Does the engine run rough or just not idle? Hows the tune, wires, plugs, cap and rotor? Just some things to check out.

scooter2479

Ok the valve is opening at idle, so would that mean that the EGR Valve Vacuum Control Solenoid is bad? Also, if you look in the 2nd picture, the wire at the top of the solenoid going up and to the t junction. Should it be going there so to the bottom of the other half of the solenoid. From the book, it shows it going to the bottom of the other half of the solenoid, and if that is the case, what should plug into that other end of the T junction where the open hose is? I hope i didnt make that too confusing.

scooter2479

ok i found a diagram and it's hooked up wrong. im going to go thru the whole vac system tomorrow and double check and fix it.

ASE doc

Good idea. Make sure that your EGR does not have vacuum at idle and does not open at idle.

scooter2479

Ok so finally I located the vac line for the hvac. Someone had cut it and it was barely sticking out and after two hours of looking for it, it's working great now. I checked the egr valve and there is no vaccum at idle. All lines are where they should be now. So, When i start the car, it starts, putters and dies. Twice. Thrid time it starts and the service engine soon light come on and it idles fine and drives fine. It idles at about 750. It does seem to have some get up and go when driving but to me and having driven v6's in the past it seems to be lacking a lil. So i'm at a loss as to what to check next. I haven't yet checked the icv, but I'm wondering if it isn't something with the egr solenoid or control unit. Thoughts?

ASE doc

Check the codes. SES light means the ECM found something wrong. See what it found. Jump terminals A&B, the first two terminals in the upper right corner, of the 12 pin diagnosic link connector(DLC) under the dash. Turn the key on and watch for the SES to flash. Long flashes are tens, short flashes are ones.

scooter2479

Ok i got 12, 32, 33, and 34

ASE doc

32 is EGR sys. 33 is MAF low voltage, 34 is MAF high voltage. Having both maf high and maf low codes generally means the MAF is not working at all. Is it unplugged? Are the relays connected and working. I would bet the engine finally started when the ECM went into memcal fault mode with the MAF failure. The starts and stalls were the ECM trying to function with bad MAF info. You need to diag the MAF failure. Search the tech articles on this forum for a diag chart to follow.

scooter2479

Ok will do and thanks for the help. Heading to work now but i'll let you know what i come up with tomorrow.