AaroGaming
New member
I bought this '89 Camaro on February 14th, this vehicle was parked across the street from my Grandma in 2011, and hadn't run for a few years.
305 V8 5.0l paired to a 700R4 automatic trans.
So why wait to work on it right? By the 18th Liz (the girlfriend) and I moved it over to my Grandma's house and left it for the night.
On the 19th (Friday), after work, I installed the hood supports, put the new battery in, and moved the car into the garage where Bill (auto body tech and friend as well as the new owner of the '97 Camaro RS w/ 3800 series I sold) helped me get the battery hooked in correctly, and we organized through the interior. I stayed the night there after Bill and Liz both left for the night.
On the 20th (Saturday) I got up early and got some PB Blaster, Sea-foam, 93 octane fuel, WD-40, and a breaker bar with a 5/8" socket from O'Reilly's and I got back, sprayed down the pulleys and accessories as to make it easier for the crank to spin. After breakfast with mom, grandma, and the girlfriend, I returned to working on the car. I pushed it out into the driveway, jacked it up and Liz returned with a wild Devon (random friend that loves cars) who ended up helping me pull all the spark plugs and spray some hyper-lubricant into the cylinders to help the piston rings from shredding when I tried to get it to crank.
Once we lubricated the cylinders I got the engine to crank using the breaker bar and I spun it a good 3 rotations before we tried cranking it via ignition.
Turn the key anddddd nothing, occasionally not even the fuel pump. Previous owner replaced the starter and water pump, and we can hear the fuel pump turn on so what's the deal? We started diagnosing it and we ended up tearing into the steering column, and after messing with the ignition cylinder we got it to crank, and not only did it crank, IT FIRED UP. IT SOUNDED GOOOOD. So from there we packed up all the tools, put them away and took it nice and slow down the road, brakes worked, transmission went through gears as it should, and the tires were rolling smoothly. It was running so well in fact that we drove it all the way to O'Reilly in Algonac from Anchor Bay Drive!
It turns out the car has a few pinholes rusted into the fuel line in the engine bay, and it started dying on the way there yet never actually died, but it did sound deprived of air/fuel even after it had parked. After deciding it must need a little throttle body adjustment the air cleaner/casing was removed and we started it up.
The car backfired out of the throttle body and set the fuel system on fire! But this isn't the end of the car! I turned it off immediately, Edward (friend who works at O'Reilly's) runs into the store and get the extinguisher in record time, putting out the fire after only seconds! Granted we had to sweep dry-chem off the parking lot for a while, nothing was really damaged. In fact the dry-chem actually helped me locate the fuel line that had leaked, and the part is on order. A fire extinguisher was put in the Camaro and after sitting overnight it was driven back to my house, now left to wait for the replacement fuel line.
And that's the story of how I got a 1989 Camaro running and driving over a weekend and only spending $745.62
before ordering the new fuel line @ $158.72 (stainless steel costed extra but not rusting is gonna be worth it).
305 V8 5.0l paired to a 700R4 automatic trans.
So why wait to work on it right? By the 18th Liz (the girlfriend) and I moved it over to my Grandma's house and left it for the night.
On the 19th (Friday), after work, I installed the hood supports, put the new battery in, and moved the car into the garage where Bill (auto body tech and friend as well as the new owner of the '97 Camaro RS w/ 3800 series I sold) helped me get the battery hooked in correctly, and we organized through the interior. I stayed the night there after Bill and Liz both left for the night.
On the 20th (Saturday) I got up early and got some PB Blaster, Sea-foam, 93 octane fuel, WD-40, and a breaker bar with a 5/8" socket from O'Reilly's and I got back, sprayed down the pulleys and accessories as to make it easier for the crank to spin. After breakfast with mom, grandma, and the girlfriend, I returned to working on the car. I pushed it out into the driveway, jacked it up and Liz returned with a wild Devon (random friend that loves cars) who ended up helping me pull all the spark plugs and spray some hyper-lubricant into the cylinders to help the piston rings from shredding when I tried to get it to crank.
Once we lubricated the cylinders I got the engine to crank using the breaker bar and I spun it a good 3 rotations before we tried cranking it via ignition.
Turn the key anddddd nothing, occasionally not even the fuel pump. Previous owner replaced the starter and water pump, and we can hear the fuel pump turn on so what's the deal? We started diagnosing it and we ended up tearing into the steering column, and after messing with the ignition cylinder we got it to crank, and not only did it crank, IT FIRED UP. IT SOUNDED GOOOOD. So from there we packed up all the tools, put them away and took it nice and slow down the road, brakes worked, transmission went through gears as it should, and the tires were rolling smoothly. It was running so well in fact that we drove it all the way to O'Reilly in Algonac from Anchor Bay Drive!
It turns out the car has a few pinholes rusted into the fuel line in the engine bay, and it started dying on the way there yet never actually died, but it did sound deprived of air/fuel even after it had parked. After deciding it must need a little throttle body adjustment the air cleaner/casing was removed and we started it up.
The car backfired out of the throttle body and set the fuel system on fire! But this isn't the end of the car! I turned it off immediately, Edward (friend who works at O'Reilly's) runs into the store and get the extinguisher in record time, putting out the fire after only seconds! Granted we had to sweep dry-chem off the parking lot for a while, nothing was really damaged. In fact the dry-chem actually helped me locate the fuel line that had leaked, and the part is on order. A fire extinguisher was put in the Camaro and after sitting overnight it was driven back to my house, now left to wait for the replacement fuel line.
And that's the story of how I got a 1989 Camaro running and driving over a weekend and only spending $745.62
before ordering the new fuel line @ $158.72 (stainless steel costed extra but not rusting is gonna be worth it).
