my car is in the shop and i have a feeling they are going to tell me at least everything thats wired up in the engine compartment will have to be redone and im going to ask the "smarts" around here if they would happen to be able to give me a price range before i allowed them to go ahead and just start working

because i dont feel like being over charged and for some reason or another i feel thats what they are going to suggest doing anyway ... i havent heard anything from them yet but i just have the feeling

to get it running its about 180 + towing and tax ...so like 250-275 ...thats straight but they said theres alot wrong /bad with it and i should just sell it and im getting a list of everything on friday ...and the car back on friday too so we will see exactly what needs to be done ....i think i just blew 1800 dollars ...on something i shouldnt have *cries*

i dunno what to do guys give me some motivation here :( my parents are going to force me to sell it and i dont want to i rather fix its issues since im going to be spending like 10-15 grand to make it really suped up anyway over the next year or two

Well, let me take a shot at this. I don't know your back ground or mechanical ability and I don't have a history on the car but if it's in a repair shop I think you should follow a few basic steps. First and foremost DO NOT sign an open ended work order. Sign one for diagnosis only and get an approximate price. You shouldn't pay more than 10 per cent more of the original quote. Then if you want to go ahead with the work you'll know what it's gonna cost. If it needs parts such as a wiring harness (you mentioned wiring)these can be real expensive. Aftermarket harnesses for older cars are reasonable, and I don't think anyone is making one for an 86 yet. A dealer engine or light harness for an 86 will cost big bucks. If that is what it needs I would shop at the nearest salvage yard. If the garage you are dealing with is local, get some referrals if you can. It doesn't hurt to get as much info as you can. Just remember labour isn't cheap. Have you considered buying a service manual and trying this yourself? If the diagnosis says wiring and the guy says he can fix it for a reasonable cost then you have a decision to make. A manual may cost $100.00 and add this to your time (you decide what your time is worth) and you may be able to tackle this and save money, learn something and get that warm fuzzy feeling of accomplishment.
Hope this helps. If you need more help, try and give some more info. Good Luck.

ill post more information later tonight when i get out of work ...the car is being retowed back here today ..with a list of everything that needs to be done ...i went over there and started her up and she idles really rough and i think thats because of a few hoses my dad messed with ... im thinking about getting her just to run smooth and then go from there , they replaced everything that was wired wroong and it cost 185 + labor ...it looks pretty neat how they did it so i give them props and she will start but very very rough idle once again ...ill locate the problem myself smile.gif since no one else will without wanting $$$ in their pocket haha

and yes they are a local shop and they say she needs a lot of work, which tells me its going to be like a grand probably for parts and the rest of it in labor ,

Ive already set aside some cash for a 12 bolt rear end to add into it ...its costing me about 1600 ...is that a good price or to expensive for a 12 bolt chevy rear end? .... and now im looking for a drivetrain and a transmission that will support up to 700-850 hp ...ive found some from the 1800-2500 range but im asking you guys for some help on the decision of that

and later on down the road ill be dropping a new engine into it, im looking for something that will kick at least 650-700 hp..but thats later down the road

right now my goals are
Rear end
drive train
transmission

and its going to be costly smile.gif then after that ill need to give the body a little more support and drop in the engine ....

I don't mess around with conversions with your year of car. I don't know if $1600.00 is a good price or not. I would guess that a 12 bolt in good shape that will bolt up to your year of car would be worth at least that. The only other piece of advice I would like to give you is be careful how much money you sink into this car. In other words if you put $20,000.00 into a $10,000.00 (market value) car, that's all it's worth and you are gonna loose $10,000.00. If you have a Z/28, COPO, or Yenko you can throw all kinds of money at it and you will probably get it all back but ask yourself if this is the right car to sink a lot of very hard earned money into?
Jim

I may sound too much like a Dad, but, if you like the car, then if I were you, I'd focus on getting the car to run correctly first before dreaming of mods to it.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but, you've spent alot of money buying this car, then spending half as much getting it diagnosed. Now, you are going to spend more for stock parts. Even your father has given his time in helping you in attempting to fix the car.

I would think the least you could do is to fix it to make it run correctly, even if it stock, just to see the smile on your Dad's face for accomplishing something. Then drive the car and some "return on investment." Save your money for mods later.

Believe me, your father would be happy for you if you got it running and started to drive it.

But, like I said earlier, maybe I'm just being an old foggie.

they want 400-500 bucks to do a really good tune-up and such ...im taking it home and doing the tune up for a ****load cheaper ....then they said it needs about a grand to do everything ...i told them basically give me the list ill start it and w/e i cant do alone ill let them do ...which wont be much ...its a tune-up ...wtf can be so hard about a tune-up ahhh

yes! the distributor and rotor look hard to do but everything else is pretty straight forward ...

Valve cover gaskets
Distributor cap
rotor
spark plugs and cables
and a clip for my intake ...the end

this is going to be a two day project since my car isnt here yet and i have to go to work in like 3 hours :(

Get yourself a manual and join the club.
Good Luck! graemlins/beers.gif
Jim

after about 45 mins smile.gif i got 3 replaced and broke one off but luckily i could still get it out of the block smile.gif muhaha! thank god for stupid spark plugs hehe it snapped on about a quarter turn with a spark plug ratchet ...needless to say i through a hissyfit muhahaha and then i figured i can still get it out and managed too

so pretty much i redid 3 out of 8 spark plugs and cables ...5 more to go ...i hope its not going to rain all day tomorrow and i feel a little bit less under the weather :( ...coming down with a sickness and theres no way im going to be able to focus under a car like this ...blah!

You've probably did the front three. Wait till you do #8 - pass side rear, next to the firewall.

Sorry for your illness, it sucks.

she runs like a charm now but i have some gauge issues or wiring problems and im looking for causes

when using blinkers the gauges go crazy everything the interior makes the tick* sound ...and then when i turn on my lights for night driving my right blinker light comes on and stays on ...but the blinker isnt toggled

Sounds like a ground issue. Make sure there is a good ground wire from the negative battery post to the inner fender first. After that it gets harder to access but you have to make sure the guage cluster has a good ground to the car body.

ill play tomorrow smile.gif i was thinking it has to deal with the wires from the gauges but i wasnt to sure ill check it out since they are probably rusted and such ....

i have another question now ...why does she smell! ...she smells like high octane 94 smile.gif when you turn her off or you get out of the car and you smell like it ...is this regular or is this because she hasnt been driven and something else is wrong with her?

its not as bad as it was but its still pretty lean ... i think the valve cover gaskets need to be done asap ...since my shop says they would advise doing that they said she would run and grip stronger than she does now ...and boy does she now ;)

Glad to hear you're making progress out there..
Yep, sounds like you have some ground issues there, they're the most common wiring headaches, and the most illusive.. but when you find the source of the problem, the problem goes away!!

Try running your car with the gas cap loose, it sounds like you may have a bad venting cap there(possible cause of lean running and fuel smell), or gremlins in the vapor recovery system (another source of fuel smell) (aka charcoal can) check the vacuum lines going to and from it, located in the left fender towards the radiator support if memory serves me correctly..

G'luck

thanks for all the tips and everything haha im home sick right now but probably before i go to work in a few hours ill check out everything ...a lot of people think the hard idle might be the IAC ...but im not to sure on a TPI where it would be ...and i cant find any pictures of locations where it would be ...ill pull the engine apart to find it smile.gif thats not a problem ...and im going to have to do my valve cover gaskets anyway since my shop says it wouldnt hurt to do those asap anyway

Check the EGR too!
Jim

bah she started again! ...the camaro gods are out to get her i think ...her gauges dont twitch but when i use headlights or anything internal the right turn signal light turns on ...and my oil gauge doesnt read anymore !?!? ....and umm i think my fuse for my interior lights when ary because those dont turn on anymore hehe OOPS! ...i swear the map button was a bit to fun to have in my posession

ok well she runs now ...and has one fault idle but it recovered very well ...the problem is now i have a hose that went to nowhere and still goes to nowhere! it comes out of the thing (dont know what its called) its behind the throttle ...there is one hose that runs off to a pipe and the pipe heads towards the back of the block ...and the other one which does the same suction thing heads off to nowhere which i think is entirely wrong ...correct me if i am wrong ...but both of these suck and one goes to a pipe and one goes to absolutely nowhere!...ill take a picture tonight and post it

One hose on the pass side goes to the steel tubing to the rear of the engine valve cover and into the PCV. The other tubing goes to the air filter and gets connected to the other (drvr side) valve cover.

hrmm my issue is ....theres no other opening in the valve cover besides the one in the front part of it that im pretty sure deals with the oil? ....i think if i find out where this hose is sappose to go i could really have it setup right ...but i cant find any pictures

yes! i have a aftermarket cd player in my camaro but the bad thing is ...my rpm gauge magically stopped working ...the guy who helped me wire it up *a guy from bestbuy* pretty much told me not to screw with anything that the guy before me screwed up ...so the guy capped all the live wires and such for me so they dont ground out the car and have it shut off on me magically ...and like i said my only issue now is still the blinker thing and my dad thinks it could be because the wrong wattage bulb is in the side blinker ...which makes sense somewhat ...and now the rpm gauge is stupid

Buy a Haynes manual. Plenty of pictures. Will cut down on alot of confusion.

when i get paid and get out of debt ;) hehe

there is alot of things that are out of wack haha but now she idles better and some of her minor issues are fading away ...im thinkin most of the stuff came on when she sat for about 4 months...not being ran

i just found something really rare ...ill post pics in a bit ...but i think its the ECU ...but why would it be thrown under my dash?

I have like 6 buttons under the dash also that i have no clue what they do ...but i pulled it all apart and found a computer chip thing with a min and max on it ...and it says titan on it

The normal location for mounting the ECU is long ways up connectors on the bottom and it fits into a bracket in the pass side dash. It will have a module attached to it stamped "BOSCH."

The "TITAN" might be the wiper delay item.

its the car alarm i got intouch with steve and he goes you could really take it out if you want ...the guy that wired it up was a newb first time wiring person because the wires just run up to ...nowhere? lol and now it doesnt work so im bout to just pull it out ...its a titan alarm system

hrm the iroc is running a little rich i guess you could say ...my dad says it could be the cat converter or the o2 sensors ...or it might need a ring job done to it ...

she smokes when you start her from a dead cold morning or w/e until she gets warmed up and then she runs smooth but still semi smelly? ...like the burned gas smell ...any suggestions?

If you smell "rotten eggs," then it could be a cat conv. Cats were designed to last 50K miles. One-wire O2 sensors are cheap, might replace it and see/smell what happens. Can't hurt.

ok thanks for elminating the cat converter smile.gif ...i got paid yesturday well i was finally smart enough to get my paycheck lol ...so i guess today since i have nothing better to do ill take a spin over to advanced auto parts and pickup o2 sensors since you said they are cheap ...what can they possibly run?