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I think I have pinned the problem to my after market hood vents, but after reading other threads on this subject, I may be wrong.
Ever since I have removed the plastic vents from my car, and replaced them with what I have now....
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...7-3798_IMG.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...1/DSCF0632.jpg
...I have had problems when it sat out in the rain, and was driven the next day. Which has actually only been twice .
It rained a few times after I put these on, and the morning after when I drove to work it began to misfire every time I tried to reach anything above 2.5k rpm's. This misfire was intermittent and felt like it was right under my foot on the accellerator. When I made it to work, I remembered reading about our 93-97 Camaros having water issues with functional hood vents, so they were replaced with black plastic covering vents. Now after thinking about it, I had remembered that when taking them off, they had pegs on them that weren't so easy to remove, and that these pegs probably plugged it up so that water did not get in there. And yes, I probably should have just placed the new ones over my plastic ones, but it just didn't look right. So, with that in mind, I used part of my lunch break to go down to the local auto store to get some RVT Black Silicone Sealant to plug up the holes temporarily. Looking from different angles of the hood, I could see daylight shining through 3 rectangualr holes near the bottom of the vents. I applied the silicone appropriately. By the time work was over (5pm), it seemed to have dried up on the drive home, and I figured I had temporarily solved the problem. Even though it didn't rain since then, I had washed my car several times, often squirting the water directly into the vents to get out the soap that many of us know sometimes gets stuck in there. I even noticed it holding up when a puddle of water would accumulate on the hood vent, and stay at the same level.
Fast forward to today, when I picked up my car from JBA Racing, with headers installed, massive oil leak fixed, etc. The car sounded great (LOUD!) and ran great. My dad said he didn't think he had any problems with it on the drive home (he drove home because he helped pay the bill :cool. It had rained a little the previous night, but that didn't occur to me until it was time for me to drive. The misfiring would occur intermittently at high RPMs only and almost always at WOT, sometimes it wouldn't misfire when you put on the gas, sometimes it did. Again, I could feel the vibration under my foot, just like the last time. Only this time the misfiring didn't seem as severe. I thought that I had had the same problem all over again, and maybe the silicone needed to be re-applied. So I didn't drive it again until 4 hours later. On my drive home from where I was, it ran fine, "halleluja, I thought, it just needed to be dried up again". But, when I got home and discussed it with my dad, he got in the car and started messing with it going up and down the street, revving it, etc. And he says it started happening to him, I could even hear it in the engine sometimes on passes (I was standing on the sidewalk, listening to the engine as he passed). I applied more silicone and am hoping for the best tomorrow morning. If it doesn't rain tonight, then we shall see if it has dried up or not.
Maybe it was still just a little wet? But why would it run fine for 25 miles, then act up again? And how did my silicone begin to not work? Was it the heat or something that caused one of the holes to be pushed out again? And why would this not occur when I washed my car?
If I am correct and it is the hood vents, it may be the answer to some of your problems as well, even if you still have your stock plastic vents. I don't see how they would be completely water tight, even if they appear to plug up the holes.
Those with 98+ year models, maybe I'm confused, but yours uses a different kind of vent, correct? And it is not fake, like ours? Or maybe I'm wrong, and this applies to you as well.
I need to find a more permenant solution during rain season, staying out of the rain (ie: garage) is not an option for me.
NOTE: My heat sheild under the hood has been taken off.
Thoughts?
And on an unrelated note, can someone describe to me "knock and ping" that I sometimes hear about after header installs, so I know what to watch out for?
Ever since I have removed the plastic vents from my car, and replaced them with what I have now....
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...7-3798_IMG.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...1/DSCF0632.jpg
...I have had problems when it sat out in the rain, and was driven the next day. Which has actually only been twice .
It rained a few times after I put these on, and the morning after when I drove to work it began to misfire every time I tried to reach anything above 2.5k rpm's. This misfire was intermittent and felt like it was right under my foot on the accellerator. When I made it to work, I remembered reading about our 93-97 Camaros having water issues with functional hood vents, so they were replaced with black plastic covering vents. Now after thinking about it, I had remembered that when taking them off, they had pegs on them that weren't so easy to remove, and that these pegs probably plugged it up so that water did not get in there. And yes, I probably should have just placed the new ones over my plastic ones, but it just didn't look right. So, with that in mind, I used part of my lunch break to go down to the local auto store to get some RVT Black Silicone Sealant to plug up the holes temporarily. Looking from different angles of the hood, I could see daylight shining through 3 rectangualr holes near the bottom of the vents. I applied the silicone appropriately. By the time work was over (5pm), it seemed to have dried up on the drive home, and I figured I had temporarily solved the problem. Even though it didn't rain since then, I had washed my car several times, often squirting the water directly into the vents to get out the soap that many of us know sometimes gets stuck in there. I even noticed it holding up when a puddle of water would accumulate on the hood vent, and stay at the same level.
Fast forward to today, when I picked up my car from JBA Racing, with headers installed, massive oil leak fixed, etc. The car sounded great (LOUD!) and ran great. My dad said he didn't think he had any problems with it on the drive home (he drove home because he helped pay the bill :cool. It had rained a little the previous night, but that didn't occur to me until it was time for me to drive. The misfiring would occur intermittently at high RPMs only and almost always at WOT, sometimes it wouldn't misfire when you put on the gas, sometimes it did. Again, I could feel the vibration under my foot, just like the last time. Only this time the misfiring didn't seem as severe. I thought that I had had the same problem all over again, and maybe the silicone needed to be re-applied. So I didn't drive it again until 4 hours later. On my drive home from where I was, it ran fine, "halleluja, I thought, it just needed to be dried up again". But, when I got home and discussed it with my dad, he got in the car and started messing with it going up and down the street, revving it, etc. And he says it started happening to him, I could even hear it in the engine sometimes on passes (I was standing on the sidewalk, listening to the engine as he passed). I applied more silicone and am hoping for the best tomorrow morning. If it doesn't rain tonight, then we shall see if it has dried up or not.
Maybe it was still just a little wet? But why would it run fine for 25 miles, then act up again? And how did my silicone begin to not work? Was it the heat or something that caused one of the holes to be pushed out again? And why would this not occur when I washed my car?
If I am correct and it is the hood vents, it may be the answer to some of your problems as well, even if you still have your stock plastic vents. I don't see how they would be completely water tight, even if they appear to plug up the holes.
Those with 98+ year models, maybe I'm confused, but yours uses a different kind of vent, correct? And it is not fake, like ours? Or maybe I'm wrong, and this applies to you as well.
I need to find a more permenant solution during rain season, staying out of the rain (ie: garage) is not an option for me.
NOTE: My heat sheild under the hood has been taken off.
Thoughts?
And on an unrelated note, can someone describe to me "knock and ping" that I sometimes hear about after header installs, so I know what to watch out for?
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