1981 Camaro Z28

[MP81]

Tackled the driver-side valve cover gasket today.

Cleaned off the valve cover some and vacuumed around the flanges to make sure no debris would fall in while trying to maneuver the thing off.


Looked nice and clean underneath.


Underside of the valve cover, cork gasket still "attached".


Gasket removed - the lower 1/3 of the gasket was pretty noticeably not attached as well to the valve cover as the rest of the gasket, and more oily. Also cleaned up the valve cover of all the grime that was on it before.


Valve cover back on. The gasket set came with spreaders


I now have one shiny and one grimy valve cover.


Back together - the clean valve cover really pops, makes the engine bay seem a little cleaner. Also wiped off some of the grime on the AC compressor and the dust/dirt on the inner fenders, fan shroud, etc.



Got it all back together and fired it up - and still seeing smoke. Looking closer, it seems to be coming from farther down - near where the exhaust bolts up to the manifold. Not sure if it's dripping down there or what, but changing the gasket didn't seem to do shit. Maybe there is residual left from before, I don't know.

That being one issue, the other is the carb, and where it likes to idle - namely about 2-3k rpm.

Long story short, talking with Craig (@9T8W66) on the phone today, he was leaning towards the distributor advance kicking in and causing the idle to increase that far all by itself.

I disconnected the 4-wire connector, disabling the advance, and the car's idle was about flawless - sitting at 1k and dropping down to 750 once it warmed up - which is pretty clearly how it is supposed to operate.

So, this begs the question of why is the distributor forcing it to idle so god damn high. Even when it would idle more "normally", it would still be at about 1500 rpm. Any ideas?

[JoeliusZ28]

Probably the timing adjustment of the distributor generating (or lacking) vacuum such that it thinks it needs to advance more. Kind of a mechanical endless loop of sorts. Will probably settle down like it should with some advance/retard of the distributor.

Also id bet the oil on the manifold is previous buildup. It might take a 20-30 miles to burn that off entirely i wouldnt assume theres still a problem at this point.

[MP81]

Probably the timing adjustment of the distributor generating (or lacking) vacuum such that it thinks it needs to advance more. Kind of a mechanical endless loop of sorts. Will probably settle down like it should with some advance/retard of the distributor.

Also id bet the oil on the manifold is previous buildup. It might take a 20-30 miles to burn that off entirely i wouldnt assume theres still a problem at this point.

It's an ESC distributor (81 was the first year for that) - so no vacuum feed, all electronic.

And yeah, that's what I was starting to think. I'll reach down there and try to clean it off, if I can, to help it along. The smoke definitely was coming from lower - not from up higher like before.

[MP81]

Glad to find out the heater core was leaking, so my uncle cut the hoses and bypassed it...so...no heat. Great.

So need to do the heater core - which apparently means the AC lines need to be evacuated.

[JoeliusZ28]

Gotta pull the dash for that?

[MP81]

If it's the same procedure as the core on cars without AC (Chilton manual literally doesn't give you the procedure for AC cars, because of the "danger" ):

"

1. Disconnect the negative battery cable. Drain the radiator. Disconnect the heater hoses.
   
2. Remove the nuts that attach the heater case to the firewall (from the firewall side). Then, remove the screws from inside the car.
   
3. Remove the glovebox and door. Remove the screws attaching the heater outlet duct to the heater case, and remove the duct.
   
4. Remove the defroster screw. Pull the heater case out. The core may now be pulled out of the case.
   
5. Reverse the removal procedure to install. Use new seals between the heater case and firewall."

[JoeliusZ28]

Doesnt sound bad at all

[MP81]

Doesnt sound bad at all

Not really - just having to evac all the AC lines isn't something I'd be looking forward to doing.

[Darren]

who needs heat

[MP81]

My wife. She can be cold in the car with the windows down on an 80 degree day - I can only imagine how "frozen" she'll be with the T-tops off on a 60-degree night on Woodward.

Right now it's not high on my list of things to do. Set of headers will heat the interior plenty.

[Darren]

My wife. She can be cold in the car with the windows down on an 80 degree day - I can only imagine how "frozen" she'll be with the T-tops off on a 60-degree night on Woodward.

Right now it's not high on my list of things to do. Set of headers will heat the interior plenty.

Heat is usless in that car, and even more so if you actually cruise with it on.

I've said once i'll say again I have a set of hooker mids, and y pipe (although I would get a new one made or go duals) I would sell dirt cheap if you want them.

[MP81]

Why would the heat be useless? My Camaro's heat was more than fine in the winter.

And do you know the part number for them?

[Darren]

Why would the heat be useless? My Camaro's heat was more than fine in the winter.

And do you know the part number for them?

You're planning on driving this car in the winter?

I can see if there is a part number on them. Had them on my car before going to long tubes.

[JoeliusZ28]

Youre gonna need 2 1/4" primary tubes to let all the ponies gallop free with that 305 under the hood.

[MP81]

You're planning on driving this car in the winter?

I can see if there is a part number on them. Had them on my car before going to long tubes.

Oh hell no. But I've had plenty of times during the spring or fall where it's nice to have heat in the morning or at night.

Okay, perfect, thanks.