CamaroJosh

I forgot to plug the cable back into the MAF... bad thing is i can't find the thing that plugs into it... Thats whats causing the SES light

V8Rumble

Man, I'm REALLY glad I'm not the only one who's forgotten to plug that back in...

Sure, depending on how much the exhaust flow is being blocked - but how many people know enough to ever look at their cat after the engine's in closed loop? The "rattle test" has the benefit of being a "monkey-simple" way to check for a disintegrated brick...

Absolutely agree...

It is, but if you can't find it, then you may be able to drive to your local auto parts store, & have them read the codes for you - at least, the auto parts places where I lived in TX did that...

CamaroJosh

Yea i'm officially a dumbass... I got everything hooked up now... SES light is still on... I went by Autozone to take advantage of the free SES light check... But they don't have the key thing, or mabye the guy didn't care enough to do it(Being that i got it checked several months ago at the same place). While i was there i blew some money on K&N Air filters, needed new Air filters bad...

Anyway ill double check everything tomorrow.. it's late


And another thing... When i'm cranking up the car it will start up fine and rev itself up to about 1.5-2k then the rpms will drop then it will even out at idle RPMs.. Whats up with that

V8Rumble

Sometimes you'll need to clear the codes manually after fixing the problem - but don't do it until you're sure that the problem is fixed!

Actually, forget what I said immediately above - I've been thinking a bit more about it, & IIRC, my SES light went away when I re-connected the MAF... I'm guessing that you have one or more additional issues. Have you checked for vacuum leaks (as suggested by "91" above) yet? That seems like the most likely culprit...

You might have better luck tomorrow when (hopefully) someone else is there - but if not, here's the link to the thirdgen.org page that tells you how to read the codes yourself...

Hope that helps...

The hissing you mention from the exhaust makes me wonder if there's not a bit of blockage there, but I don't think that would account for the behavior you describe at startup...

V8Rumble

One other thing I thought of, and it's easy to check:

What color is the smoke you're getting at startup? White, or blue?

91-Z28-L98

Thats normal. The car will automatically rev up high to warm up. If it is cold, it will stay at higher rpms for about 2 minutes. If its warm already it will stay up until it realizes that its warm (2 seconds or so) then it will fall back down.

CamaroJosh

What i was meaning is it would rev up to about 2k then drop and die for a sec then sputter back up to idling RPMs... But that doesn't matter, i think i fixed that when i plugged the MAF back in.. After plugging that back in my SES went off and i also dropped the new air filters in and got my exhaust done (CAT removed and flowmaster muffler. After that i attempted to switch out the spark plugs but only got 4 done in 3 1/2 hours... wow thats such a pain. Anyways after the long day i took it out and now it runs like a beast : ). Tomorrow i'm gonna finish up the spark plugs.. The 4 i did today were on the easier side... god knows how long it will take tomorrow.... Probably will end up being an all day job..

CamaroJosh

It's blue

91-Z28-L98

Yeah, an unplugged MAF will cause that. Spark plugs are a pain with all that damn emissions tubing. They would take about 30 minutes total without it.

V8Rumble

Ah, good - well, not actually good, but it's better than white. If the smoke only lasts for a second or two when you start it up, "Congratulations!! You own a small-block Chevy V-8!!"

OK, all sarcasm aside, SBCs are known for that, it's just that the valve guide seals in the cyl. heads aren't keeping the oil out of the cylinders as well as they do when they're new. Changing them out isn't the worst job in the world (from what I'm told, I've not done it myself yet), so you can either take a crack at it, or have a mechanic do it...

Now if you've got smoke as you're going down the road, well, come back & talk to us...

That's with the stock exhaust manifolds, right? Because with my SLP 1-3/4" headers, there are a couple that are a bit of a beeeyotch to get to...

CamaroJosh

Well i finished the spark plugs...

Everything is running great, thanks for the help everyone..