# 1994 z28 camaro



## deleted 22122011 (Dec 18, 2011)

I have a 1994 z28 camero. Last summer, it started overheating. I took it to a shop and they found this random wire and unhooked it. The fan was fine and everything else appeared okay. Prior to this escapade, my husband had replaced spark plugs, etc. The car never overheated before, and this service was done right before I left town. He told me to put coolant in if it overheated, which I thought strange since it never did this before. He loves cars, engines, etc., so I began to suspect that he was perhaps doing something to sabatoge my car so he could take it apart. Low and behold, when it started overheating again after I took it to a shop, he said he needs to rebuild the engine, etc. I don't see how this could be possible. When I got the car, it didn't have problems. It never started doing this overheating thing until he worked on it last summer. Is it possible that he did something to cause this or could it legitimately need a new engine? I just love my car and don't want to let him take over it like that and me end up without it.


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## deleted 22122011 (Dec 18, 2011)

and by the way, I suspected he wanted to turn my camero into a race car for himself, which is why I want to know what anyone else thinks who knows about cars before I have it looked at again by another shop.


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## octaneman (May 13, 2009)

Hi hotlantagirl01


First let me say that the Z28 is a fantastic car with its 350 LT1 engine, it is one of those rare beauties that mechanics love to work on. The thing is engines of that size are simple to work on. Doing something to the engine to make it overheat is child's play to someone who knows what they are doing. In mechanics there is no such thing as random wires, whatever was disconnected has to go somewhere either to the engine or an after market item. 

When an engine overheats it causes severe damage internally, the internal components begin to go past their tolerances making the engine knock. The only way to correct it is to have it rebuilt or toss in another engine. My recommendation is for you to bring the car to a shop that you can trust, tell the technicians to perform a full engine diagnostic by checking things like compression, oil pressure, leak down test, checking the engine for blown head gasket, power output, etc. If the engine fails any of those tests, there is that possibility that normal wear an tear simply took its toll and the overheating was coincidental prior to your departure. Truth be told, if it was sabotaged you'll have an impossible time proving it. 

Good luck !


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## bruiser (Jul 30, 2005)

I gotta disagree with octaneman about loving to work on the LT1 in a 4th gen F-body. They're a PIA. No room in the engine bay. 

There are quite a few differences between the LT1 and the SBC. The LT1 has reverse flow cooling and the dreaded optispark, for starters.

Regarding the overheating CamAro:

Is it losing coolant, or just overheat with no coolant loss? It it's losing coolant, then there is a leak somewhere. Worst case is a head gasket problem. Next would be the water pump and radiator. The radiator has a plastic tank, and they do crack. Hoses and clamps would be another suspect. Check the oil and see if it looks normal. If it looks something like a chocolate milk shake, it's a head gasket. Or, if there is a cloud of white smoke coming out of the exhaust, head gasket. There is a combustion leak detector kit available that checks for combustion gases in the coolant. A radiator pressure test might find a leak in the coolant system. It's a pump that pressurizes the radiator, it has a gauge, and you leave it pressurized for several minutes and watch the gauge to see if if falls below the recommended pressure for the system. That pressure is usually on the radiator cap. There is also a lead detection kit for cooling systems. It consists of a dye that is poured into the radiator, and a UV light is then used to check for leaks. I'd also try a new radiator cap. 

If it overheats with little or no coolant loss, then it could be a few things. Thermostat, water pump, or a blockage somewhere in the system. Radiator could be stopped up. Water pumps have a weep hole on the bottom. Looking at the weep hole, there should be no sign of any leakage out of the hole. However, I recently read a post by a guy who's Camaro was overheating, and it was the water pump, but there was no leakage at the weep hole. The impeller shaft had broken and no coolant was circulating. This was on a pump he said had only 800 miles on it.


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## bruiser (Jul 30, 2005)

Need to add something. On the LT1, you have to bleed the cooling system when it is refilled. If it wasn't bled when it was refilled, there's air in the system, and that could be causing the overheating.


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## Raylo (Feb 12, 2006)

Indeed, can't agree more Bruiser. Maybe Octaneman has never changed #2 sparkplug on an LT1 Z28? Or more likely he would just make it look easy.



bruiser said:


> I gotta disagree with octaneman about loving to work on the LT1 in a 4th gen F-body. They're a PIA. No room in the engine bay.


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## octaneman (May 13, 2009)

Raylo said:


> Indeed, can't agree more Bruiser. Maybe Octaneman has never changed #2 sparkplug on an LT1 Z28? Or more likely he would just make it look easy.





For the #2 I just remove the alternator then use the 5/8 with a swivel. The rest are from underneath. :wavey:


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## SABL (Jul 4, 2008)

They are a pain to replace the plugs. I didn't have time to do my son's '95 so he took it to a dealer......got it back and the starter didn't sound right. Called the dealer and they denied they had pulled the starter......I pulled the starter and replaced the shims they had removed (had some spares sitting around).....starter noise gone. I haven't looked real close to see if the starter needs to be pulled to get to #8 but the car did not have any abnormal noises from the starter til the dealer did the tune-up. If shims fixed the problem, it means shims were removed.


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## Basementgeek (Feb 7, 2005)

Usually you can tell if something has been removed on a older car, like tool marks,
clean places.

BG


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## Raylo (Feb 12, 2006)

I didn't pull the starter on mine but I did pull the y-pipe. Made access to a few of the rear plugs much easier. 

The second time I did the plugs was when I did my LT4 cam install. I was going to also replace the plug wires since I had the Optispark and a lot of other interference out of the way. It still looked too hard to do the wires so I punted that job. Luckily OEM wires are still in really good shape. Just out of curiosity I asked the dealer and he said it was like an 8-hour job on their book to do the wires (maybe that also included plugs? Can't recall).

Got to remember OM's trick of pulling the alternator if I ever need to do #2 again. Probably won't have to tho as the car has 109k miles but only about 6k on current platinum plugs.


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## octaneman (May 13, 2009)

@Ray,


If you pull no.2 again use the 5/8 that has the hex nut on it with a short swivel extension and turn it with a wescott.


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