falcongirl

Hello,

Hoping that someone here can help me out with my question and offer a
solution??

We have a 1981 Camaro 4.4L, 267 V-8 engine ( the small "gas saving 8
cylinder of the early 80's" ), that we have had garaged for a few years
now, that we are trying to restore.

Anyway, the car was very hard to start when the cold weather arrived in
November and December, and it always took like between 6-15 cranks to
start it during the winter months ( we are located in the northeast U.S.
).

We took the car to a mechanic who supposedly only fixes GM cars and
trucks, and told him how the camaro had no problems starting up in the
warmer summer weather, but was very hard to start in the colder winter
weather.

So, we have no idea what he did, but now whenever you start the car, and
the engine has not run for about 20 minutes or more, you start it up,
and the engine idles real "HIGH" and LOUD for about 2-3 minutes and
then you have keep stepping on the gas and rev the engine every couple
seconds, so that it idles at a normal level.

I can't like this, and want this fixed!!

You go to start up the car, whether you are at the gas station, grocery
store, shopping mall, in your driveway, etc, etc, and you have to sit
there in the car for like 3 minutes, with the engine idling super high,
fast, and loud, revving the engine every couple of seconds, to get the
thing to idle normally!!??

We then took the car to two other mechanics, and they both looked at it,
and said they have "NO IDEA" what he did, or how to fix it!!!!????

Does anyone have any ideas, theories or suggestions, of what this guy
did, and how to fix it?????

Any info. will be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks!

lobo

Take it back to the "mechanic" and ask him why he set the fast idle speed so
high. It appears not to be set correctly as it should idle up (maybe
1500-1800 rpms?) when cold and slowly come down as the choke pulls off
during warm up.

falcongirl

Thank you for the suggestion about the "fast idle speed" being set way
to high. Somebody else also suggested that we bring the car back to him
so that he can fix it. The problem is, the guy already screwed the car
up, so we just don't trust him. He may be a so called "GM" expert, but
who knows if he knows anything about Chevys!?

The problem is we just moved to the area a few years ago, and so we
don't have a TRUSTED mechanic. We only took it to him because his ad in
the phone book says "Specializes in GM vehicles".

lobo

If you are not able to learn how to work on the somewhat vintage car, I
would suggest finding someone that "knows" carburetors. Most cars are fuel
injected these days and the old guys have the carburetor knowledge.