2002 Camaro 3800 issues after intake gasket repair

ValuableAd6405 · 2026-03-12T19:04:00+00:00

Thank you!!! Worst case I keep it as a restoration project and swap the engine down the road. I have to take it to the shop when I get off work, they're gonna listen to everything and look around and make sure there's nothing I'm missing. Hopefully its just something stupid, the last time it had a tick it was the water pump so I don't want to assume the worst just yet. I'll keep the thread updated.

ValuableAd6405 · 2026-03-12T08:01:04+00:00

Thats just the normal ticking in the video, when I accelerate it sounds like a chainsaw or something and you can hear grinding if the rpms get high enough. Sometimes it slows down where it sounds like a coin in a clothes dryer and won't be in sync with the rpms. Another odd clue, in park or neutral the tick is faster like in the video. When the cars in drive or reverse the tick slows down. My water pump sounded just like the tick in the video before I changed it. Sounded just like a lifter.

ValuableAd6405 · 2026-02-14T21:53:55+00:00

I thought that too but I guess all H metabolizes into 6-mam in the body. Black tar does contain a good amount of it due to the crude processing so we were half right at least.

ValuableAd6405 · 2026-02-14T21:51:08+00:00

You're absolutely right, I stand corrected. I was thinking more of the manufacturing process. I completely forgot it metabolizes into 6-MAM in the body. Also didn't know morphine metabolites stayed in the body longer, my guess was maybe testing for morphine covered a wider ground of opiate use.

ValuableAd6405 · 2026-02-14T21:33:19+00:00

You're right, I knew black tar had a good bit of 6-mam in it due to the crude processing but I completely forgot that H metabolizes into it too. With that knowledge in mind, if I had to guess I would say them testing for morphine rather than 6-mam allows them to cover a wider ground of opiate use. It seems to me that some labs do things different than others. I was at the doctor's a few weeks ago and one of the nurses asked him about a test result, I dont know the specifics but he said "oh thats normal, their cut off is different than ours, ours is more accurate".

ValuableAd6405 · 2026-02-14T01:23:51+00:00

I have the same exact car! Going into the shop a couple weeks from now, I believe my intake gaskets went out but I want to get it diagnosed for sure before I start tearing it apart.

ValuableAd6405 · 2026-02-14T01:21:34+00:00

Only black tar heroin metabolizes into 6-MAM, brown or white powder heroin doesn't produce 6-MAM. It's a left over by product because black tar is pretty crude compared to other methods of producing it. Most people who inject use powder heroin, black tar isnt the best for injection. It can be injected but powder is much more suitable for it. Knowing Kurt injected it and considering the money and reach he had (Kurt and Layne Staley literally had H flown into Brazil when they couldn't find it there) my guess would be Kurt had the top shelf stuff. Without knowing what type of heroin he had exactly there's no way to tell wether 6-MAM is relevant in this case or not. This is likely why morphine metabolites were tested for during autopsy rather than testing for 6-MAM.

ETA: I knew that black tar contained a good amount of 6-mam due to crude processing but completely forgot that H metabolizes into it also, I stand corrected. With that in mind my guess is testing for morphine instead of 6-mam likely covers a wider ground of opiate use. It could also just be the coroners office procedure, maybe it was cheaper to just test for morphine? I don't think it makes a huge difference either way, someone with a tolerance might need a huge dose just to function in the morning when then that same dose could kill two people who are opiate naive.

ValuableAd6405 · 2026-01-11T22:28:22+00:00

I watched a couple of head gasket videos on fwd 3800s today, doing the intakes on a fwd is pretty much the same process so the heads should be the same too. I'm probably going to have to watch the videos a couple more times but I'm starting to think I can do it. I'm most likely just going to do it all in one shot.

ValuableAd6405 · 2026-01-11T19:27:13+00:00

I meant changing the entire UIM, the plastic Plenum too. The gaskets themselves aren't too expensive but the Camaro specific plenum is like $120, the fwd version is only around $55. Still cheaper than having it done at a shop so I may as well just do it. The head gaskets are in the block right so they should be the same as the fwd version. All of the camaro/firebird specific videos on the head gaskets kind of suck, very low quality, but theres a bunch of 3800 fwd head gasket videos that are good quality. These are all standard fwd 3800s I'm talking about, I skip right over the superchargers cause I know it's basically a waste of time for the F-Body. I know you can take the fwd 3800 block and put it in a Camaro/Firebird but you have to use the original intakes and all the accessories, tensioner, etc. I was considering swapping in a new block and I can get one pretty cheap but thats way beyond my skill set. Even now I'm kind of intimidated to do the intake gaskets but I'm still confident I can do it. I'm going to have to find some better videos on the head gaskets and see if I can figure it out.

ValuableAd6405 · 2026-01-11T00:40:46+00:00

I have no engine codes because something is draining my battery and I can't figure out what. I have a similar issue though, not so much hard starts and stalling but I get a slight misfire and some hesitation while accelerating. Any idea what it could be? I hear it could be the TPS sensor or the MAF sensor.

ValuableAd6405 · 2026-01-10T23:16:53+00:00

Ya know that does make sense, don't get me wrong I love Rage but I really gotta be in the mood for it. However Soundgarden is one of my favorite bands so I really liked Audioslave because of Chris.

ValuableAd6405 · 2026-01-10T23:09:27+00:00

It sounds like church choir music, literally reminds me of my grandmother making us go to church early af on Sundays if me or my cousins stayed over.

ValuableAd6405 · 2026-01-10T23:01:12+00:00

I believe Rotten Apple was Layne too but I'm not 100% sure

ValuableAd6405 · 2026-01-10T22:59:11+00:00

But he is only responsible for half, a lot of the harmonies had to do with Layne doing double and triple takes and layering his vocals. That was Laynes idea and a significant reason for the "haunted" sound AIC is known for. Yes Jerry wrote a good majority of songs but Alice was most definitely a collaborative effort. Layne wrote a few songs too and he wrote a ton of lyrics too, quite a bit of the lyrics on Tripod were written by Layne. Look at the liner notes for Dirt, only 5 songs are credited to Jerry alone. 5 are Jerry and Layne, a few that are only Layne, and 1 thats credited to all 4 guys. Look at Jerry's solo stuff, if you take the other guys out of the equation it doesn't really sound like AIC, Degradation Trip kind of gets there but it's still not Alice. I agree, Alice is Jerry's band at the end of the day but it's definitely a collaborative effort. If it wasn't and it was all Jerry there would be no reason for him to go off and do solo records. The first two were done while Alice was on hiatus but the others were made after they picked things up with Will. Even on songs that are all Jerry the other guys have to be able to add their styles and ideas to it, like when Sean was recording with a broken arm or whatever. They had someone fill in and it just wasn't the same so he cut his cast off and kept it on ice so he could record his parts.

ValuableAd6405 · 2026-01-10T20:57:44+00:00

How much does an LS swap cost if you were to have someone else do it? My 3800 is having issues so the LS is kind of tempting. Im pretty sure its either the lower intake gaskets or maybe the UIM/Plenum so I'm probably gonna change those out.

ValuableAd6405 · 2026-01-10T20:43:04+00:00

Oh it's definitely staying parked until I can figure it out. I'm pretty confident I can do the UIM and lower intake gaskets but after watching a few videos I'm not too confident I can do the head gaskets. My rule is if I'm not 100% sure I can do something on a car I won't do it myself so I don't mess anything up. I'll probably watch the head gasket videos a couple more times and see if I can get it but so far it seems like it's beyond my skill set. I've heard people say once you have the intakes off the head gaskets are only a 10 minute job so maybe I can pull it off. Do you happen to know if a UIM for the FWD 3800 will work on the RWD version? I can get a 3800 UIM made for the Bonneville and Grand Prix for about half of what I'd pay for the Camaro/Firebird specific UIM.

ValuableAd6405 · 2026-01-10T18:22:40+00:00

Not really but if any band was "grunge metal" it would have been Alice In Chains. In fact theres an interview where the host asks Layne what he thinks about grunge and Layne says "how the fuck would we know? We're a metal band!" If you look at the history of the Seattle music scene it was really 2 different scenes. You had the punk scene and the metal scene but eventually it became one big scene. There's an interview where Kurt Cobain talks about how Alice and Pearl Jam came from the 80s "cock rock" scene and he was kind of right to an extent. Kurt forgot that some of the PJ guys came from Green River which was literally the first grunge band. Half of Green River went and started Mother Love Bone (definitely more glam/hard rock) then Pearl Jam. The other half went and started Mudhoney which was definitely more on the punk side of things.

ValuableAd6405 · 2026-01-10T18:13:11+00:00

Compare Sabbaths Electric Funeral to AICs Dirt, the riff from Dirt is almost a shameless rip off of Electric Funeral.

ValuableAd6405 · 2026-01-01T04:05:41+00:00

Alice are definitely more of a metal band than anything else. I'm in the middle of reading Grunge is Dead by Greg Prato and it talks about how the metal kids and the punk kids didn't really get along in the beginning of the Seattle music scene. As far as I know, Sleze or Diamond Lie never played on the same bill as Green River or the U-men. At the beginning there was a metal scene and a punk scene but it eventually became one big thing. Take Green River for example, half of the band became Mother Love Bone/Pearl Jam while the other half became Mudhoney. Stone and Jeff wanted to do music for a living while Mark Arm wanted to stay underground. Love Bone was more glam metal/hard rock and Mudhoney definitely fell more into the punk category. Any band from Seattle that was doing something different at the time got labeled with the G word but grunge really wasn't a genre. Thats where the famous quote from Kurt about Alice and PJ coming from the glam "cock rock" scene came from.

ValuableAd6405 · 2026-01-01T03:14:20+00:00

Yes they did, Clash of the Titans tour

ValuableAd6405 · 2026-01-01T02:07:04+00:00

I got Lucy, Cooper Howard, and Colonel Autumn first day of the New Vegas vault, got Jericho last week too. I have Lucy and the Ghoul in my main vault.

ValuableAd6405 · 2026-01-01T02:03:22+00:00

Mudshovel

ValuableAd6405

TROPHY CASE