1996 Silverado

[Whatty]

Alright, I have a 1996 Chevrolet Silverado that runs the 350 Vortech V8. It has around 160,000 miles on it and lately it loves to act up on me. I'm having a few problems with this thing. I'm only going to ask about the most pressing one.

 

 

About a month ago the truck was running funny. It was loosing power whenever I put a load on the motor. It would surge and misfire, especially when it was wet outside. Through the help of another foum I found that this was a problem with my distributor. I replaced the cap and cleaned the contacts on the rotor. The truck has ran just fine for the last month.

 

Tonight I get in the truck to leave for work. The truck was sitting at idle, I hadn't even put it in gear to go anywhere yet. Suddenly the idle drops very low and the headlights and dash lights go out and come back on. Then it idles up. Then it idles back down, the headlights and dash lights go out again.

 

So, I hold my foot on the gas and keep the RPMs at 1,000. It doesn't loose power so long as I am doing this. So I think to myself "ok, well maybe I can make it to work".

 

I decided to leave the parking lot and as soon as I hit the gas to get onto the street. It looses power and misfires. I can hear a loud POP! come from my exaust. So now I just say the hell with it. I parked the thing because its too dark outside to work on it now. So I thought I would come ask you fine people what the problem might be.

 

My first hunch is that it has to be somthing wrong with the electrical. I'm almost positive that the fuel is getting to the motor just fine (I say almost because in all honesty I don't know what I'm talking about ).

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I'll give the other problems/quirks here I don't know if they are related.

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Exaust leak:

 

Leaking badly behind the Catalytic Converter on the passenger side. Needs a new gasket.

 

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Rapid deceleration:

 

When I take the truck over 50mph and only when I take it over 50mph... I take my foot off of the gas and its as if I'm almost instantly putting the brake on. The truck just will not coast. However if I just touch the gas a little bit it the truck will then begin to coast properly with no drag.

 

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Weird noise?:

 

I have noticed odd sounds coming from behind my dash. Somtimes it sounds as if I have mice living in this thing. Leaves/papers moving. Things like that. Other times I hear loud clicks as if switches are making contact and then being flicked back off again.

 

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More Refference if it helps.

 

My orginal problems began a while ago. And this is a link to a topic of me ranting on about it at the OBDII forums. I honestly doubt its going to help anything here. But you never know...

 

Old Topic

[Whatty]

Sorry to double post. I don't mean to be pushy, but I'm really in a jam with this thing. I could really use some help!

[GM-Tech]

First check, fuel pressure. Sounds lean.

[Whatty]

First check, fuel pressure.  Sounds lean.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

 

I had the fuel pressure regulator checked not more then a month ago. The tech hooked a gauge up to the motor and found that the fuel pressure was fine.

 

I check to see if I had any battery cables that were getting thin or shorting out, maybe rubbing against the exaust manifold... This doesn't seem to be the case. When I move them the truck doesn't run any differently. I also checked the spark plug wires. These seem to be fine as well, and they are brand new. I looked at my voltage gage because I thought maybe the alternator was taking a s**t. But its right where it should be. But then, the truck isn't acting quite as bad as it was last night. The lights are staying on, and its idling fine. It seems to be one of those phantom problems that strike when its least conveinent. Its still missing whenever I accelerate though.

 

 

**EDIT**

 

I just took a quick trip to AutoZone and had a tech plug a computer into it. The codes he got were 30300 and P0420.

 

One for a low efficency rating on the catalytic converter for the passenger side. And another for a random misfire.