first off love the show I am U.S. service member that just got back from Iraq serving in Europe that feels the need for speed. I have to download your podcast due to the fact that other countrys dont know good radio entainment when they hear it. But anyways since getting back I needed a new (used) car since the Army wont let me drive a HMMV (the Army green version of the Hummer right Governor Schwarznegger) on the autobahn (crazy Huh). I decided on a 97 camaro that looks and sounds great and will get noticed on that really fast highway that they got here. I was really glad to find this car but it has been a nightmare since I purchased it. The previous owner installed extremely loud pipes on it but Germany has this crazy law against loud cars. We told them that the noise was American engineering at its best but they didnt apreciate our enthusiasm. So in in order to pass the inspection the previous owner had to put steel wool in the exaust to make it quiter. Well it worked but Once the steel wool was placed in the exaust the check engine light came on (O2 sensor? or lack of back pressure). A few other problems is that white steam or smoke is coming out of the heater vents fogging up the windows and making it hard to see throught the windows when exceeding 100 mph on an old winding country road, Heater Core? (thats going to be alot of beer drinking while trying to replace that). Also the previous owner told me that there was no thermostat in the car. She couldn’t remember why it was like that. When driving the car the engine temp gauge never got up to full temp. At Idle it would reach 160 degrees but once the car is driven it would drop and the gauge bottoms out. I assume that it is the air flow through the radiator. I assume by putting a thermostat in the car that will fix that and I will probably discover why it was taken out in the first place. But the thing that realy baffle’s me is that when driving it home for the first time it stalled out. I have to drive on a hill with a grade of 19%. When going down the hill is when it stalled out. at first it lost power from the engine and then just totally died. After waiting a few minutes and being scared to death that another car is going to hit me because it stalled in the middle of a dark forest in the middle of a tight corner it started briefly just long enough to hear those great pipes come to life and then it stalled agian. After gaining my wits and waiting a few more minutes I was able to start it again for about a minute this time. and was able to get enough momentum to coast the rest of the way home. I tried to pop the clutch through this whole ordeal with no success. Could you please give me some insight on why it would stall this has me completly baffled. Also are these problems all related or are they seperate headaches. Please help I want to go fast before they send me to another country.
The missing thermostat is half the problem. Put one in and fix the heater core. Then, let us know of any performance problems.