I have a 97 Monte Carlo Z34. A few months ago I installed an intake but I could never get the seals really tight. I would always take a screwdriver and tighten them every couple weeks. Anyways I was pulling in my driveway and I heard a loud blowing noise. I looked under my hood to find that my intake had completely fallen off and my engine was sucking in dirty air. Well I put they intake back on and tighten it as hard as I could. I drove it about 5 miles and the engine started acting differently. The service engine light came on shortly after that. Now the engine is runs kind of rough when it idles and shakes a little bit. Did I get dirt in the engine. Is their anything I could do. Please help.

 

Sounds like your intake air flow sensor is dirty.... I would take your Monte to Twilight Zone to see what codes are being thrown. But, if you think you've ingested dirt I would be willing to bet it's the air flow sensor. MAF I think. If you plan to clean it be extremely careful and use a Qtip....

 

What about the engine running kind of rough.

 

The dirty sensor would cause it to run rough. If the sensor tells the engine to increase/decrease fuel when it does not need it via the sensor giving off bad info it will cause a extreme lean/rich/timing situations causing poor drivability issues.

I know just enough to get me into trouble but I am sure one of our GM techs could better explain the process and responsability of the airflow sensor. More importantly, I would run the codes to make sure the problem truely is in the intake system and not something else.

 

I went to where I bought it and they did a diagnostic. The computer showed a misfire. Could you tell me what could of caused this.

 

Could be a coil pack, bad plug, bad wire... Did they give you the actual code?

 

No he just dont be there is a misfire. How much do you think this will cost to fix.

 

Well they place I took it to didnt know what was wrong with it. They said there was a misfire in cylinder 3 but they dont know why. Today I have to try to drive it 20 miles to a chevy place to get it looked at. Now the car stalls sometimes when it idles. Does anyone know what could be wrong with it?