1998 camaro 3.8 engine problems

please dont bash me....im not a mechanic by far, thats why i turned to you guys for help....the car was wrecked before i bought it....

it's a 1998 camaro 3.8l....one day i can drive the car and it will run pretty good for a v6 then the next day i can barely get the car to accelerate....when the car is running you can hear tap tap tap tap, very fast tapping coming from the engine but not sounding like its hitting real hard so i dont think its a rod knocking but i dunno and there is a slow oil leak.....and when the air conditioner or heater isnt on the air conditioner will grind and make the most god awful noise ever. any ideas of where to start to fix things would be great! thanks so much!

hmmm what kind of gas are u running? i think it says to run regular unleaded by i noticed the car runs like crap on that so i bumped it up to mid grade, ran just fine, i also noticed that the higher grade made it suck ass for some crazy reason (maybe its just my car). but if your sure its not a rod maybe something is loose under the hood. now as for the air conditioner, the unit itself is makeing a noise? that one sounds like its broke, if thats where the noise is comming from. if the car was wrecked im woundering what all they replaced, and what all they left behind. my car is a 96, the guy that had it before me didnt take care of the engine at all, so i myself replaced everything i could get out, and im about to finish that up next month. 1- u may want a mechanic to look at it, and inspect it. 2- as far as the accelerating problem, maybe u need to replace the air filter, fuel filter, check for a vaccum leak (its common for a car that age to have erroded hoses by now) and also flush the system.

u sed that you have a slow oil leak....when i bought my 97 rs, the engine knocked, very slowly at idle, but it increased rapidly when i accelerated, and the car dogged a lot. i would take it in and have someone look at it....if it's knocking, you def want to get that checked out

if it's knocking, you def want to get that checked out

Or atleast answer the door.
:lol2:

xeno no! bad xeno....we do not laugh at knocking cars!

Or atleast answer the door.
:lol2:
And then slam it back in Xenos face