1986 305 TPI problem

Hi,
My son has a 1986 camaro z28 with a 305 TPI. The car ran normally, and then one morning it didn't.

The car has no power, stalls frequently, backfires, runs very rough and will not idle. We thought that it might be due to bad gas or water in the fuel, as it rained several inches during the proceeding days, so he put in about 3 bottles of water remover, and when that didn't work, he used injector cleaner. That didn't work so we drained all but about 3 gallons of gas out and refilled the tank. This didn't help much, so we replaced the fuel filter, which helped very little.

The car has had its engine light on ever since we got it (about a year ago) so we don't think that has anything to do with it.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, as he needs this car for work and school

Mass Airflow Sensor? I dunno. You are probably right about the check engine light being on for an unrelated reason, but with the new problem you're having, it may have stored an additional code. They are easy enough to check. Find the diagnostic link connector, under the dash on the drivers side. You want to ground (connect) the A and B terminals. They are usually located on the upper right side of the connector. Use a paper clip or a small piece of wire. Now, turn the ignition to the "on" position, but don't start the car. Count the number of times the check engine light flashes. Two digit codes will be flashed starting with a 12. "12" will probably flash three times, and then any other codes that are stored will follow.

Either look up the codes online, or post them and I or someone else will let you know what they mean.

If what I explained above isn't clear. check out 89IROC&RS's post in the thread "starting problem" on the main message board. He gave a more descriptive explanation.

Just because the check engine light has been on all the time doesn't mean that something else didn't crap out and it has also stored the code for that. I'd be willing to bet you have 3 or more codes stored for various problems.

yea, definatly check those codes before you proceed, otherwise you'll be spending unnecessary money trying to guess the problem, which you already have. On another note, the ignition coil is another highly possible culprit.