Any help would be much appreciated, I have a 1997 cavalier ohv and recently it has started to stumble on acceleration. But not all the time, it also stumbles when I am sitting still idling, I have an air/fuel ratio gauge and when it starts to stumble the meter reds like two bars into the red (lean). Also the performance has sucked lately probally because of the lack of fuel in the cylinders. I was thinking the injectors might be bad or the fuel managment unit, or the fuel filter(which was just replaced), or a bad tank of gas(but I have had two tanks of gas in it from different stations). If anyone has had a problem like this I could use the insight.

that A/F aint nothing but a light show. unless its a wideband sensor which i doubt it is.
ever try feul injector cleaner?



Im a Xbox 360 fanboy...and damn proud of it!!

I just put some in this tank of gas im about three quarters the way through it no improvment.

kinda sounds like a intake leak.
could be wrong but thats i can think of.

you are supposed to put that stuff in near empty. but i doubt it makes a difference

try some sea foam



Im a Xbox 360 fanboy...and damn proud of it!!

just had the same exact problem....car would start idle and then sputter and die out.... AFR guage was showing red, I disconnected the AFR from the purple wire, and wham...no more stalling or dying, re hooked it up and it did it again.

sound similiar but my car wont die out it just stumbles and I have had my a/f ratio gauge hooked up for a while.

I have the same problem with my 97 2.4. Mine only does this when it is cold outside, and it only started doing it after I did my HO intake manifold swap. I'm pretty sure I have an intake leak somewhere but I just can't find it.




In the planning stage for an all American TRD Cavalier.

I had my AFR guage for a few months with no problem, and then it all of a suden started doing it, I thought it was weird that it would happen out of the blue like that.

i dont know im gonna have it looked at monday ill keep you all posted

those little a/f gauges may be junk but whenever i've had a problem it has shown lean which would be correct when i was running the gm reflash and got stumbles way back when.

So I take my car to the mechanic he cant find anything wrong with it, jackass. So I take it home and do some routine stuff you know fuel filter and plug wires and I get to takin the old spark plugs out well i find that they are blistered white which means that theres an intake manifold leak, car is running lean, which i already knew, car is not being properly cooled, sticking valves, over advanced ignition timing. Now I have no clue what the problem is HELP!!!!!

Could be fuel pump. They tend to crap out on our cars...LOL. Listen to your pump, does it whine real bad? Esp when its actin up. If you're havin it stumble, do you have to giver on the gas pedal to keep it up? I have had this problem, only gets worse....try a fuel pressure guage....if u can get your lines loose. LOL. I just didthe Blazer pump upgrade, for I am boosting soon, plus, its alot cheaper than the whole module they try and sell us. So far so good. Keep us updated.

you know now that u mention it it is kinda loud whinning lemme check it out thanks

well I just got my car back from the chevy garage and the prognosis is not good. It threw a couple codes p0303 and p0171 and needs a compression and fuel pressure test. The fuel trim is lean, its misfiring in #3 cylinder, and it also threw a code for the emission control system. Best cause senario its misfiring because its not getting enough fuel from busted injectors or a fuel pump, worst case it has a compression leak in #3 cylinder and the rings need replaced.

i had my fuel trim at -45 -30 and a faulty fuel presure regulator, replaced the regulator and it still stumbled.....un hooked the A/F guage and problem solved, short fuel trim was 0 -3 hooked it back up and down to -35 and died

ill check it out thanks damn those fuel pressure regulators if it is to fault. I just replaced it like 20k miles ago when i replaced the head gasket.

Well the chevy garage got back to me and told me that fuel pressure is fine all the way to the injectors. The compression for cylinder one was ok but when they got to cylinder 3 the spark plug was cross threaded in(dont know how this happen since i havent touch the spark plugs since my mechanic replaced them at 50 after the head gasket). He said also that the replacement bosch plugs were no good for gm cars and that only ac delco should be used, since bosch can cause misfiring and fowling like that (hmmmm this sounds familiar). So i have a couple options they sprayed it down with liquid wrench and let it sit for the night and try it again tommorrow, they get it out and strip the hole and use this metal fill to repair it and retap it, and if that doesnt work they have to take the head off send it to the machine shop and just with 10 hours worth of labor we are lookin at 1k$. Oh and not to mention that if in any of these processes any metal shards get into the cylinder and I fire it up thats not gonna be good. So its not lookin good for my j.

Just food for thought.. What about just going to http://www.car-parts.com and get a used head?

...You can find them for $85-ish

Unless it's more complicated then that? As long as you use all your parts from your current head, and move them to a different head you should be fine.. It's when you start to mix and match certain ones that you run into trouble.

-White


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You might be a Civic driver if you concider going on a diet 'weight reduction'. <a href="http://www.homestarrunner.com/mrshmallow.html">...That's right the moon... </a>

thanks for the idea but i guess this is good news i got it back from the chevy garage and they got the plugs out and replaced them with ac delco plugs. Now the bad news they did the compression test and cylinders one, two, and three had factory spec compression (about 160-170) where as cylinder 4 had only about 130-140 not really bad enough to replace the rings, but thats the reason it hasnt been pulling hard lately. Well now every three weeks or so i have to put about and ounce of oil into cylinder 4 to keep it running. Looks like my j isnt gonna last very much longer I guess my driving is a lil to "spirited" for its heart to handle.

yeah.. That'll do it..

You're better off then I am though. My cylinder 1 is devoid of compression The leakdown test showed an apparent broken intake valve, and possibly exhaust valve...

The compression in cylinders 2, 3, 4 ran around 150-155.

I too, have taken part in "spirited" driving.

-White


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You might be a Civic driver if you concider going on a diet 'weight reduction'. <a href="http://www.homestarrunner.com/mrshmallow.html">...That's right the moon... </a>

Hmm... I drive my car like I stole it. Have been for the last 3 years, and I had an injector go out on me about 2 months ago. Before I knew it was the injector that went out I did a compression test on all my cylinders. All of my cylinders had a compression between 185-190 in my 2.4.




In the planning stage for an all American TRD Cavalier.

LUCKY! GOSH!



-White


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For my next trick, I'll turn your momma out.

lol napoleon said it!!! Does anyone have any experience with any of those engine compression restoring oil treatments like restore? Im planning on gettin a new car in like 8 months but i do so love my j and enjoyed its performance with the mild mods i had on it before the leak, so im gonna atleast try and get some power back.