Okay heres my whole story. I rebuilt my 2.3 Quad 4 top to bottom new crank pistons rings rods bearings valves guides lifters yada yada everything it ran great for about a year thank god it cost me an arm and a leg. Then on my way to court it started to miss fire. So i went home and checked and i was right to an extent. When i pulled the plugs the center electrode of my number 3 cylinder was gone i thought okay the dude at napa dropped it and it broke so prayed that it went out the exhaust valve and put a new plug in 2 days later the same thing in the same cylinder. Consequently the head gasket blew and what seemed to be a lifter tick transpired.Luckily i had an extra head lifters cams everything so i installed that with a new head gasket and everything did a perfect job but the cars runs like poop still

Problem: The top end still seems to tick the engine runs like crap it runs real ruff at low rpms the rpm fluctuates up and down and sometimes stalls still has a lifter tick in what appears to be the same cylinder? Also when i drive it the car wont shift normally and wont down shift when u stomp on it please help i'm lost it runs very lean as well.

Thinking maybe IAC TPS or fuel filter?

its something in the engine, the computer is just throwing you off

compression test on each cylinder, and check your valve clearances... might be a bent valve too

t

Not downshifting on WOT is in the engine?

I doubt.

That's a classic TPS problem.

2002 Cavalier 2200 5spd