my 95 grand am se acts like its running on 1 or 2 pistons. 1

[brewersarrow]

all of a sudden the 2.3L Quad 4 lost power,acts like its running on 1 or 2 cylinders,it takes about 2 blocks to get up to 35mph and she shifts hard and has a bad idle.the motor has 130000 miles or more now. Any ideas? Fuel filter or pump,spark plugs? Thought it was bad gas,but i put some stp gas heat in and still runs bad.

[Duster]

Ahh check your oil i think it might be the gasket going. If it has a wierd looking milkshake kinda look to it on the dipstick its the gasket. I would recomend u stop driving on it if its in that bad of shape cause you might be doing more harm then good. Hit me back when u check the oil. dont wipe the dipstick when u first pull it out.

[RomeoGAOC]

if it isnt the oil, it might be the coil pack. (the black casing under the plate on top off the engine that holds the coils) that thing tends to make for a horrible idle and loss of power as well as bad sputtering.

[4kQuad]

There are two packs. One runs two cylinders the other runs the other two. So you may have a bad coil.

Also check the plastic housing they live under for crakcs or dust like lines on the out side. If you see any of that, it could just be the coil housing.

Pull the plugs and make sure there not fouled, gapped right.

[RomeoGAOC]

Originally posted by 4kQuad
There are two packs. One runs two cylinders the other runs the other two. So you may have a bad coil.

Also check the plastic housing they live under for crakcs or dust like lines on the out side. If you see any of that, it could just be the coil housing.

Pull the plugs and make sure there not fouled, gapped right.


woops, i meant coil housing. although i dont know much about anything else, i DO know that there are 2 coils, heh. sorry

[4kQuad]

woops, i meant coil housing. although i dont know much about anything else, i DO know that there are 2 coils, heh. sorry

I had to replace mine, so I leared the name the hard way.

[donalson]

if you've got one handy... check your compression on all 4 cyl (w/ a warm engine) that'll tell you A LOT

mark