Sputtering and what I'm doing to fix the problem

[Shamby]

Well that's right my 89 coupe LE sputters.
This vehicle of mine has sputtering, backfiring, and spitting problems when I apply more than 1/4 throttle, and when my rpms are low.
This vehicle has new spark plugs, and all the vacuumes are sealed. I have not put new spark plug wires in yet, as I am a little borke, but I will soon.
A friend of mine who is a GM mechanic asked me if I had put a new fuel pump on the car, and I said that I have not. I now have a fuel pump purchased today ready to be installed. Would that be a good try, using a fuel pump? And about the coil housing, how shal I look at such a device and examining it's quality?

[Brad97GS]

First of all, there are no spark plug wires, so you don't have to worry about that. There are spark plug boots, however, which occasionally go bad. Many times a sputtering Quad does so because the coil housing is bad - in fact, I'd bet on that before going as far as a fuel pump.

The best way to check for a bad coil housing is to look for electrical arcing marks on it. There would be little black streaks, indicating that spark is escaping instead of going to the plugs. Also, a cracked coil housing is definitely bad. But, as some people here can attest, the coil housing can also look perfectly fine and still be bad. I personally would replace that before replacing the fuel pump, as it's a lot cheaper!

Before doing that, though, are you getting a Service Engine Soon light? If so, read the codes (look in my signature) and let us know the trouble codes that show up. That may lead you to a better diagnosis...

[SeanJohn]

Is the sputtering under really heavy loads....such as punching it in a high gear at low RPM, or going up a hill in a higher gear? If this is the case, you've got the same problem as me. You've probably got a crack somewher in your ignition coil packs which sit right underneath the valve cover. You can remove them relatively simply and inspect them for cracks, torn rubber boots, etc. The best way to deduce if this is your problem or not is to simply swap a valve cover (w/ coil packs) over from a quad 4 that isnt having problems (good luck finding that).