Pontiac Repair: sputtering, timing chain, thanks in advance

Question
hi my son bought a 97 2.4 liter sunfire, 5 speed. the guy he bought it from said it ran fine till he ran it out of gas, now it has a sputter like its missing on a cylinder. can the injectors be cleaned? the filter has been replaced[gas]. we also heard this engine is very troublesome, timeing belt problems. its got a lot of kms over 300 thousand, but it use to run fine, doesn't burn oil. thanks in advance

Answer
Hey Paul:

No that engine is not all that bad at least the later ones are not bad the earlier ones say pre 1995. As for cleaning the injector it can be done but adding stuff to the tank is not the way to go. You should try having them cleaned with a pressure system. where a cleaner is hooked up into the pressure line and the car runs on the cleaner it's self and not the gas from the tank. It costs a bit but it does work if a GOOD cleaning agent is used. Good luck :}

P.S. that engine have a timing chain not a belt.