QuestionQUESTION: I have a 1993 Grand Am, 2.3L (4 banger :p. Recently it's been having some problems. I was noticing that when I stop at a light, it would sputter and want to stall when I tried to accelerate on the green. It steadily got worse on the drive home, to the point where it stalled and wouldn't start on the highway. This morning when my dad and I were working on it, we managed to get it running, and keep it running, but it's running on 3 cylinders. The 4th is getting spark, fuel and air, but we can't figure out why its not going. Any ideas on what it could be?
ANSWER: Hi Andrew:
Okay you say that the one cyliner that is not firing has park and fuel at it?? If so the only other thing needed for it to run is compression. Get a compression gauge and check the compression on all 4 cylinders. if that cylinder is lower then the rest which I would think it is then take out the compression gauge and put a few drops of oil in the cylinder and put the gauge back in a try again. If it's still low there is a valve issue or cylinder head issue. If the compression goes up then the issue is a bad rings not sealing the cylinder.. My guess would be it's a valve issue or head gasket. You don't see to maky ring issues anymore. Good luck :}
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QUESTION: Hmmm..it wouldn't be an issue with the fuel pump?, because it really only wants to stall now when it's idleing. It made sense to us that when we accelerate it, it provided enough fuel to keep it revved up, but since its low pressure, it's not getting enough to keep it idleing.
we don't have access to a fuel pressure gauge right now, and we don't know how much it will cost to get one.
AnswerYou can rent one at the parts stores but the problem on that engine is it's hard to do because it doesn't have a pressure tap it needs to be hooked up in line fith the filter under the car :( . Again if the cylinder in question has spark and fuel look at a compression issue.
