3.1 pontiac engine problem! help?

Question

I have recently ran across this. All of a sudden my car lost power and has a real rough running even at idle. it is not fuel related. what might this problem be and please explain the answer and sources if possible.. Thank's

When I fire it up after I let it sit for a few min it runs fine I drove about 10 miles and kept it below 3000 rpms, as soon as I hot rodded it up to about 51/2 thousand spinning tires it went directly to acting up again By the ways it is a 93 3.1 v6 pontiac sunbird fuel filter is fairly new within 2 months.There are no engine codes stored or even no check engine light. only light is abs and that has been since bought car. it has cold air intakes filter and tube. other than that bone stock.. I did replace the intake manifold gaskets recently for their famouse leaking. My program say's it is not fuel related because the engine stumbles feels like it is going to fall out. so it is leading to the electrical system which has to be part that does not trigger the check engine light... Any ideas???? thanks for all you guys help~!

Answer 1

i own a repair shop,and the last one of these i worked on ,had all the plugs just about fouled out on it,and what i fond was a bad set of head gaskets on it,,both side was leaking,,one thing the owner forgot to tell me was that he got it hot,,but it sort of ran like that also,,if this happened all the sudden,and you have a check engine light on,,take it by any auto zone,and have them scan it to see if it has any trouble codes in it,,this is a big step towards finding out what might be going on with it,,i wouldn't spend a dime on it until i had it scanned,,its free at auto zone to,and this will give you a good starting point with it,,good,luck i hope this help,s.

Answer 2

Afew thing's come to mind,EGR valve staying partially open at idle,these are computer controlled you will need a scanner to verify the problem.Next coil problems you have three of them the plugs fire in pairs 1,4 2,5 3 6. ther is no distributor if one coil is not working it can disable two plugs,try these first.Ihave more suggestions,but I would be typing all night

Answer 3

1996 Pontiac Grand Am 3.1 liter. after running engine turn it off and coolant boils out of reservoir. Why?

Answer 4

sounds like a miss fire check for spark at the coils by pulling one plug wire at a time from the coil pack (with insulated pliers)

that should determine what cylinder it id and from there you can determine if its a bad coil most likely or a bad wire, plug or ignition module.

Answer 5

You don't really give us much to work with, but
1) Possible fuel filter restriction
2) Possible fuel pump failure
3) Possible MAF sensor failure
4) Possible restricted exhaust (CAT)

What year?
Is it newer than 1996?

Answer 6

could be that the cat converter could be clogged