Engine Acting Up

1995 Skylark, 3.1 V6. 135,000 miles.

When I step on the gas and then let up on it, I get a chirping sound at the top of the engine. At freeway speeds, it makes a loud banging sound and loses power. I took it in and I was told it needed spark plugs and wires. A few days later, the same symptoms came up. It sounds like lifters to me. Could it be the oil pump? I also lose oil pressure to about 26 instead of around 40 according to the guage.

Solved my own problem. Took it to Midas (charging $140/hr labor) and the problem turned out to be a fouled plug and a bad spark plug wire. So they changed all that but I was still getting the chirping noise from the valve lifters. I was advised to switch to full-synthetic oil and to use some engine treatment. After I did that (and added some transmission fluid which was a little low) and drove about 200 miles over the next month, the engine is smooth as silk with no noise at all. TYJ!

Thanks for the update. It's tough to miss with full synthetic. It does a very good job of lubricating and a pretty fair job of cleaning varnish.

One more thing I did was to replace the PCV valve. The one that was in there seemed OK but I started getting that hesitation again and replaced it. It hasn't happened since.