97 malibu tries to start

Any help is appreciated on this. 97 malibu 3.1L 140,000 miles. while slowing down, oil light came on and car died. tries to start(does fire randomly), gets fuel,spark, etc. looked in to oil fill cap on valve cover while turning over engine and the valves you can see do not move. Could this be a broken timing chain or something else?

Ok Besides that does the alterantor work?

As far as I know it still does. Battery does have a good strong charge and is less than 6 months old.

Ok Do this if you can Jack up the car On the passager side (front) take of the panel (the one that is behind the wheel) where the main crank shaft is (in other words pully) there a bolt find the right size for that bolt and with a wrench try to turn the motor (without turning the car on) A full turn if the motor stops somewhere it might be the timing or worst a bended value!!

OK, not timing chain. engine did start but runs extremely rough and dies. also sounds like a diesel. (only let it run for a couple seconds) oil light was on and engine light was on. went and bought a code scanner and pulled codes. P0300 (random/multiple cylinder misfire detected) and P1406 (EGR pintle position circuit). Could this all be from a faulty egr valve?

Are the spark wire place correct (meaning 1 with one 2 with 2 ) Plus it looks like there no oil pressure (did you put oil in the motor or have you check how much oil does it have) The Diesel sound is lack of oil or posible a bend value check under the car to see if you have connected the oil pressure sensor also check if you have the crankshaft senor on too no unplug that sensor is located under or around the powerstreeting pump. Now the egr i can remember what it means once i get the answer i get back to you

All plug wires correct and all sensors connected. Am going to pull egr valve and check it.

have your coil pack tested too

removed and cleaned egr valve, oil level ok, everything properly connected(sensors, plug wires etc.). after egr valve put back on and codes cleared, started right away but still no oil pressure. how hard is it to replace the oil pump and is there anything else i should check while the oil pan is off?

While searching through the forums for other malibu problems I came across a few posts regarding a broken camshaft and no oil pressure. How would I tell if my camshaft is broken and is causing the no oil pressure condition?

my problem sound similar to yours except i changed my pump and filter and still have the same problem. Ht eopump its that hard to replace. you have to loosen the motor mounts, starter, ac blower, the main pulley belt and some stuff in the wheelwell.

After a lot of research I decided to pull the engine and see what was wrong internally. BROKEN CAMSHAFT. :banghead: From what I discovered online this is a problem with the 3.1L and the 3.4L engines. Hollow camshaft and an internal leak on the intake manifold equals broken camshaft. Luckily I found a good low mileage engine at a good local junkyard. I am going to replace the oil pump and the intake gaskets (with the updated version) before I put the new engine in. Hopefully this will help someone else out if they have the same simptoms.