possibly engine work?

[sunfirehater]

i just gotta see if my mechanics are trying to screw me over. i have a 1997 pontiac sunfire with 120,000 miles on it. my car soon after i bought it began randomly stalling, but only at an idle. my check engine te said "cylinder 4 misfire". it turns out there is like no compression in the 4th cylinder. she is getting worse daily, and i almost became a semi-truck sandwich yesterday. now the car stalls whenever it feels like it, and it is an auto, but i tend to drive with both feet, because revving up the RPM's seem to help a little. the car is idling low at park at aobut 3,000rpm. turning up the idle didnt help, it made it worse. the car violently shakes especially at idle. please help me!

[GTP Dad]

You certainly need engine work done. If there is no compression on #4 then there is a problem with that particular cylinder. You either have a burnt valve, struck rings or a burnt piston. Trying to run a 4 cylinder on three cylinders is not a good idea either. If you want to save a little money you may be ahead to get the entire engine replaced rather than repair the one you have. I am an advocate of buying used parts since they usually work just as well as new ones and are about 1/4 the cost. Try to find a used engine. Why put a couple of thousand in an engine with 120K miles on it. Check out the local wrecking yard or a good engine or check car-part.com. You may get a better engine for a lot less money in the long run. Lots of Luck!