96 3100 no power, doggy

[ps_rj]

My problem: car runs well for about three car lengths from the stop light then losses power at around 2750-3000RPM and chugs in any gear, won't hardly pass another car.(maybe a Yugo )

History: Oct. 01(103,000mi) had coil and spark plug wire replaced by dealer, also coolant leak from intake gskt. repaired. In Feb 2002 (110,000mi) was to dealer with engine losses power-misses at highway speed. Could not duplicate. It has gotten progressivily worse since then.
Now has 167,000 mi.

Current: Dealer mech road with me and drove car and said it could be cat conv, fuel pressure, no codes as we drove around with code reader hooked up, he was punching up all kinds of stuff like mixtures atc, all looked ok to him. He recommended fuel filter first(did that) Have replaced plugs, wires, air cleaner, fuel filter. I have tested coils and ignition module at Auto Zone...OK. Muffler shop says exhaust is ok on cat. conv. but car had more power after test.(he banged on the tailpipe before testing it, I wish he wouldn't have done that) Revving up in nuetral ok except pops-misses on deceleration. Slight irregular miss at idle heard at tailpipe. Have checked for vacuum leaks with starting fluid spray and engine does not accelerate. I also drove around in car with timing light hooked up and did not note a cutout or abnormality. Scratching my head now. NO CODES

Questions: Could it be an ignition problem that won't show up on testing? I'm pretty sure that a valve spring would act a lot worse. How likely is a liflter or flat cam? I haven't checked compression but I'll bet it will test ok at cranking speed.

[marine90]

Had the same problem with my vehicle. could hardly excellerate chuged and two days later it wouldn't even start. Fuel pump went bad. Is there any way you can hook up a fuel pressure gauge and watch it while driving. Also what about an O2 sensor?

[marine90]

One other thing, I had a problem before with dirty fuel injectors. Had my mech. check spray pattern on them and they were not to good. After they were cleaned the car ran alot better

[drowen]

I have a 97 cutlass with 150K miles on it and repaired the leak between the intake manifold and the heads. On thing I noticed when I had it apart was wear on the cam shaft. One of the lobes had significant galling on the surface. I have previously had cars that the cam lobes had gone flat and the performance suffered terribly especially in the mid rev range. Gas mileage was really bad as well. You might pull the valve covers off and check the rocker arm travel. This motion would indicate cam lobe health.