runs like crap sometimes ??

[skooterbum]

hi all, i have a 96 olds with the 3.1 v6, 105,000 miles. have had the car for a year and no probs till recently. i took it on my first little road trip. was running 80 to 90mph for 70 miles then had to slow to turn on a different road and it started acting up. there was a loud ticking coming from the engine compartment and a major loss of power. it was not responding to acceleration well at all. very sluggish like inadequet fuel supply. had to stomp on the gas to get it going. it ran like that for the next 25 miles. i then got some injector cleaner and put in the gas and it eventually came out of it. the ride home was fine till about 5 miles out it then started running like crap again. i took it home. when i started it the next day it was fine. it acted up a couple times over the coarse of 2 months but always cleared up after just a couple miles. i took it on another short trip and after 60 miles up and 55 back it decided to run bad again. now it is doing it longer and more frequently. it sounds like either the lifters are not pumping up or the injectors are chattering. i try to check it with my stethescope and listen to the valve covers and hear nothing. i place it on the injectors i can see, and two of the front ones make a horrible racket. now i was told that what i am hearing through the stethescope could be radiating through the heads into the injectors ?? when it is running bad i have a lot of racket from the top of the engine and theres a major loss of power and it acts like it is not firing an all 6 cylinders. when it clears up it runs fine till i stomp the accelerator and it cuts out at 4,000 rpm. drops to 3,500 kicks in to 4,000 and cuts out. will keep doing this as long as i have it floored. also when it is running bad it now takes a lot longer for it to come out of it and run better. this last time it ran bad for 4 miles. i shut it off went in store to buy a soda. took me maybe a total of three minutes. when i came back out and started it it was running like a top, unless i floored it then the 4,000 rpm thing. sorry this is getting so long !! i am leaning towards this being a fuel related problem but cant figure out the chattering with a fuel problem. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated
thanks
ron

[FiredUpZ28]

It could be a lot of things. First things to make sure is that the maintainance is done on the car. Oil change, fuel filter, air filter, spark plugs/wires, those things. Open the oil cap while its running and see if there is oil shooting into the valve cover (to make sure you have true oil pressure). Then I would pull the valve covers off and check the rockers, springs, and pushrods. All the things that are easy access. Look at your oil to see if you blew a head gasket (milkshake). Are you shooting any smoke out of the tailpipe? It sounds most likely like a simple misfire. Try and get a seafoam top end cleaning at a shop. It may set you back a couple bucks but its worth it, seafoam fuckin works man.

Another thing to check would be the coil packs. And also the fuel pump. Check the fuel pressure too. Man theres a lot of things you can check out, I recommend getting a Haynes manual and doing like an at home diagnostic various engine components. Its always air,fuel, spark, computer, or mechanical when it comes to an engine.

I probably missed a lot of things but I hope that helped a little, good luck and keep us posted.

[skooterbum]

thanks for the reply firedupz28. oil is full and clean. air filter needs replaced. do that tomorrow. plugs are 10 months old. dont remember the name brand i put in but they were the cheapies. am wondering about them. waiting for it to cool off so i can pull the front three. plug wires look ok but no idea how long they've been on the car. might be original ?? new fuel filter. there is a head gasket leaking a little bit of coolant and has been doing so for the last 9 months. no cross contamination between coolant and oil though. no smoke out the exhaust. it acts and runs fine till it goes into this possesed mode. then its all i can do to get it to move. blows me away how one minute it sounds and runs fine and the next it is a piece of crap !!

[FiredUpZ28]

Yea that is kind of odd. I would re-check the plugs and make sure they're all gapped, and not corroded. Even still it would help to see if theres any carbon deposits, oil, ash, and from which cylinder and that could help rule out some of the variables. Get that head gasket fixed and check into that top end cleaning though too.