My son has a 95 lumina with a 3.1 engine. He just replaced the engine with one from a Cutlass Calais (sp?) His car ran fine for a few days after engine replacement, then began to act like it was missing and chugging and sputtering and stalling. Finally it died and wouldnt start back. A friend of his said he thought it might be the ignition control module, and he had a wrecked car they could take one off to try. They put the new Ignition control Module on today and the car started but still was missing and sputtering terribly. About 100 yards from the house the car died again and now will not start again.

There is a small amount of gasoline in the oil, which we were told could have run down the pistons if it wasn't firing.

When we take out a spark plug it has gas on it, and when we push that little valve thing on the fuel rail gas squirts out. When you turn the key on you hear he fuel pump kick in.

Does anyone have any ideas or tips for us.

Any and all help will be GREATLY appreciated, as neither of us knows much at all about car repairs.

 

Could be some things.

You are not getting proper ignition into the cylinders which would explain the gas on the plugs.

You need to see if you are actually getting spark. You can tell by taking one plug wire off and placing it very close to the engine block. You should actually see the spark. If you do not see spark, it could be a few things:

Bad ignition cables/coils

Bad coil pack

Defective Crankshaft position sensor

PCM (powertrain control module)

 

It does have spark, and we are still completely lost. Someone told us to check the Fuel Pump Regulator, but I just cannot find it. I have tried using autozone.com component locator but It doesnt show anything.

If you think this is something I should check do you mind taking time to explain to me where it is? PLEASE?

BTW, I dont know if you have heard of Hochatown (where Beavers Bend state park and Broken Bow lake are located) ...but I am also in Oklahoma.

 

Fuel PRESSURE regulator. Generally they are near the fuel rail(s). What you really need is a fuel pressure gauge to check it properly; it screws on where you checked for fuel; but as "Hot" remarked, it's more likely to be ignition related since you are finding fuel in the cylinders. In addition to the spark being produced, it also must occur at the proper moment (and with sufficient intensity) for the car to run. These are affected by the items he listed.

Here's the fuel system info:

http://www.autozone.com/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/0e/d5/7f/0900823d800ed57f/repairInfoPages.htm

Also wouldn't hurt to read the codes to see if there's anything of interest.

 

Since that time we have replaced the fuel injector pressure regulator. What happens now is ..after the car sits a day or 2, it will start, and for the first couple of minutes it runs fine...not missing, or sputtering or anything, but as it warms up it begins missing and sputtering more and more untill it dies. ...Then it will not start back again until it has sat for a day or so. I should also say....WHen we replaced the ignition control module it wasnt new. It was one taken off a wrecked car.

We are just at a loss...any and all ideas or suggestions would be appreciated more than you realize.

 

Couple of key items.

You're probably going to need to beg, borrow, steal, or rent a fuel pressure guage that you can attach to the test fitting and monitor during running and when the engine begins to stumble. This will tell you whether fuel pressure is an issue.

By now, one of the troubleshooting steps you should have performed is to recheck whether you are gettting spark after it has died and won't restart. Strong spark. "Strong" being a key point. In some ignition system failures, you can actually still get a spark but it's too weak to properly ignite the mixture. Generally when you have a heat related problem (like a failing module), it will cure itself as soon as it cools off; shouldn't take more than a couple of hours for that. Definitely have some weird gremlins running around.

I merged your thread to the previous post; please continue here.

And just a random afterthought, but you may have a fuel tank issue. Here would be the scenario: You have a bunch of crap in the bottom of the tank, rust/dirt/whatever. When you start the vehicle the pump begins running and delivering fuel to the engine. As it does, the fuel passes through a pre-filter "sock" before the pump which is designed to keep really big stuff from damaging the pump (the smaller stuff goes right through and is trapped in the regular filter). Now, if enough "stuff" gets on the sock you could lose pressure and the engine die. Once the car sits for a day or so enough of the crud may drop off back to the bottom of the tank for the car to start again, repeating the process. This similar scenario sometimes happens with OIL pressure when an engine gets gunked up in the oil pan. Don't think I've ever heard of it happening in the fuel system and it seems a little far-fetched, but always a first time.

 

Also, check the head gaskets for a leak. If the gasket blows between the fuel-air passage and the oil passage that could be why you have gas in the oil and also cause misfiring. When an engine spits and spudders, I always check for water in the gas, too!