On my 3.1, it will sit there all day and idle its a** off. At a stop light in gear or in park in nuetral or even while eating green eggs and ham. It has a great idle, BUT I have no pickup power and the gas mileage sucks. I know this is a high mileage engine and more than likely needs a rebuild. Would a hotter plug do anything for it? Maybe the AC RapidFires? It's irritating coming out of a gas station and when you give it gas there is no power at all. Timing is all good and not getting any codes at all. This thing wont even spin the tires off no more. What can I check for possible solutions?

Ken

 

Stock engines need to stay as far away from platinum plugs (and especially RapidFires) as they possibly can. You can do a compression test in all 6. More than about a 10% difference between high and low indicates a problem (I've somehow cracked 2 head gaskets between 3 and 5 now and lost compression in both). I'd check the trans fluid first... Trans could be slipping bad and that's why it feels gutless.

 

Check that your ignition timing advances when you rev it. I had a S10 2.8l tbi that didn't advance, it was a dog. It smelled rich & got bad mileage. It had a bad ecm, but check the ecm grounds on your car.
Check fuel pressure & make sure it holds psi when the engine is off.
Check all the vacuum hoses for cracks. You might have a clogged up cat converter.

 

I got this week off, so I got time to check the compression. I may can use my Autoxray to check to see if the timing advances as I give it throttle. Last time I checked, the ecm grounds were tight at the back of the heads. The cat however, is new...only a few months. I went with a Magnaflow and ditched the factory, but no go on the response. Maybe the TPS is giving a wrong signal as well.

 

Did you check the trans fluid yet? If everything is okay with the engine, and it seems to be so far, the trans is next in line.