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ok i’m trying to help a friend with her car because she is stranded
(i am not a mechanic but with your guys help i did fix my honda…and she is “very” poor and no one will help her for free)
this is what i know from looking at the car and what they told me
the car was running ok until the 3rd of december, they went to drive it down the street and all the sudden the engine got really loud and would not accelerate when the gas pedal was pressed down. the car then stalled out and they couldn’t get it too start again
the history of the car that i know….
it’s the canadian model has about 90,000 km on the od ….ecotec 2.2l
earlier this year the fuel pump was replaced with a used one…. car was running fine after
new catalytic converter and muffler (because someone stole hers in a parking lot near detroit and cut the pipe)
before the stall out they got a check engine light….. code po302 misfire cylinder 2 …they drove it like that it was running
after the stall out this is what they and i tried (air/fuel, spark, compression)
i checked to make sure fuel pump was still working by depressing the fuel line bleeder… with the key in the on position fuel sprayed out and then no pressure….when turned key to start position fuel sprayed out very strong so i would say we have a good fuel pump.
the replaced the coil pack and tried it with a new one didn’t do anything so they returned it along with the piece that attaches to it that plugs into the harness (can’t remember what it’s called at the moment) this was before i showed up
kinda hard to check the spark because this car has a coil pack and we dont have the proper tools….so we pulled the coil pack and pulled a spark plug and set it in the coil pack where it goes…..and…. well…. got shocked pretty good ….so i will say it does have spark
i have no way of checking compression because i can get my finger over the spark plug hole to plug it to see if there is any at all and i dont have the proper tool to test it (but i do know the pistons are moving up and down in the cylinder cause i can see them…and from what i can see they look pretty clean no oil or anything on them)
we tried pulling the plugs one by one and cleaning them and spraying starter fluid in the hole putting it back together and trying to crank it….nothing not even a pop….
we tried spraying the starting fluid into the air intake before the butterfly valve….nothing
im at a loss on this…..i dont even know what to check on this car
my guesses are one of these or more.
possible blown head gasket (cause i got the same kind misfire code on my honda when it happened and the crank no start)
possible stretched timing chain causing it to be out of timing
a sensor that’s not throwing a code
clogged cat/ exhaust
clogged injectors.
literally any help is appreciated….if we can fix this she won’t have to walk 5 miles to a bus then take it another 10 miles back and forth everyday
thank you
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what codes are there now?
what i have noticed a lot of the time when engines suddenly just stall out on GM cars is a crankshaft position sensor goes out a lot but when they do they almost always throw a code, but so do timing chains and such, they are known for wearing out and breaking on the ecotec from my knowledge. A compression test would be VERY important, if your timing chain is out you may notice a drop in compression in some cylinders as the valves may be stuck open on some, and stuck closed on others. if you where hearing a lot of noise before failure that could be a good indicator the timing chain went out too…
My advice is to now plug a scan tool into it again and see what kind of codes you get in all, also just because you have fuel spraying doesn’t mean you have sufficient fuel pressure. so if compression is good and you aren’t getting any other codes i would check fuel pressure but i would honestly find a way to actually check compression.
I’ve seen two dual cam 4’s in cavaliers that the bottom back of the block fell off. The spot where the oil filter screwed on just fell off. Enough room to use both hands to grab the crankshaft easily. I hope that is not your case.
the only code its showing is the po302 misfire cylinder 2… i didn’t clear the code yet cause i can’t get it to start and if its anything like my hondas ecu it won’t throw any codes till it actually fires on a cylinder a couple times….i played hell doing it with mine
were working on getting a compression tester to test it
i haven’t crawled under the car but its not leaking oil from anywhere (no oil spots anywhere) so i doubt the crank case broke apart……..that would suck through big time i feel bad for that person that happened too.
Does the engine sound normal when cranking?
The early ECOTEC engines are known for having inadequate timing chain oilers. From your description It sounds like the chain has slipped.
If it is the chain that has slipped you can pretty much guarantee bent valves.
The last one I worked on was a total loss the chain slipped piston hit the valves girl kept driving sucked the exhaust valve down into the cylinder and blew a hole straight through cylinder number 3 piston.
You really won’t know the answer until you run the compression test but you can pull the valve cover and see if anything stands out to you.
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