Hey,
I am working on my buddies car as described as above. Here's the symptoms:
1) The car will turn over and fire, and for the most part idle. Sometimes the car will die immediately after starting, sometimes not. This problem is getting worse and worse
2)At 4000 RPM the engine will chug. This happens in all scenarios (Park, neutral, drive).
3)At sparatic points, usually at low RPM's, the car will stall while driving.
4)NAPA code checked the engine and reported a problem at the MAF sensor (mass air flow).

This started happening less than a month ago, and has been deteriorating quickly. We replaced the fuel filter thinking not enough fuel was reaching the engine. This did not effect the situation at all. The car has 106K on it. We took out the sensor and it looks fine (no dirt, contacts still shined, the resistor looked fine). We have a new sensor on order with NAPA that we are getting by friday, but we have an inkling that's not the problem. Aside from oil, no tuneups have been done to the engine, not even spark plugs.

The main question of this thread: Is there anything else that could be causing the symptoms?

 

I've got a '90 Lumina with the same problem (cutting out at around 4,000 rpms and stalling when driving) exept it's got the 3.1L engine rather than the 3.8. The check engine light has not come on and my Snap-On scanner didn't come up with anything. The rpms go way up and way down and eventually it stalls. It starts right back up but then goes back to the same symptoms. Any suggestions?

 

I would wait it out and see what the maf sensor does.

 

Works for me. Thanks.