I have a 1987 Cavalier 2.0L 4 Cylinder, over the summer, it stalled while driving, completely lost power and was towed home, parked for 4 months.

I am trying to get this back up and running, first I found out the Fuel Pump/ ECM fuse blew, so I replaced it with another 15 amp fuse and the car began to start, but it was idling rough, I checked the spark plugs and it was only firing on cylinders 2 and 3, 1 and 4 were dead, I had a brand new ignition coil so I replaced it but no dice.

The next thing I did was test the ignition control module, had it tested, failed across the board, so I bought a new one, I put the new one on and now the car starts, cylinders 1 and 4 fire but all is not well.

The car takes longer than usual for it to start, and it will not start every time.

It either

A) Starts, engine starts to sputter, and it backfires out the carb and dies
B) Starts, runs, doesn't sputter, but idles high, and if you throttle, the idle stays high
C) Starts, idles fine, throttle reacts fine, but under any load it sputters and stalls.

When you throttle a bit, cylinders 1 and 4 still seem to misfire, and the exhaust is emitting a whitish/grey smoke with a ton of carbon deposit, but the car was parked for 4+ months.

Any ideas what could be wrong now? Would the ECM cause this type of erratic behavior?

Thanks a million!

 

0. You never mentioned replacing spark plugs, did you get some new ones?
1. Are you losing coolant without apparent leaks?

 

I am using an inline spark tester that would show me a misfire without needing to change the spark plugs.

and now, I can't see that it is leaking coolant at all.