Hello.

I got this 96 Cavalier, 2.2L, for free. Was given to me with the assumption that it needed a throttle postion sensor. I messed with the car a little bit before I tried to drive it home. It was only showing a code for running rich @ bank1. So I replaced the upstream O2 sensor. Drove it home and it threw a knock sensor code, I replaced it, reset the codes. Now it is still running like crap, undrivable, and won't throw any codes.

I've tested the fuel injectors thoroughly, plug power, resistance, pulsing ground. I inspected the fuel pressure regulator as much as I could, pulled the vaccum line off, sniffed, smelled like gas, ran the car for a second with the vaccum line off, no fuel came out so the diaphram must still be good. I checked the plugs. #1 and #2 looked decent, #2 was still a little wet, I hadn't ran the car in 2 days. #3 and #4 looked dry as crap, and ashy (white). Someone was running Bosch Plat's which I've heard weren't the greatest in these cars. Also, while I was testing pulsing ground I still had the plugs out, and while my wife was cranking the motor I noticed #1 cylinder was shooting out a lot of fuel, #4 not so much, but it didn't seem like #2 and #3 were sending any. I have also removed to the cat to ensure it was not clogged.

The popping out of the intake kind of makes me lean towards a timing issue, but haven't checked into it yet. The plug condition and popping could also indicate a lean condition. I'm just drawing a blank right now, I'm pretty handy with cars, but this one has me stumped.

The symptoms are:
No Power
Heavy fuel smell
Popping out intake
Bogs down on heavy throttle

Here is a short vid of me trying to show some of the symptoms.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr__ZF852TA

 

did you figure it out? i have the same problems