2.8L exhaust leak, causing sluggish accleration?

[2.8 Grand Prix]

Well, I decided against the Corsica 3100.

I would like to continue running the existing 2.8L. I have noticed very sluggish acceleration. Besides only running on 5 cylinders, the car also has a severe exhaust leak located right after manifold. Is the sluggish acceleration caused by the lack of one cylinder or by the exhaust leak. I am trying to use this car as a daily driver, but I can't do this with acceleration that reminds me of an 80 year old lady with a walker.LoL. Any ideas/suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks!

[pocket-rocket]

Well since it's running on 5/6 cylinders, I think that would be a sure fire indicator why it isn't running at 100%. An exhaust leak, while sounding like butt, could help performance if your stock exhaust is plugged up. You should figure out why that one cylinder isn't working, to be honest. Run a compression test. Then run it dumping some oil down the spark plug hole on that dead cylinder to see if it's rings. Look at the plug when you pull it out, observe if it's carbon fouled or something causing it to short out and not fire making that cylinder dead. You need 2 basic things (to keep it simple) for an engine to run. Fuel and fire (spark). If you don't have either of those, you don't have a running engine.

[Prospeeder]

uhhh why dont you fix it. Driving on 5 cylinders will wash all the oil off the walls of that cylinder and wear it out very quickly, not only dumping raw gas into the oil and thinning it wearing the engine out even more. Probably just a bad ignition wire. Stuff for these engines are CHEEEEEAAAAP fix it!

[SofaKingWeToddDid]

HAHAHA why dont you just take that car and throw it in the junk yard?? it sounds like youre driving a $150 farm yard beater. i hope you dont rely on this thing!! if i was you, i would get another one and start over. save the money you would spend on fixing this, let it drive till it dies with what its got and start savin some money for a decent car, without an exhaust leak, and runnin on ALL of its cylinders. why are you trying to polish a turd?

250,000 miles?? scrap that clunker and get a car.

[robertisaar]

seriously: easiest thing to do to fix the situation and keep a reliable motor is to just 3x00 swap. then if you don't feel like doing it yourself: pay an exhaust shop to fab a downpipe for you and be done with it. if it is still running the factory cat, i would expect it to be plugged or rotted through by now. either cut it off and go straight-pipe or buy a ~60 dollar cat and stick it on there.

total investment: less than $500 as long as you're willing to put SOME work into it.

[2.8 Grand Prix]

seriously: easiest thing to do to fix the situation and keep a reliable motor is to just 3x00 swap. then if you don't feel like doing it yourself: pay an exhaust shop to fab a downpipe for you and be done with it. if it is still running the factory cat, i would expect it to be plugged or rotted through by now. either cut it off and go straight-pipe or buy a ~60 dollar cat and stick it on there.

total investment: less than $500 as long as you're willing to put SOME work into it.

Thanks, By the way, what do you mean when you say 3x00? Is that a 3100 or 3400?

I have located a '00 3100 w/ 86,000 miles. Will it fit using stock motor mounts? Any quick replies to this question would be greatly apperciated, because I need to let the owner know soon. Thanks!

[robertisaar]

3x00 can mean either. since they are almost identical motors except for the bore/pistons...

stock mounts: i want to say yes since the block should be near the same if not identical in that area, but don't go by my word alone.

what kind of price is the owner quoting you and have the LIM gaskets been replaced with the fel-pro full metal ones?

and are there any known issues? specifically, coolant getting in the oil, the ONE weak point of 3x00s...

[2.8 Grand Prix]

He's selling it to me for $150 plus I'm giving him some stereo equipment, so lets say around $300 total. I don't know if the LIM gaskets have been replaced, but since I don't have to take the heads off, it won't be a big deal if I have to replace them.

[robertisaar]

~300 for a (known good?) motor with 86K on it isn't bad.

LIMg: its kind if nice if someone else already did them correctly, but they are fairly straightforward to replace. the most complicated piece of equipment is a torque wrench...

[2.8 Grand Prix]

Well I've got a torque wrench (and I know how to use it), so that won't be a problem.

Another question: I also found a 1990 3.1 with 162,000 miles. It needs an Idle air control. Will it run without that? It's cheaper too. $150.

[pocket-rocket]

Do the 3100. 3x00 > 3.1 Besides, face reality, the 3x00 has half the miles of the 3.1.

[robertisaar]

if you only want to swap to a LH0 (for whatever reason), you could just pull the IAC valve off of your current motor. they should be the same.

[2.8 Grand Prix]

Ok, thanks! I hope the IAC on the current (almost junk) motor is good.

[pocket-rocket]

If it can maintain an idle without (almost) dying when you put it in gear, yet not idle at 2k rpms out of gear, then your IAC is good.

[2.8 Grand Prix]

Well, it does idle around that. The previous owner told me that was because it was running on 5 cylinders. Maybe it is because the IAC is bad. I don't know. It doesn't die when I put it in gear, but then again it didn't start at all yesterday.

I think this engine has just given all it can give. It can't give any more, so it died.