engine trouble

[quote:ecdc2b95a2="richard45"]I have a 97 pontiac grand am s.e.with 121000 miles with a 2.4 liter engine I was driving down the freeway and suddenly it lost a lot of power and the check engine light came on i did a diagnostic test with a handheld machine and the code came back po300 which indicated a misfire well the car would still run just not idle and ran with a shudder i replaced the plugs and the boots and the coil pack and the car then ran a little better and would idle even but ran with a chugging kind of sound and the readout still read misfire even after i had reset the computer to where it says pass but once i run it for about 30 seconds the light comes on and then says a misfire again also the first time this happened the cat converter turned cherry red now it runs as if it is being choked to death but will idle and the exhaust smells heavily of gas any suggestions could it have jumped time?[/quote:ecdc2b95a2]

Its not burning the gas (because of the misfire)
that`s why the smell of gas and Cat. conv. red hot

Check the ignition module...

its "random misfire" right?:P0300 Random/Multiple Cylinder Misfire Detected

which means that its not an especific cylinder..

check that first..

[quote:127f13761f="fisherman"][quote:127f13761f="richard45"]I have a 97 pontiac grand am s.e.with 121000 miles with a 2.4 liter engine I was driving down the freeway and suddenly it lost a lot of power and the check engine light came on i did a diagnostic test with a handheld machine and the code came back po300 which indicated a misfire well the car would still run just not idle and ran with a shudder i replaced the plugs and the boots and the coil pack and the car then ran a little better and would idle even but ran with a chugging kind of sound and the readout still read misfire even after i had reset the computer to where it says pass but once i run it for about 30 seconds the light comes on and then says a misfire again also the first time this happened the cat converter turned cherry red now it runs as if it is being choked to death but will idle and the exhaust smells heavily of gas any suggestions could it have jumped time?[/quote:127f13761f]

Its not burning the gas (because of the misfire)
that`s why the smell of gas and Cat. conv. red hot

Check the ignition module...

its "random misfire" right?:P0300 Random/Multiple Cylinder Misfire Detected

which means that its not an especific cylinder..

check that first..[/quote:127f13761f] I finally found the problem the plastic casing that holds the leads to transmit sparl from the coils to the plugs was bad even though it visually looked brand new put a new one on and the car runs perfect now.