Another thing I noticed:

I can clearly hear the fuel pump engaging from inside the cabin. Are they supposed to be so loud? It sounds just like a dirty power antenna going up.

5 Common Symptoms of a Malfunctioning Fuel Pump | eBay

Could my problem really be this simple?

if you have a port on the rail check the pressure, the parts stores will normally loan them free.

as far as est it a general term basically for the whole ign system wires an such. i dont have a good diagram of that car/engine unfortunately, the haynes type stuff is all i have and the gm service manual gets into that car specific wiring

I can finally put this one to bed!

Got the pressure tester. Hooked it up and turned the key to "ON." Jumped right to 49 PSI and after the pump cut out it stayed right at 40 PSI. I was upset because I thought I finally figured it out. But fuel pressure is perfect. Checked the regulator and it was working, too.

So I started giggling wires under the hood. After unhooking and reconnected the wire from the ICM that goes through the firewall, it started right up.

I drove home and started disconnecting and cleaning all my connectors the next day.

Hooked everything up after drying.

Checked for vacuum leaks--finally--but found none.

Started right up and drives like new now. Idle is butter and it revs up completely.

Let this thread be a lesson to everybody with a 22 year old car: start with the easy stuff. Don't shotgun parts like I did. You'll feel like a broke idiot.

I appreciate the help, guys.

Awesome news, glad you figured it out, and fixed it, hopefully the problem is gone for good now!
Thanks for updating us on how it went!

Hate to say it, but my victory was short-lived.

Car hasn't stalled out on me since cleaning the contacts, but it will still buck quite a bit. Unfortunately, it'* more random than ever now.

It does not want to rev past 3,500-4,000 RPMs.

I rechecked the fuel pressure, because I figured the pump might be weak.


With the car off:

46 PSI while the pump is running for 2 seconds.
42 PSI after the pump stops. It stayed at 42 PSI for about 8 minutes before I
released the pressure

With the car running:

38 PSI idle. Very consistent.
46 PSI with the fuel pressure regulater unplugged from vacuum.
39-41 PSI when the engine is under load.
Up to 45 PSI when I rev the engine freely and down to 34 after. Goes back
to 38 very quickly after revving.

Based on these readings, I don't think I'm having any issues with fuel delivery/pressure.

I'm taking it into the shop to have the MAF sensor tested, because I don't have a multi-meter that can read Hz.

When you rev it up are you in park?
If so then it is most likely the rev limiter kicking in, it should be around 4k when in park, and I think like 5,500 or so in drive, those are not exact numbers, but I know they should be close.
Also, I'd not rev it up a lot while sitting in park, or neutral, it is not the best thing to do for your motor, which is why there is a rev limiter.

With your MAF, did you ever try to use MAF cleaner on it and clean it?

I only revved it once or twice. I never hit the limiter. Just light revs.

I cleaned the MAF sensor with the appropriate cleaner. It looked good when I finished. I suppose I could hit it again.

Ahh ok, that should not hurt it then.
Having a shop with an oscilloscope check the MAF, mine went bad a while back, and the car idled poorly, it was reading a bit lower than it should, but when not idling it ran fairly well, my fuel trims said another thing though, STFT and LTFT, the bad MAF was causing me to have a lean condition, so short term fuel trims were hitting 20-25% +
If you can, have the shop look at the fuel trims as well.

You may already know about fuel trims, but just in case I'll give you a link with a little info on trims.

What are fuel trims all about?

Maybe this will help show what'* going on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-777...ature=youtu.be

Sometimes it'* worse than this.

Here is a "healthy" Cutlass Ciera with a 3300 doing a similar dash:

.
I should check the fuel trims, but I don't have the tools. I'll see if my mechanic can do that. I think he should be able to figure it out.