hi my names John and im new to this forum hoping you guys can help me out. Ive just done a intake gasket change on a 97 grand prix with a 3.8 liter. i have done several of them now with no hitches but this one is proving to be another story. prior to the gasket change the car ran fine. but now after replacing both upper and lowers, i havent put coolant in it yet but went to start it up and it cranked fine at first then slammed to a slow roll as if the timing was off? i cant figure it out checked all the spark plug wires and all is fine their did a gew other things cleaned maf and some stuff and took off air boot and tried again this time same thing but it started it runs a little rough but not to bad kind of high idle at around a 1000 rpms shut it off put air boot back on figuring that was what was causing high idle and nope same thing but starts very hard cranks many times and does the misfire which seems like timing and slams the cranking to a slow roll then all of a sudden will randomly start? any advice greatly appreiciated thanks, John

Check to see if your plugs are fouled.

well plugs are bad im going to get new ones now but still would that cause it to act like the timing is off?

Coolant in one or more cylinders?

Nope got it figured out one spark plug had cracked insulater put plugs on and runs like a champ thanks fellas

Thanks for posting the fix....

I missed this thread. Good to hear you got it.