What would cause a 1997 Pontiac Trans sport van to stall and now wont start backfires through the throttle body?

Answer 1

Check the timing chain, sounds like it jumped!

I have a 92 Pontiac trans sport with a 3.1 engine. A year or so ago, my van was displaying the same symptoms: Backfiring (except mine actually caught fire), engine significantly loses power while driving, engine misses, or engine dies when you put it into gear. If your van has spark, you know it's getting fuel, and all it's doing is turning over, replace the ignition control module. It's located under the rotor cap in the distributor and takes about 10 minutes to install. I have replaced mine twice and after I did that, my van starting running normally again. Also, if you're driving down the road and your van bogs down and has very little power, hit the dash. I'm serious because I got so fed up one day with it losing ower all the time that I just got angry and hit the dash. When I did that, and I still do that, the engine comes back to life. I hope this helps.