I'm losing serious HP. Options

[cHinaman727]

About 3 weeks ago my car started idling funny. The needle always shows around 900 but when I got it inspected, the dyno said it was jumping down to 700 and back. Also, when I take off from a dead start in first gear, it is almost like I have the AC on, it takes a while to start moving. If I have the AC on, it took me almost 3 seconds to get any HP at all.

Also, when accelerating, the car is much more sluggish than before. After I get to around 3000 RPM's in 2nd or 3rd gear, its like the HP jumps back in but then sputters randomly.

I don't know what to do and I don't have much money!

[Havok1997GT]

You might also want to check if your getting good air flow. Dead cylinders normally make the car Sound different, and i mean really different and it wouldnt be in and out it would be a constaint noice change. Spark and air are good starts. most shops can check to see if you missfiring, and will do a basic inspection of the car for less then 60 bucks. To check yourself you can check that the wires are sparking by pulling them out with the car running and see if they all spark. depending on the problem will depend on how good or bad it is for the engine. You would be very suprised what these cars can take, but at the same time it all depends.

What kinda power loss are we talking about? Does that car feel like its bogging out when you hit the gas? is it idealing funny? does the engine move in the bay when you hit the gas (Like does it shake a lot, Side to side, back and forth, or just strait buck when you hit the gas)? Hows your MPG?