Shop told me it was normal another shop said its the rev limiter. Is there a chance the rev limiter is broke?

in second gear accelerating past 4k rpm's the power drastically drops off and when downshifting to second between 4k and 5k power goes away.
It does the rev limiting jitter when it looses power.

Can anyone compare this to their 2003 3.8 model?

 

They don't have much power up top, you can do some mods to bring the power higher into the RPM band though.

These cars are all about the down-low torque. I would say a custom tune could help you out, plus maybe a seafoaming. How old is this car / mileage?

Wear and tear go a long way.

 

its a 03 monte, 81k miles. This is the kind of loss of power that when it downshifts to 3rd at 80 it decelerates, and in 3rd to second between those gears. Going up hills sucks. I would love if people test with the 3.8 and let me know what the rev limiter is in park and what it is in moving.

I'm either at a clogged cat or PCM issues, also throwing around the idea of the hypertech programmer to give more power but if this keeps up I'll be selling my Jeff Gordon MC

 

I would say it's just age. Carbon build-up, could be a clogged cat (but you really should get a downpipe + high-flow cat anyway) and NEVER rev it while it's in park. It shouldn't go above 3500-4000 in park and can ruin stuff quickly.

 

well I'm starting with the PCM reset, unplugged the neg cable over night, online it said it takes 3 hours so overnight should discharge it.

The high flow cat is on the table at 200 http://www.magnaflowsuperstore.com/4...ter-PRD13.aspx

looking into other exhaust mods while i am at it, thinking flowmaster mufflers but not sure which one.

taking it to chevy in the morning for a 5th opinion.

The monte comes with 2 rev limiters 1 parked and 1 moving, they are different to keep you from breaking things. I agree that high RPM's for bad but then going up hill and you need to downshift to pass or whatnot. Right now I lack power and when going uphill i have to depend on 3rd gear to do the climb.

 

I would do the ZZPerformance Downpipe with High-Flow cat instead.

 

Yeha chevy said it was a restricted cat, just as i suspected. So 600 for the work and cat, i'll upgrade to save a few bucks. but keep in mind i have not looked at the zz performance yet on the way there now.

 

Dont goto a dealership to get your cat replaced...

 

The downpipe + high-flow cat is going to fix a lot of things.

1. it will replace your stock cat with a magnaflow high-flow cat.
2. It will replace the U-bend around the O2 sensor which is a major restriction
3. it will replace the whole downpipe which is double-walled and very restrictive to exhaust your gases.

 

no dealership did the quote for insurance claim