I have a 1993 Chevy Cavalier and I can drive it around for hours initially but if I shut the engine off and restart it, the engine starts missing badly seeming as if it were only running on three cylinders.
You just might be running on three cylinders. The ignition system in your vehicle is a wasted spark ignition system. This means you have two coils that serve four cylinders. And these are called coil packs. You could have a coil pack that operates correctly until the vehicle shuts down and heat soaks. Then when the vehicle is restarted, that coil pack is failing to fire one of the two cylinders that it should.
If you find there’s a problem with one of the coil packs, replace both because the other isn’t far behind.
Tester