With all the work being done, it’s very easy to imagine that a vacuum hose has been dislodged. It would whistle and the engine will run rough, like you describe. Sometimes you can figure out where the whistle is coming from with a piece of hose (garden hose, heater hose) a few feet long. One end goes in your ear, and you move the other slowly around in the area of the whistle and listen for where it is the loudest. That helps you home in on it.
You can join AAA and get a 3 mile tow right away or talk to your insurance company and ask them how much to add towing to your insurance and how long you would have to wait for a tow. With some insurance companies, towing is incredibly cheap.
that might be a method I might be willing to try.
My machine came with several adapters. I believe most come with a large selection of adapters
I also bought a few additional adapters
Now I can dump smoke in the intake, exhaust, evap system, fuel tank, etc.
In reality, there are only a handful of adapters that are used regularly
so the local school mechanic came & looked it over, hooked up a tester of some sort (got no codes back). He said he felt that it was the fuel pump because it wasn’t kicking on. Replaced the fuel pump–again, along with the fuel pump strainer. it still is acting as though it is not getting fuel. It TRIES to start but won’t. On Thursday, I am going to drop it off at a different shop & see if they can diagnose the problem & they are going to do a smoke test to see if there is a vacuum leak anywhere.
On a modern FI engine, holding the gas pedal to the floor tells the engine control computer to stop injecting fuel to the engine, It is a way to clear a flooded engine. If it starts with the pedal to the floor but dies when let up, I’d check the fuel pressure to be sure you have sufficient pressure to get a good spray pattern out of the injectors and pull some plugs for a look-see if they are soaked or dry…then check around for vacuum leaks that are affecting the amount of fuel being injected.
thank you for that info. when I get home I will try the pedal to the floor to see if it is flooded & that clear it.
Try spraying a small amount of starter fluid into the intake and then try to start the engine. If the engine responds to that and then dies you need to check the fuel system for a problem. Checking the fuel pressure, like @TwinTurbo suggested, is a good check. If the pressure is low then make sure full power is getting to the pump when it is on. A bad power connection to the pump will cause low fuel pressure.
So I wasn’t able to find the issue. either I incorrectly tried your suggestions or my car is REALLY messed up. Finally giving up & taking it to the shop after work today & see what they can find. Praying it is something inexpensive.
Let us know.
Ok, so I finally got the results from the mechanic. The catalytic converters need to be changed for one. Secondly, cylinder 6 is still not firing correctly. He actually hooked it up and checked the compression numbers on it. He said the compression on it was 80 and should have been 160. He couldn’t find why it was so low, which due to the high miles on it leads him to think it is something internal–either gasket or valve issue. Probably just gonna attempt to sell it in the spring after I pay off the title loan that I have on it, body on it is in amazing condition!! UGH!!
“He couldn’t find why it was so low . . .”
With all respect, you need to find some competent mechanics
So far, you’ve run into incompetent hacks who have taken your money and sold you unnecesary parts, because their diagnostic skills are severely lacking
It would take only a few minutes to determine if the reason for low compression is top end or bottom end
And a cylinder leakdown test would also narrow it down some more
Maybe you should sell it . . . because if you can’t find anybody competent enough to diagnose the car, you surely won’t find anybody competent enough to fix it properly
With no proper diagnosis, you can’t expect a proper repair
And these guys have probably never heard of “verifying the repair” . . . 
It’s quite possible the catalytic converter is bad, because of the unresolved #6 misfire. That’s assuming the cat is on the same bank as the misfire
A compression reading of 80 means a problem and not a little one. It should take just minutes to figure out why that cylinder is at 80.
Unfortunately, you may be at fish or cut bait time in regards to that car so my advice is not to spend any money with someone who advises replacing this, that, or the other; all of which is a pointless exercise until the 80 PSI problem is diagnosed.
On average, if one cylinder is very low like that and the others are fine that can point to a cylinder head valve issue or to a lesser extent; a head gasket.
I agree that valvetrain is more likely versus head gasket
He suggested an internal problem such as a head gasket or head valve. But said that it would be best to just put a whole new engine in it due to it having close to 196,000 miles on it. But my problem with that is that until cylinder 6 started misfiring the engine ran GREAT!! absolutely NO problems. I don’t see the use in junking an entire engine because of one cylinder. However I can’t find anyone who is willing or competent enough to work on that one gasket/valve & pinpoint the problem AND not charge me a ton of money. I am a single mom with 3 kids & am a teacher. My ex doesn’t pay his child support (over $10,000 behind), I loved this car. I ended up purchasing a 2016 Kia Forte because I didn’t have any other choice. But would love to get this car running for either my son or my daughter who will have her license in a year.
If the problem is a valve, head gasket or piston rings, repairing this engine will cost more than replacing the car. To remove/install one cylinder head takes 22.5 hours so unless you have $3,000 to spend most mechanics will close the hood and say good by.
It would be nice to know what failed, it could be a broken valve spring or camshaft/follower problem but the repair will cost far more than the diagnosis.
Nevada_545 thank you for that information. No one has told me anything about the cost of it–just that it needed a new engine. But yes, at that cost it is almost more than the car is worth. Which makes me VERY sad.
This is step #1 in removing a cylinder head on this car;
1.Remove engine from vehicle.
If you could get a used engine for less than $1,000 it would then be less expensive to install that rather than repair the old engine. Unless this work in done by an experienced tech there will likely be problems to sort out after completion. Life will be less stressful replacing the car instead of repairing it.
It is time to bail on this thing . Put the little money you can get for it plus the amount for insurance and registration in a separate savings account. Have your children do part time work or odd jobs and add to it if they really want a car at driving age. Not knowing where you are located I can almost assure you that just liability insurance on a teenage driver will be expensive.
I’m in OK. I have seen used engines for around $800, however that doesn’t include the installation. & you know what type of mechanics I am dealing with around the area I live in. Honestly, at this point I am wondering how the vehicles are still running in this area. UGH!!