What do you mean, “Any other ideas of what this could be?”? You haven’t told us which ideas, if any, you have employed. The engine ran a minuet; so, it must have started. What happened? Those new spark plugs could still be fouled. Put it all together what checks you have made and the results. Did you check for a smooth response from the tps (throttle position sensor)? Did you check for spark on all four cylinders? Just the condensed version will do; otherwise, it could take days to piece-meal everything together.
I may also suggest doing a compression test on all cylinders. I’m thinking you may have a blown head gasket or intake gasket. I believe your compression should be within 10% of the highest reading.
I did get it started, it is very hard to start, I have to hold the accelerator to the floor to get it turn over. I have checked for spark, got that. What I mean by any other ideas is that, I am now sitting on $500 worth of work on this, I am in the military, so as you know, don’t make that much money so I can’t really afford to take it to a shop and have them do the same thing I am doing, throw a bunch of parts at it. Granted, they would have all of the tools necessary for troubleshooting, but I am a aircraft mechanic so I do have some mechanical knowledge. I am just trying to make this easier on myself and plus I get to learn more about cars and how to troubleshoot myself.
Checking the intake gasket is going to be my next thing. I have done some research and come to find out the malibu’s have had some intake gasket problems.
Thanks
You, too, can have some excellent diagnostic tools, at a modest cost. The list starts with: a vacuum test gauge; a spark tester (adjustable gap type, or light type); a compression gauge; a vacuum hand pump; timing light; a high impedence digital multimeter (aka: voltmeter); Malibu repair manual. // To condense the problem: The gas pedal has to be held to the floor to start the engine, which takes about 15 seconds of cranking; The engine is misfiring badly; Gray smoke and fuel odor are coming from the exhaust. /// The remedies attempted, thus far: replaced iac valve (idle air control); the two ignition coils and housing; spark plugs and boots; checked the cts (coolant temperature sensor, which checked good(?); spark checked good (on all cylinders?). That’s it, right? /// Now what? Using the scan tool, check the tps (throttle position sensor) carefully. Have someone tap on the tps while you slowly move the gas pedal and closely monitor the voltage readout on the scan tool. The voltage readings should be stable and vary smoothly with the movement of the gas pedal. Any dead spot, or spikes, could indicate a bad tps. Of course, you know to use the vacuum and compression gauges.