Please Help! 1998 Saturn Sl2 ruining our lives

Hello everyone, my first post here and it's a doozie!! My wife and I bought a 1998 Saturn SL2 to replace a 2006 Lincoln Zephyr (money pit) a couple months back. 150k miles, new map sensor and Coolant Temp Sensor at the time of purchase. At first the car drove perfect, engine ran like a sewing machine. Had a couple minor problems, replace Coolant Temp Sensor again and it straightened out. Couple weeks later the nightmare started. It started having a slight miss. Idles perfect, revs up perfect, but when accelerating it would stutter. So I decided to put new plugs in it when i discovered that the far left plug was drowning in oil. So i thought new wires and and a valve cover gasket. After scratching my head and almost laughing about the previous mechanic having put permatex on a rubber gasket, i discovered that the cover itself was warped. (My first car with a plastic valve cover). As ashamed as I am of the defeat, i FINALLY found an aluminum valve cover off a 93 saturn that bolted on and only has a small leak on the top bolts that stripped out. So now the slight miss has turned into violent jerking, stuttering, stalling, and all out just redicilous. It only does any of this while accelerating, it idles fine. As this being our only vehicle and noone to rely on for a ride, we have no choice but to drive it. I very recently put a new fuel filter with absolutely no results. I have ideas of what it xcoul be, but now after spending so much money on it, including a $58 fuel filter, im very very short on funds. So im wondering what would be your next move? Im planning on "replacing the catalatyc converter" tomorrow. Oh and I checked for vacuum leaks. any suggestions would be great, thanks a lot

 

Is the check engine light on?

I would start with a compression test. If you don't have the tool most autoparts stores with a loan a tool program will.

Next step would be to spark test the coils and replace the spark plug wires.

Highmile
'95 SL1 709k and counting

 

Did you ever find the problem with your Saturn SL2? Hopefully you didn't replace the catalytic converter. I was thinking might have a problem with dirty fuel injectors.

 

Codes?

Put in OEM NGK spark plugs. You'd be surprised how many issues that clears up.

Suspect air fuel mix is wrong. Many possible reasons for that. ECTS (buy AC Delco or Delphi), front O2 sensor (buy Denso).

Outside chance your EGR is stuck closed.