I need some opinions... I was having a difficult time getting my 02 Cavalier to idle/stay running. It was very weird. After de-turboing it, it over heated 10 minutes into my way home with it. I replaced the thermostat, added some coolant, it idled smooth. Turned it off, to add a lil more coolant. Went to start it back up and it did NOT want to start. It tried so hard to turn over, but it just wouldnt do more than 1-2 rotations. Finally got it to stay idling after revving it high when it was trying to turn over. Got it idling smooth, stepped on the gas a lil and it cut RIGHT out.

I have thought about any possibility I can think of. Over-heating warped head and its flooding the cylinders bad with coolant, still have 1 step colder plugs in it, too cold to have a consistant fire with being N/A now... did something to the valve guides? ANYTHING. It over-heated good, was in the red, I had to leave it on for a lil bit and get it off of the road, was in a very bad spot to pull over. Well its come to my attention that the gas that is in it is from over 6 months ago. ( I didnt even think of this at first..) The car has been sitting at my dads for atleast 6 months and probably was filled up like 1-2 months prior.. Barely driven at all in almost a year. Sound like a possibility?

Its just weird that it ran fine before it over-heated. Until the thermostat failed ( atleast im guessing thats why it over-heated). Once I put the new thermostat in, it started up perfectly and idled fine. But 2nd start-up is when it showed problems and was fighting me.

Im at a loss. Id prefer to sell it in running condition.

It has 1/4 of a tank of gas in it.