ok, i have an 88 chevy truck with the 350 tbi. i assume they are the same as the 3rd gen of that time. i am losing power while driving. there is gas flowing, but the power cuts out for a few seconds and then comes back on. sometimes it will quit and then it will sound like it is "dieseling". it will be real hard to crank and then when it does it sounds like it is hitting about 3 cylinders. sometimes it fires back up and runs fines for a minute or two. it is very unpredictable. it might do it when the truck is cold and not so much when it warms up. the next time it will do it after some driving time. i replaced the cap and rotor today thinking it might be the culprit. i also tried another tps(borrowed but works). still no good. any suggestions? thanks.

 

Hoe many miles are on it?

Try a fuel filter too.

Was any work done to it recently besides the cap/rotor?

Sounds like it could be timing too,or a fuel pump maybe going bad.

 

i would suggest checking the EGR Valve as well as your fuel filter

i agree w/ ricekiller that it might be a fuel pump b/c of the way that it is intermittent, or it could be a clogged fuel filter that gets blocked up when the car is under load and then moves out of the way when you lose power

 

thanks guys. the truck has 260k miles but the motor was replaced in 01. it is not driven a lot so maybe 30k miles. a new distributor was put in in 05 as well as a fuel pump. all gm. not saying they cant go bad. will it shut off immediately if it were the fuel pump or would it spit and sputter like it was running out of gas? when it has trouble cranking it is getting fuel. i can see it. it could probably use a new fuel filter, so i will change that anyway, but it still feels like ignition. i'm going to have the ignition module checked tomorrow and see if it is any good. i think that is a hit or miss type thing there, but i will try. thanks again. any further ideas will be appreciated.
edit: will the egr make it just quit and hard starting??

 

my experiences with ignition modules is that the performance doesn't deteriorate, they just fail. The ignition coil on the other hand could be on its way out and that will deteriorate over time. Does it have an HEI dist? You might want to just replace both the module and coil.

A malfunctioning EGR will choke the performance of the car, don't know what the effect would be for starting.

The more i think about it, the more i think your fuel filter is clogged. just one of those feelings