95 dakota n body
318 motor 2 wd slt
140,000 great shifting trans.
replaced partssince ive owned it 8/13
new oem plugs, wires, cap, rotor, coil, pvc, air filter, neutral safety.
cleaned entire tb iac and everything else in there.
pressure tested at rail for 40psi at idle.

now for the symptoms....
constant slight rough idle under very light throttle. although if i bring it up over 1500 rpm it clears up and runs good. it intermittently stumble and bucks under throttle and tries to stall unless i lessen off the gas and gets worse untill im doin 10mph untill i stop and it shuts off. its like im doin 70mph then it acts up and falls over its face if i try to accelerate and only gets worse as i go untill im forced to pull over bc it wont accelerate. when its acting like that and i try to give it gas it bucks, backfires, and sputters out. then i give it till the next morning and she runs like a champ. im mechanically inclined and work for a parts store so i have the means i just need a diagnostic or atleast a direction. its weird just bc when shes doin fine and im puttin around town itll act like its gonna through a fit i just put it in neutral and rev it and for the most part itll clear up and run fine for awile.

if anyone can help all i need is a sense of direction bc throwing parts at it is just a waste of time and money. thanks in advance..

 

Checked the engine codes?

 

Is your distributor properly indexed? Shouldn't need to spend any money to check that.

 

no codes of course ha. ill check the distributor. but keep in mind that the symptoms are very minor 99% but every once in awhile ill get that 1% where it just dont wanna run good. sometimes its much worse then others. like this morning every time i tried to back out of my garage it stalled. happen 3 times until i got on the road then after about 1/4 mile it cleared up and ran fine. used to think it made a difference in how much gas i had but with it being 3/4 full and acting up all day on me im starting to doubt.

 

you DID plug the vent on the cap. didnt you?

 

by chance you notice oil consumption a little more? and or if you look down the throttle body in the intake see oil pooling?

 

no my belly pan looks clean a little bit of carb build up but no oil. wat do u mean cover the vent on the cap?

 

Is there any pre defining actions that proceed the hiccup fart and fall on it's face? The reference to plugging the vent cap, is if there cap has a hole for a vent sometimes its a little black rubber thingy. If you get a wet day, drive through a big puddle and get excessive moisture under the cap it effects the sparks ability to stay on target.

did it start all of a sudden? has it continued even through additional tanks of gas? How long has it been doing it? mostly when it's Cold/Hot?

I doubt it's possible but in the old days we use to put the cellophane from our cigarette packs down the fill nozzle and it would do almost the exact same thing once it settled to the bottom and stuck to the pickup sock, the vehicle would cough fart spudder till they shut it off and it floated away and then randomly strike again.

A rule of thumb when diagnosing engines is that if it dies instantly no carryover sputtering just dies it's electrical, if it coughs, sputters farts, it's usually Gas related. now with that said, I don't own a 95 but if has a seperate coil, meaning that the coil pack isn't computer controlled with a multitude of wires check to see if you are getting good 12V to the coil. I owned a chevy S10 that would do exactly as you described. I ran a dedicated wire to the coil on a toggle switch and the problem went away, shortly there after so did the S10.

 

yep it was the filter in the tank. also sandgink that is a very good rule of thump and advice and u are exactly right. but yesterday morning on my way to work i had an accident and wrapped my dakota around a telephone pole

 

Well that sucks, is it totaled, or just sheet metal damage?