This is a strange (to me) problem. My truck has a mild to severe miss at and around idle. When I hold the throttle open to about 1200 rpm, it sputters, and surges, and dies, and I swear when it misses it almost sounds like pining. This only happens in neutral and park. Sometimes, when I go to put my truck in gear, it stalls.

This is where it gets strange . . . when I pull any vacuum line, it runs perfectly smooth. If I pull the brake booster line, and block it half way, the truck runs at 1200 rpm as smooth as ice. Could it be that my timing is too advanced, and lessening the vacuum is retarding it just enough?

The truck used to ping under load before getting plugs/cap/rotor, but now hardly ever does.

 

Remove the top of the air cleaner and see if the problem goes away.

 

Nope. Its still just as bad with the whole thing removed.

 

What is your timing set to?

 

I haven't checked it yet, and can't now, since I'm on vacation. Its just burning in my brain knowing that my truck is miles and miles away, needing help

 

is this a throttle body motor? carbed?

 

TBI it is. I think I'm going to check the PCV and EGR right away when I get home, just because they are cheap, simple, and . . . yeah, they are cheap and simple! Just like me!

 

This thread really shows how much of a young padawan I still am. When I got back from vacation, it was much worse. The truck was backfiring weakly on acceleration through both the TBI and exhaust, power was cutting out. Going up hills was a mess. But it still had plenty of power between skips, and idled almost fine when it was cold. I figured maybe if it was backfiring in the intake and exhuast, i might be getting random crossfire.

I switched out the stupid MSD street fire "put it together yourself" wires the lady at advance auto told me were a good idea 10 months ago for the old OEM looking ones i had on before them. And so far so good.

I guess I tend to overthink things, and know a dangerous amount of information: enough to come up with a hundred solutions, but not enough to figure out which one is correct until its obvious.