1990 Ford Escort LX Choking Problem

Pull the engine code or codes, will give you an idea of what's happening, any black smoke when thids happens? Or just slowly dies off? Most auto parts stores will do the codes for you, make sure they tell you the code number or numbers, or better yet, if you're going to keep the car for a while longer, invest the $30 and buy an eec4 code reader, Actron or another brand. Easy to use.

Choking itself out, does that mean no fuel, black smoke would indicate too much fuel. Does this only when warmed up? How does it run when cold-started? Get the reader, it's money well spent, the codes given may help you out. Then reason I'm wondering if it's a hot or cold problem is if you've got a sensor or like going bad, it'll show when it starts outputting info, cold starts are usually running on a factory- installed program in the pcm, basing a cold start on coolant temp and intake temp sensor, as the engine warms up, pcm starts using more input from various engine sensors to more finely tune the running condition. On the older obdI cars, such as yours, sensors may not be transmitting optimum info, but the check engine light may not come on until a set parameter is met, the pcm will see this is not right and turn on the light. Newer obdII's are much more sensitive to failing inputs.