Sputtering while maintaining speed and accelerating

Tiny
FORDF150NAVY
  • MEMBER
  • 1992 CHEVROLET S-10
  • 2.5L
  • 4 CYL
  • 2WD
  • MANUAL
  • 240,000 MILES
The first thing I noticed was my fuel mileage dropping. After two weeks of that it started running really rough after an hour and a half or so of driving. It slowly has been taking less time for it to start having the issue. It will start cutting out while train to maintain speed, during acceleration it gets worse. Occasionally I’ll smell fuel when this happens. I’ve changed plugs, wires, complete distributor, fuel pump, fuel filter, map sensor, O2 sensor and nothing has seemed to work. While changing the distributor, I found that the coil had previously been replaced but whoever changed it did not mount it correctly, they just zip tied it to a radiator hose. I resolved that issue while I was there. I’m more of a parts changer than a mechanic so I’m not sure where to go from here. I have has a couple people suggest that it could be a cracked head or blown head gasket but it’s not getting and water in the oil or oil in water and I have not noticed it smoking, but it only happens when I’m driving and I’m usually in semi congested traffic so I’m not watching my mirrors for smoke as much as I am traffic. Short drives don’t seem to have any issues, Any ideas?
Friday, December 21st, 2018 AT 4:18 AM

3 Replies

Tiny
JONNYB1963
  • MECHANIC
  • 252 POSTS
Good morning and thank you for the thorough background on your issue.

This could be any one of a number of things but lets try to narrow it down a bit before we go wild on guessing. I noticed that you did not list any codes. Am I correct in assuming that your check engine light is not on?

The first thing I would like you to do is "read" the plugs. I know you replaced them recently so we can rule them out as the culprit but we need to read them so we can start diagnosing the problem.
See the attached pictures, or if you want, you could take pictures of your plugs and I can read them for you, just label them 1, 2, 3, etc.

Let's start there and see what is going on with your engine.

Jon
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Friday, December 21st, 2018 AT 6:57 AM
Tiny
FORDF150NAVY
  • MEMBER
  • 2 POSTS
When I get home I will gladly do that for you. The only engine code is for the EGR valve. I didn’t list it because it had been removed and blocked off/deleted since I’ve had the vehicle and the vehicle had no issues when I got it.
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Friday, December 21st, 2018 AT 7:03 AM
Tiny
KEN L
  • MASTER CERTIFIED MECHANIC
  • 42,904 POSTS
I would check the engine coolant temperature sensor which when they go out will not set a code. Here is a guide to help walk you through the steps and the sensor location for your truck below. How did the spark plugs look?

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/coolant-temperature-sensor-cts-replacement

Check out the diagrams (below). Please let us know what happens.

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Monday, December 24th, 2018 AT 12:02 PM

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