Darrenlclayton

I have a 1987 Toyota pickup 22R I just bought a few months ago. Was running fine but it just started sputtering the other day and losing power. I made it home (80 miles later) and went and got a fuel filter. It started right up and seemed easier to start than before. I took it down the road and sure enough it was still sputtering, only this time it started after about 30 mph it would sputter. I could still gain speed but anything above 30 mph would be a sputter every 3-5 seconds. Anyone know what this could be? Thanks!

ewong

Off the cuff, your description sounds like a mis fire. I typically start looking at the ignition system.

Getting water in the distributor can lead to the symptoms you describe.

I had a VW once, that would have an intermittent sputter. I turned out that there was a cracked coolant manifold (they are plastic on the VW in question) that would leak just enough eater to dampen the distributer (which was "under" the coolant hose manifold) but not enough to leave a water mark or dried coolant. That was a fun thing to diagnose...

4RunnerFreak12

I
Remove dizzy cap and check for corrosion. Make sure the parts move like there supposed to and not stick. While in there might as
well clean the contacts. Also how are your wires? Any damaged boots?

Then a compression test. With plugs out look at them to help tell the problem (lean or rich)

check all fluids too, when cold first thing in morning remove radiator cap and look inside. Make sure no sign of oil. Remove dipstick and look for signs of water unlikely but good to start by ruling it out.

does it have a catalytic converter?

may need to look at carb not my area of expertise but maybe a bad spring or choke sticking intermittently

Charchee

Hard to say when described in miles per hour. I assume it idles ok and at low speed/ load situations. Can you rev it up at idle without making it miss or does it cut out? I'm feeling a fuel delivery problem. At idle and low speed it's able to keep enough fuel flowing to do ok but when it starts burning fuel at normal operating speed for a minute or two it can't keep up. I would have said to change the filter and you did. If that made a bit of a little difference you probably just reduced the restriction in the line by just a little but not enough to solve your low flow problem completely. If your fuel pump pickup has some trash in it, you may see the issue either go away or get worse. If your pump is getting weak, it will only get worse. A pin hole in a fuel line could also let air in when fuel demand is high and cause the miss. Did you recently run your fuel tank nearly empty? That's the most common time for your fuel pump to pick up trash.

It could be lots of things including the ignition issue like ewong described but hard to say. Do you have a check engine light on? Could also be an air flow issue. Check your air filter and make sure it looks ok. Let us know if you can make it sputter in any other scenario other than just 30+ mph.