2.6 wants to live

I picked this truck up for a parts truck but decided to keep it in lou of the other. It's a 87 4x4 5spd with a 92' 2600i swap, no rust on body or frame. The damn thing ran fine when I bought it. Paid $600 for it and drove it home, bout 150miles. swapped over the good crap from the truck I was going to keep once I found the frame was rusted through on it, the truck I got this for (it was a 92 ext cab 2600i 2wd, link to the plan ) All I swapped was body and interior parts.

The first time it acted up - was driving going about 60mph when it started to stutter. Pulled over and checked under the hood. After some poking around found that the coil wire came loose from the coil. fixed that and she fired right up and went on down the road for a few more miles then started stuttering again and then just crapped out me. seem to get worse when I would try to give it more gas. After I restarted it and it died a couple times it finally started and ran like it did before. I got it home and replaced the fallowing-
cap
rotor
plug wires
spark plugs
fuel filter
air filter
coil pack

replaced all that crap and it fired right up, idled just fine and had more power than before. Drove it for another day, bout half a tanks worth. Took it out the next day, filled up the tank, got bout 5miles down the road and it crapped out on me again. It would idle at bout 200rpm but would try to die every time I would give it gas. Got it home once again and check a few things. Found the distributor bearings where tweeked. they where throwing the rotor wobbly and rubbing it into the internals. replaced the distributor, played hell timing it but got it going. Drove a few miles again and it started doing the same thing. limped it home once again. checked for vacuum leaks and found none. The gas tank and fuel pump are newer and can hear the pump running. When it starts acting up it smells really rich. I wonder if it's flooding out, I don't have a way to check the fuel pressure but the rail is staying full. I have a spare fuel pressure regulator from the other truck and was thinking of trying it tomorrow. I wonder if it's a temp thing seeing how it does it after a few miles of driving but the temp gauge don't go over 1/3 of the gauge.

please help. I want to use this for my winter beater so I don't have to drive my bagged truck in the nasty.

Pull the pump assy from the gas tank and replace the pickup screen.
I had mine do the exact same thing... drove me batty trying to find the problem.
The fuel pump is starving.

SinCity you called it. pulled it apart and found this



this is whats left of the sock. A big chunk of it was clogging the the inlet on the fuel pump. I wonder how the damn thing was even running in the first place.
Already blew out all the lines and inline fuel filter, replaced the sock. Got her together and runs SOOOOOO much better then when I even brought it home.

Glad to help, bro!
It took me 3 months to finally figure mine out.

It's amazing how a starving engine can act like it's running rich!