This is my '86 2.5L 5speed. Had this problem since i picked her up. Already did a full tune-up, plus seafoam, and new muffler.

When you give it more than about 50% throttle she starts to miss and sputter, making it very hard to accelerate.

Also, she has a strong exhaust odor, especially when idling. Could it be the catalytic converter? Something else?

 

I had a fuel issue that sounded similiar to this. Does it happen all the time or just after you have been driving for awhile.

 

Could be a plugged cat I've seen one cause those types of symptoms on more than one occasion.

 

It mostly happens after its been driven a while, especially if its been driven a little harder. Thank you for your help.

 

i just went ahead and bought a fuel pressure regulator and o2 sensor. i will update this thread when i install them.

 

i had a cat plugged up one time.. it lost all its power and was running like crap and smoking from underneath .. i looked at the cat and it was glowing.. glowing cat + jeep = bad things

 

Yea I had a glowing cat on an e350 after doing seafoam.It had similar symptoms to this Cherokee like sputtering and terrible mpg and when I installed a new fpr it ran great. Hope it's the same case here.

 

Cant believe i forgot to mention this also ... usually after i park her after a bit of hard driving she backfires super loud(once), like a .38 snubnose going off!