You can remove the front O2 temporarily, it creates a big hole in the exhaust before the cat. If the cat's clogged it'll run better.
A vacuum gauge might tell you something useful too, it's a simple way to check for exhaust restrictions, vacuum leaks, valve issues, etc.

 

Definitely checking the fuel pressure first thing Monday evening... Just drove about 3 miles from cold start, still bucking and spitting, seemed to have ok power when i mashed on the gas as far as power, not 100% strong but good.... Temp seemed to rise at normal rate and never reached full operating temp (210) Another note to mention, when i turn the steering wheel left or right I get a hissing sound, actually sounds as if you were checking your breathe or something (hhaaahhhhhhhh) something like that, and when turing on air (say defrost to main vent) its takes unusually long to change, especially when on 4.... Dont know if any of this is related but additional info.....

 

UPDATE!!!...... Went to the pull your own parts place and grabbed a fuel rail out of a 99' and installed the new exhaust manifold, power is back and runs like a champ, no more stuttering, stalling, etc...... I blame the fuel rail.... I did notice that the rail I had on the 99' from my 00' had a small round regulator of some sort built into the rail? Anyone know what that is? The 99' rail is just straight without that piece.....

 

Glad to hear you got that fixed!

I know exactly the bit you're talking about. It's called a fuel dampener. You know when at home if you run a tap wide open, then closr it very quickly you get a loud THUD from the wall? This is caused by the water basically crashing into the suddenly shut valve. In high pressure fuel rails you get the same thing every time an injector shuts, which sends pressure waves all over the fuel rail and basically causes fluttering, which are high pressure peaks and low pressure dips due to a siphon effect, if you will. Essentially it's a rubber diaphragm that absorbs these shocks to keep pressure more constant. This is why on 1997-1999 the spec is 49 PSI +/- 5 but on 2000+ it's +/- 1 or so. Oddly enough my summer of '98-built 1999 has one of these rails.

 

salad I must say you really have a way with words..... never a dull moment with your posts...

well said

@belleyes..... good news man !!!!

 

My '99 has a damper and the 2000 rail I bought as a spare has a damper as well. The damper on the 2000 is smaller than the one on my '99. Both are useless. With my fuel pressure gauge hooked up (to either one) I see fuel pressure flux.

 

Good info! I really want to see what the scoop is with my '98 then.

 

Really? That's hilarious. 5 PSI of flux with the dampener?

 

How do you know it was 5 psi? Have you been spying on me...

 

Not at all...

By the way, Chrome has this "Incognito" mode and Firefox has a "Private Window". Use one of those and you won't need to clear your history so often.

Cheers

 

Well I thought I had the issue solved but it has decided to return even worse than before..... I'm going to AutoZone first thing this morning to get a TPS and see if that fixes the problem.... Sputtering, high rpm idle, loss of power, up and down shifts continuously and a slight miss in neutral from 1000-2500 rpm... The TPS is less than a month old but hopefully it was a dud from the get go...... Really getting frustrated......

 

Vacuum leak around a fuel injector by means of bad o-ring maybe?

I had an old explorer that had similar symptoms. Turned out to be a bad fuel injector oddly enough. Simply diagnosed by unplugging fuel injectors one by one, whichever one didn't make the truck run any less crappy, was my culprit.
Food for thought I guess?

 

I would suggest that you source a TPS from...not autozone. Napa or stealership

 

TPS was the culprit..... Finally threw a code on my way to AutoZone.....