Engine running rough, no power

[SKnight]

I was driving down the freeway today going up a slight incline. I went to accelerate a little bit and and realized that I had almost no power, the engine wasn't speeding up and had begun to sputter. I took the next off ramp, when I got to the bottom the engine was running rough to the point where it was shaking the whole car. When the light changed I gave it gas and the car barely moved, it seemed like it might die for a moment., I kept pressing the gas and the car eventually got going but the engine wouldn't smooth out. It continued to run like this until I was heading up a hill and almost floored it, suddenly the car took off and the engine started running a lot smoother. From that point on it ran fine and I got it home without incident.

Lately I've noticed that the car has been running a little rougher when the engine is cold and it'll sometimes sputter when I accelerate from a dead stop, but the problem seems to go away after it warms up. However, today the temperature gauge was about at the notch between 100 and 220 which is normally where it runs at. Any ideas? Almost seemed like it wasn't getting enough gas or something.

[sdg3205]

Could be fuel starvation, could be a plug going bad. If it happens when cold, throw some CIS gauges on when it's cold, fire it up and see if it occurs and what the gauges reflect.

[AugustneverEnds]

Has your car been tuned up lately? Your symptoms could be pointing in a number of different directions; spark plugs going bad, ignition wires going bad, fuel delivery issues, etc... need to narrow down the suspects.

[David T]

First thing to suspect is a bad/dirty electrical connection in the Lambda system. When that system isn't working the car will run lean and have no power. Pull the plug off the frequency valve and put it back on a couple of times, that will clean it up and should fix the problem. If ti doesn;t you will have to look deeper.

[SKnight]

Thanks for the replies, this'll give me something to start with.