Help: car is running rough all of a sudden

[mattah]

1992 NA

Car has been driving great lately, but just on Friday one hill from home the car started coughing and spluttering. The engine sounds like it's strangled and breaking down under load, and it seems to have gotten worse since it first happened. I can barely get it above 30km/hr going uphill for a test drive. Pulled the plugs and they were all white, so I figured it might be a fuel issue.

So so far I have changed the fuel filter, checked the pump and fuel pressure and it all seems fine. I then got the idea into my head that maybe the cat had collapsed and was strangling exhaust flow. So I took that off, but it also seems fine.

Any ideas? I haven't done anything to the car lately, and I did a cursory check of the timing (just checked to see if the CAS had moved), intake leaks etc and that all seems ok. Oil pressure is good and the car didn't overheat at the time. The plugs are only 6k old, although one of them already looks a bit burnt. Maybe it's time to change the plug leads as well.

Cheers,

[93_Clubman]

breaking down under load, i.e. on a hill or trying to accelerate from from low revs when you're a gear to high - reckon it's plug leads if you've not changed them fairly recently.

[JBT]

+ 1 for plug leads.

[mattah]

Yep, it was plug leads.

[Okibi]

Glad it was an easy fix, sorry I didn't see this thread until later, could have swapped over a set of leads and helped you diagnose the problem.