u/theonejefe

Hi folks,

I picked up an 89 d21 with the VG30e a couple months ago. Until last week, it ran great, fired up every time and drove smooth. The other day, I was driving up the hill near my house when it started to lose power and sputter. I thought that I had maybe run out of gas, so I ran into town and put a couple gallons in. It fired right up and drove fine back to my house. It sat for a week, and yesterday when I hopped in it fired right up, and I let it warm up to operating temp. 2 minutes down the road, it started acting like it wasn't getting fuel again, so I pulled into a gas station, shut it off, and then filled it up. When I went to start it back up again, I got a crank no start. I confirmed the throttle body was getting fuel, but I didn't have a spark tester for spark. It didn't pop off on starting fluid though. Anyway, after an hour of tinkering, I cranked it up and after about 10 seconds it fired back up! I drove it to my buddy's house, dropped something off, and then hopped back in, and it fired up well again. Then I figured I'd take it for a little longer test drive, so I drove about 5 miles outside of town and it seemed to be running and driving fine. I parked it to enjoy the sunset, and sure enough, crank no start after the sun went down. 
I caught a ride into town, and then this morning went to snag it. It fired up like nothing ever happened! But it was hesitating on the highway. I confirmed the distributor was giving spark, at least in cyl 1. I just wanted to ask for opinions on what may be the issue. I'm thinking maybe the ignition coil has gone bad and is on the fritz once the truck hits operating temp? Plugs and wires look to be pretty darn new and good. I'm gonna be throwing a new fuel filter and vented gas cap on it just for s&g but other than that, I would love some advice. I am fairly new to turning a wrench (at least on cars) but am stoked to learn more. 

Thanks so much