I just went out for a drive, the third short trip of the day. The van ran
fine the first two trips except on a fairly steep grade near my house. On
this grade, the engine loses power and drops to about 1500 rpm. By
feathering the throttle, I could get it to rev up again and get me home.

This third trip, the engine consistenly surged between abot 1700 and 3000
rpm at about 25-30 mph. This is an automatic 2.1L wbx. Feathering the
throttle seemed to have little positive effect. Accelerate from a stop and
rev up to about 3k rpm - it dies and drops to about 1700 rom and then it
goes right back up to about 3000rpm. A moment later, it drops back to 1700
rpm and so on.

I would be willing to believe it is a clogged fuel filter but why would the
surging be so consistent?

The engine idles fine. The engine is warm, not full on hot.

I checked the fuel pump wiring before this trip. A good wiggle on all
connections did not produce any negative effects. The fuel filter is a clear
plastic, round filter in frotn of the pump. It seems to have some strange
muck at the bottom side of the filter.

Any lucid insights, list?

--
mordo
1990 Carat