Low on power and a puff of smoke

[davidm2003]

I'm getting brief stall and a puff of smoke from the tailpipe when my foot is moderately in the gas pedal. This didn't start happening till I moved from humid North Carolina to the dry Yuma Arizona weather. My 86 GN is all stock save a cone air filter and I was wondering if a plugged catalytic converter could be a culprit. There isn't any other noise coming from the engine bay and the 59000 mile engine still purrs like a kitten while at idle. Hope someone can give a little help here.

 

[Lil Truck]

If you have not gone through the car and done a spring cleaning, plugs, fuelfilter, plug wires, air filter, MAF cleaner and etc. I would start there before replacing the Cat. ..... yes it could be Cat related but you will usually feel a big power loss like running out of gas. Also look for a vacuum line that may have cracked, broke or fell off.

 

[davidm2003]

I will definitely go through the standard tuneup stuff. I haven't done that at all since I bought the car almost 4 years ago. I'm sure it'll help a bit just by freshening all those bits up.