[fiveohpatrol]

to check for vacuum leaks, start by letting the car idle and listen for any hissing under the hood. If you can't hear anything, hook up a vacuum gauge to the tree over towards the drivers side of the firewall and see what it's got. A stocker should pull 14" or more at idle.

If you have a vacuum leak, this will allow unmetered air into the engine. The computer doesn't see this extra air and will not compensate with more fuel, which will result in a lean condition. The symptoms you described sound like a lean mixture (or timing, as mentioned above). So defeinately start checking around, because a majro lean condition can cause major problems.

Also, when checking your base timing, make sure you pull the spout connector (little black jumper plug up by the distributor, sorry if you already knew that)

good luck