1987 Camry Rough Running

This is a great forum...thanks for any help you can offer guys..

Ok 1987 Toyota Camry...out of nowhere it lost some power.

You can hear it running rough after you fire it up. It runs so rough that it sounds different coming out of the muff...sounds like one of those after market street racing mufflers...LOL...higher pitched...

The car shakes when accelerating and moves slow into acceleration. While it will eventually accelerate and get going the rattling is always there. Even on the freeway you can hear the engine dip down a little with loss of power.

Tried testing the plugs and when I removed the cap for each one while running there was a noticable loss of power again like there should be.
The black connector tubes that connect the wires to the plug in two of them had a little moisture. One more that the other. Could it be the seal?

Hmmm...any help would be appreciated before I tear into it...

This is a possibility that it could need new spark plug tube seals...especially since you said there was moisture on the plug. You also might want to check the distributor, rotor button, and cap...just to make sure everything's in top shape. Also, you may want to pull the plugs and check their condition as well.

The moisture was actually on the balck tube on the OUTSIDE...it connects to plug wires and covers and seals the connection to the spark plug.

Have you checked the timing. Timing belt may have jumped, ready to break.

have a muffler shop check for plugged muffler or catalytic converter, or you can attach a vacuum gauge and see whether vacuum drops at steady engine speed.
internally collapsed component in exhaust will result in power loss.

I vote for plugged Cat. Converter or muffler.

Thanks guys for giving me some options to check out...I'm gonna try the muffler shop first...

peace

Timing belt slipped on my 87 Camry several years ago. Timing went to 40 deg BTDC. Produced s..l..o..w acceleration, vibration, and bad pre-ignition(pinging=rattling?).