What's my problem??

[Beegle]

My '91 Explorer is having trouble starting, and when it does start it idles very low and when I try to give it gas it stalls out. I really can't figure out whats wrong. I don't think its an electrical problem; to me it seems like its hardly getting any gas. I changed the fuel filter but that made no difference, and none of my injectors are leaking. However, after I bought it last November I found that it burns oil. I took the intake hose off yesterday and found a lot of oil lying in it and inside the throttle body. Obviously, I have a horrible leak inside the engine, but could this be the cause for it not wanting to start and stay running? What else could be my problem?

[Opera House]

You could have a number of problems at the same time. It sounds like you have excessive blowby which is forcing oil mist into the air intake. This would be from the hose that goes from the oil filler to near the filter. Check to see if the air filter is soaked. If this area is oily the MAF which determines air flow is probably coated and needs cleaning. The throttle body normally gets pretty dirty anyway. If oily this could have made the IAC sticky and it needs to be cleaned. That explains the idle but not putting your foot on the gas and stalling. That indicates plug problems from oil or maybe coolant. Does it keep coolant level? While you are at it pull the vacuum line to the fuel pressure regulator and check for presence of gas. If you have fuel pressure gauge, the pressure hould go to 39# with key on, engine not running. You could also measure fuel pump current by pulling the fuse. Should be about 5A, if less then there is probably a fuel pressure problem. Go for the basics and inspect the plugs first. This could give an indication of a problem area.

[Beegle]

Thanks a lot for your help. I did check the MAF and it looked pretty clean. I'm borrowing a fuel pressure guage off of someone tomorrow so I'll check that too.