Bogging when trynig to accelerate

[karenjim]

My 1993 Ford Aerostar ran great until a couple of days ago. I had a slow pick up but once I got there I could do 70 - 80 on the freeway no problem. Then the other day we had a huge snow storm. We got about 11 inches of snow and working out in it, I got stuck SEVERAL times.... Sometimes several times in the same block. I had to rev the engine up real high in order to be able to get unstuck.... in reverse and in drive. Sometimes it took a lot of back and forth motion.

Since then, I have had many problems getting past 30 miles per hour. It seems to sputter when going through the gears. I thought it was acting like it was running out of gas (I stupidly had it low on fuel while it was parked the night after the storm). I went through more than I thought I had the night before. So I filled the tank with gas. But it still ran poorly.

Then, I thought there may have been some water in the tank so I put an antifreeze / water remover in the tank. I also put in a complete fuel cleaner to see if it just needed cleaning.

At first I thought it may have been the transmission. I had it checked. The transmission filter was torn and the trans seal was really bad. I had both of them replaced along with a trans tuneup. But the guy there said that the miss was somewhere in the engine. I think perhaps the reving of the engine may have pushed a vaccuum line off, but I don't know where to begin looking. Any other suggestions of what to check? I know I need an oil change, but I don't know if that would cause all of this... in just one night of horrible snow. My nephew told me though that the 10w40 that I was putting in after the van had been used to getting synthetic oil for so long (the last few years) may have hurt the rings. He suggested flushing the engine a few times and replacing the oil with what it is used to getting. And I also thought I should check the spark plugs and wires, etc. I just don't want to keep sinking money in (although these would all be necessary in the long run) but I don't want to keep doning the work and still have the problem.

Please help...
Thanks in advance.
Karen