Fuel filter or injector?

Fuel filter or injector?
I test drove a 1987 2wd on 7 17 ran great and made a deal to purchase it, I noted some issues the fuel light was on and the gauge was sitting on ¼ tank the owner said they replaced the fuel pump and thought the float was off and needed to be adjusted. We set it up for him to bring the van to where I work on 7 18 sign title over to me and collect the money this would allow me to keep it in the garage until I could get tags for it and I would drive him home. When the van arrived he stated he stopped to put some gas in it about 20 miles out and the van began to act up for the last 10 miles like there was water in the gas, my space is on the 3^rd level the van made it up the 1st ramp but kept losing power 1/3 of the way up the 2^nd ramp we backed it down and added some fresh fuel he van runs and sounds fine in park and neutral when revving the engine but still was losing power on the 2^nd ramp I had to keep pumping the pedal to get it up the ramp, after bringing him home I added sea foam to fuel tank and drove around garage but not up or down the ramps seemed ok at the slow speed in garage so I headed home to see what I could find here, I’m not sure what has been changed or kept up with other than he said he had a 150,000 mile service done about 14 months ago and has put about 6,000 miles on it since than so I will head back to work tomorrow to see what I can figure out any suggestions on where to start.
Sorry for rambling any help would be appreciated spent the first part of the evening reading past postings but thought I would ask as I found things close to my problem but not exact

As I recently learned from a previous poster with a similar issue, not everybody checks the oil.............so I'll start out by suggesting that. Based on your description I wouldn't suspect an injector. It does match the symptoms of a plugged up fuel filter though, so I would suggest replacing that. Even if it doesn't fix the issue, it's most likely over due anyhow. Another thing that matches the symptom is a plugged up cat converter. When a cat plugs up, it usually overheats & causes heat damage to the EGR modulator, so check this for signs of heat damage. The cat can be tested by temporarily disconnecting the inlet side from the exhaust and rechecking the power situation with it wired out of the way (so exhaust can exit before the cat). It will be loud, but it's just long enough to verify.

There are more things that can cause this, but these are the two main ones (3 if you count being out of oil :dizzy:). Tim

Thanks, good to know as I'm getting ready to bring it home from work I'll bring some oil with me just in case, But the cat convertor may be it the van did sound like its exhaust had an issue almost like it was a little blocked up I'll report what I find this afternoon.

When I went to check the oil level I moved the power steering hose it was dry rotted and broke off in my fingers proceeded to check oil it was full and barley dirty finely some good news, replaced the power Steering hose with irrigation hose just to get it home and fired it up to my surprise it didn’t bog down on the way home but I stopped to fill up with premium it only took 4 gal but I wanted to get as much good gas in as possible sea foam worked great after filling up van would not start had to tap on the new starter he put in it was hot (any starter suggestions) when it started the fuel gauge moved all the way to full another positive I’ll take all the little blessings I can get, got home checked codes I got 6 steady blinks followed by 11 steady blinks I’m guessing this is good because I can’t find any trouble code to match I’m heading out to get new PS hose and fluid any comments are appreciated thanks Ralph

Sounds like heat soak.