Ok, so I'm starting to have my first major issue with my newly purchased car. I wanted to see if I could get a pattern on the symptoms before posting for information here.

When accelerating from a stop the engine seems to pull well up through about 2700 RPM (assuming the tach is right..but at least it is consistent relative to that). At that point the power of the engine seems to cut out. It doesn't stall, probably due to the forward momentum of the vehicle, however it just won't accelerate at all. Then as if by magic, the car will come to life again and start pulling just fine. Usually with an embarrassing tire squawk and some hard bucking. It will do this in first through third gears and rarely in fourth. Occasionally around about 65-70 MPH (I think), the car will be humming along and then have a little hiccup all the sudden. It’s usually very quick and just feels like a little miss.

The odd thing is that the issue only manifests itself when on less than half a tank of fuel. I can hobble over to the local Texaco, fill her up with some 91 octane and she starts right up and drives like a dream (until I use half that tank).

I've already swapped out the fuel filter, since I had one lying around. The car has been retrofitted with electronic ignition. The plugs and wires seem to be fine. I haven't figured out how to get the points for the EFI out of the distributor yet, but haven't tried very hard. I’ve checked the throttle position sensor. It looks brand spankin’ new and very pretty on the inside.

I was just curious if there is some obvious issue that I'm missing here. Perhaps another fuel filter or something? (Like that big cylinder thing in the trunk on the fuel filler side, what is that?)

Any suggestions at all will be appreciated. Thanks!