Loss of power every morning, 2.3L
 

Hello to all,

I have a '97 Ranger, 2.3L, 5 speed. It has the same problem everyday. It starts fine and I leave my neighborhood. When I get on the freeway it is still warming up and I accel to 70mph or so. It runs fine for a minute or two and then as it warms up it all of a sudden loses power and hesitates. I downshift to fourth and give it more throttle but still lose speed. I eventually lose enough speed where I am able to grab third gear and by this time the engine is screaming but still not accelerating.

After 30 seconds or so of hesitating it will clear up and run fine all the way to work. It does this every single day. The plugs, wires, and injectors were all changed about 5000 miles ago so I know those parts are ok. I also disconnected EGR valve from back of intake and attempted to spray some carb cleaner in the valve, but was not sure how successful I was at cleaning anything. I did a search of this problem on this forum and did not find anything that match it perfectly so I wanted to run it by you guys and see what you think. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

sounds to me like the clutch is slipping