American Motors: amc 360 bucking and cutting out at highway speed, edelbrock performer intake, spark plug wires

Question
Hello,
I have a 79 cj5 with a remanufactured amc 360 by Jasper engines.  I've noticed that everytime I drive on the highway or when I get on it a little, the motor loses power, bucks, and sometimes cuts out.  It gets to a point where I only hear one or two cylinders firing.  I can hear it fighting to return to normal running when on the highway.  It usually does so after a few minutes, but down the road, it just happens again.  Usually, it happens more on warmer days and almost always happens after I've had to stop at a traffic light on the highway.  Other symptoms are that the engine runs  a lot hotter and the oil gets runny.  Recently, the engine cutout and it took an hour to restart.  It has an edelbrock performer intake, motorcraft distributor, and an edelbrock 1406 performer carb (600cfm).  Any suggestions? (motor is 10 years old and has about 12000 miles on it)

Thanks,

Jim

Answer
It could be a number of things, but here are some areas to check that can contribute to the condition:
1) Spark plug wires breaking down or plugs
2) Ignition coil
3) Ignition timing
4) Float level should be checked and adjusted
5) Check for vaccuum leak around intake manifold.
6) Have you done a compression test recently?
Try these things and let me know what you find.
Good luck
Kevin