Chevrolet Repair: 88 S-10 Blazer, freeway speeds, muffler shop

Question
Last summer I bought an 88 S-10 Blazer, v6 2.8, that presumably had a new factory engine (13,000 m).  I started having trouble right away and found out that the transmission was going bad. We replaced the transmission this January and have been having even more trouble than before.  The truck is very sluggish and dies at inopportune times- like pulling out into traffic.  The transmission guy thought the catalytic converter was bad, so I took it to a muffler shop.  They said that the problem was that too much raw fuel is getting into the exhaust system.  We just replaced the distributor and that seems to help a little. Should we try something else?   What other things can we do to increase the rpm's and gas mileage?  I know that it won't be a very powerful truck, but I would like to get to freeway speeds at least.

Answer
Hi Missi, The first thing you want to do is make sure that the engine timing is set correctly. The other thing is check to egr valve. These will sometimes open up too early and too much making the engine run rich. Is this a TBI or carb engine?

              Let me know     Mark