Volvo: 1997 850 wagon missing and sputtering, fuel pressure gauge, taking your time

Question
Hi Ray,
Thanks for taking your time to help people. Car started taking longer to start in the morning (5 or 6 seconds of cranking).  Once warmed up no problems.  Mechanic checked fuel pump pressure and he said it was fine.  A month ago I noticed a slight "miss" in the engine that I could feel in the gas pedal like a small pop or bump. Since then when I drive the car for longer periods (30 minutes) the miss gets more pronounced and more frequent and twice the car lost all power and made noises like you would here in a cartoon when a car is breaking down (missing, bucking and sputterring). I did notice if I dropped the car down from drive to d2 or d1 and the rpms jumped up and it stopped bucking and sputtering and gained power again as long as the rpms were very very high. Thanks for any help.

Answer
Brian,
Put a fuel pressure gauge on and drive the car till it starts to fail. Read the pressure at that time. It might be failing as you drive along. Or maybe the fuel filter is blocked. And still maybe how old are the cap rotor and wires? Replace them if they are a few years old. Start by reading the fault codes to see if that might lead to the fault. Fuel pressure should be 42 psi +/- 5 psi.