Originally Posted by
RhinoZ24
Firstoff, welcome to the Forum, and alirght I'll try to help you as best I can. Eventually someone named Raptor05121 will probably post on here with more accurate solutions, thats why we call him the Professor on here lol.
The squealing you described at idle and light acceleration sounds like a belt slipping to me. Go to any parts store and pick up belt dressing spray, only a couple of bucks, and spray it on the belt while your engine is idling. See if the squealing decreases or disappears, if not come back here.
The work you did is good and great choice changing a rusty differential cover.
For the slipping engine/near stalling, it could be a number of things. If the spark plugs have never been changed, or haven't for a long time, you could be get a bad combustion in your cylinders causing a loss of power sometimes. Only a couple of dollars for new plugs and you can change them yourself to save money, not too hard. The fuel filter may be clogged, starving your engines at high speeds which might explains the near stalling at highway speeds. About $15 for a new fuel filter and its just a 5 minute job to do yourself. A dirty airfilter also causes a choking of the engine just like the fuel filter. Airfilters are pretty cheap and it takes about a minute to change that lol. The coil packs and plug wires may be bad as well, but try the other things first and see if the performance improves.
Also, do you have any check engine lights that come on when the loss of power occurs?
Thinking about it as well, you said the truck sat for a year without driving, so it may have gas deposits in the fuel system and lines. Pick up some fuel system cleaner, I recommend either Lucas, STP or Gumout, and run some through, adding it to the fuel tank when you fill it up next time. The clogged fuel lines could also lead to debris clogging your injectors, a further cause of the sudden loss of power. But the fuel system cleaner usually cleans them, or you can pick up fuel injector cleaner from a parts store as well, adds in just like the fuel system cleaner. Both are only a couple bucks each.
Try these things and see if the performance of the truck improves, if not, or if a few issues still linger come back for help whenever you need it.
Goodluck and make sure you ask if you have anymore questions as there are plenty of people on here that are willing to help.