I have a 2002 Blazer (143,000 miles) and have noticed recently that when driving on the highway it's hard to pick up speed coming onto the highway and when I go to pull out of an intersection or red light, it feels like it takes a moment to get power and then kind of a jolt. This happens every-so-often when driving down the road when I would go from coasting to accelerating.

I've also noticed that the needle on the RPM meter (sorry, can't remember the real term) will have a hard time getting above 1500-2000 even with the pedal on the floor, and when I go from coasting to accelerate the needle will spike to 2000 and immediately fall back down to 1500 or lower.

Blazer also smells like it's burning when I stop and get out after a drive (commute home from work is 19 miles, 45 minutes with traffic) but the temperature gauge never gets past 190 and the fluids are fine.

Gas mileage is also absolute crap right now. I'm filling the tank and after 120 miles it's back to 1/4 tank when I re-fill. I do have the SES light on, but can't remember the exact code but remember when I had it done at Autozone the guy mentioned it was something dealing with the 02 censor but they couldn't figure out exactly what it was because they don't have the type of scanner to figure that out.

Any ideas what this could be? I'm worried it's the transmission getting ready to go, but I'm not educated enough to be able to discern that for myself.

Thanks

 

I had a similar problem a few months ago. It ran very rough and wouldn't accelerate at all. It also had a strong Sulphur smell.
I gave a random misfire code. It ended up being the distributor cap. I looked at the underside and saw a faint bluish green discoloration. It had burned between two posts and was cross firing. Some of the fuel wasn't being burned and was dumping into the exaust causing the CAT converter to everheat, which was the sulphur smell.
I replaced the distributor cap and it ran great.

 

D.T. is right on the money. This is a classic problem that can usually be traced to the cap and rotor. Make sure the plug wires are locked in their respective clips and not touching. I'll bet when you pop that cap off it will be worn out! Also check every plug and wire connection and make sure they're making good contact as well.

Wade