Engine cuts out, takes lots of cranking to turn back on.

[fleck]

Truck runs rather well, uses up a little too much fuel but it has big tires and I run it hard. The fuel filter and pressure regulator have been changed. After I changed my PCV valve I thought the problem was gone, one day it wouldn't start and I came out and saw the PCV outside of it's hole with oil sprayed out of it. Well it is dying again suddenly. I can't figure out what gets it to start back up, OR what's killing it. Sometimes it will just die driving down the road (it hasn't died while just sitting), I pull to the side, play with the air intake and the PCV valve and eventually it starts--but I don't think those are the problems. There aren't many more symptoms I could say because when it does start it starts immediately and it runs pretty good--until the random cut-outs, which are happening more and more after we fixed the cooling system and the cracks in the air intake piping. Something that it does is stutter a lot when I floor it in 1K RPM at the higher gears mostly, my mechanic says that the stuttering is a distributor issue for sure. Anyone who might have a clue based on all that stuff I just said, please help!

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

pull the cap off and check for excessive play in the distributor.

the stalling and failure to restart sounds kind of like a failing ignition module.