I suspected the throttle body as well, dsnyder, but I was told that it would set a code because it crosschecks itself...and that its almost impossible to have a throttle body problem without a code set.

 

Hmm.

 

The more I hear you guys mentioning fuel pressure, the more that I think you may be right in guessing fuel pump... it could be losing efficiency under higher demand and causing all 8 cylinders to have a sudden lean miss..it would fall on its face as its doing, the computer would throw fuel at it by lengthening the injector pulse then on sudden full decel that positive trim causes a swing to way rich, so the computer goes "AH! Too much, take it back!"..

Then out of the blue it will take off like a bat out of hell...sometimes continuing to surge on acceleration, other times pulling hard to redline in Sport mode. I should also note that ABS and Trac Control are both offline.

 

I think I finally found confirmation today while tossing scrap from the trunk with the car idling I heard the fuel pump drop in tone momentarily. Anther indicator, I think, is that while the SFT's are about zero but the LFT's are 15% positive

 

So I'm curious how this panned out for you JaggingItUp...did you put a new pump on? My 02xjr is acting identically to what you described. My Trac and ABS are down as well as you mentioned.

 

After everything the OP did, my primary suspects at this point would be fuel delivery, and throtle body.

 

Perhaps the fuel pressure regulator is misbehaving?
It should set a code and I am not sure the 4.0L engine has one.
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Was reading your text messages hear and you just stopped ?? what happened?