guess it's blown? (yeah another one of these)
 

car has been running great for nearly 4 years now with no signs of trouble. have put about 30,000 mostly highway miles on my rebuild.

I was coming home from work the other day and got off the highway in my normal way (not pushing it fast or anything. i never beat on the car) and i stopped at the light and it was idling just fine. Not even running hot. I went to pull forward and it felt like it didn't quite want to go... almost felt like the clutch was slipping. But it went and seemed to go fine once it was moving.

Had a bit over a quarter of a tank of gas left so i stopped to get gas (maybe 100 feet of driving from where it felt like clutch slipping) and pulled in and it seemed to be idling just fine. Turned it off and got gas and went to start it back up again and it just plain wouldn't. It turns over and keeps turning over like it doesnt want to start... and when it does catch, it would sound really weird and then after a second the car would start shaking and i'd turn it off right away.

(sorry this is so long)
Sound blown?
How can i do a compression test if the car won't even stay idling? Plus i don't want to keep turning it over and risk scarring of the housings if it threw a seal.

Ideas where to go from here?
I'm thinking of rebuilding it myself if i can confirm it's bad without tearing into it first.

Doesn't sound like a blown motor. They typically blow up at wide open throttle, at the top of 3rd gear or in cases like that. Unless something totally out of the ordinary happened (like the fuel diffusers broke off and fell into your engine), I think the motor is fine. Start checking to see if you have spark and fuel.

fouled plugs maybe. ive had it happen a lot.. then it floods

What they said. You don't pop a motor if you aren't pushing it.

Not necessarily blown.

The compression test is done with a spark plug removed, compression tester connected, then the engine is cranked without running.

sounds definately like fouled plugs, especially the shaking part...happened to me, almost identical symptoms

checked a plug that day when i got it towed home and it seemed fine. I will just go ahead and get new plugs and try replacing them all though.

Do you think it sounds like a fuel problem? I was thinking that the "clutch slipping" feel might have been fuel not getting in there correctly. Fuel or spark problems would feel about the same, no?. Figured i'd replace the fuel filter while i'm at it even though it isn't terribly old.

I hope it's ok because... god, I hate the idea of selling my car.
Thanks guys

Why would you sell the car when you encounter a small problem like this? And you dont even know what the cause is? Thats what i dont get about FD owners.

Replace fuel filter, check visible vacuum hoses. Make sure the plug wires are actually "clicked" on the plugs. Sometimes it may "look" fine but double check to be sure. I had a plug wire hang off a plug before, car ran pretty crappy. I noticed it when i assumed it was the plugs when i decided to swap them.

PM rotary experiment seven. He lives in clifton and is a very good FD mechanic.

When my map sensor fell off I had the same symptoms, the car would hardly start and when it did it shook so violently it unmounted the amp in my trunk! Its a really easy thing to check so just give it a glance!

It's not like that. I had planned on selling it sometime in the near future anyway, but don't really want to. That's why. I'm not trying to bail out of owning it over a small problem. I've had it nearly 4 years now. If it were a big problem, which i thought it was at first (haven't had a lot of time to sit and look at the car and it would be hard to start and run really badly which made me think apex seal at first.) I would have just sold it now. Hopefully it's just something ignition or fuel related.

Replaced plugs today and that wasn't the problem. I ran it a little and it will stay running if you tap the gas, but really badly. Noticed a thick unburnt fuel smell so I'm thinking it is ignition related and not fuel. The only thing that I did notice was the front rotor's plug wires were splitting (one was pretty bad) so maybe something is up with those. I'm gonna order new wires and test my ignition coils out and all that jazz when I have a day.

I did check the map sensor the day it happened and all seems well (as far as I can see)

Thanks, I will do that.

Yah, symptoms don't sound like a blown motor. Replace those wires with some good aftermarket ones.

update:
replaced plugs
replaced wires
tested ignition coils
resistances within specs in manual
tested for spark. all wires seem to be providing spark.

symptoms:
*heavy fuel smell
*very bad idle
*will run if the throttle is tapped or held down slightly but feels/sounds like bad timing or something would

seems to be obviously getting plenty of fuel, and sparking fine.

anyone have any more ideas?
is this what a stuck open injector acts like?

any update on this? Im just curious

wouldnt be a vacuum line unless it was the map sensor. it would behave very violently.

i would check injectors also..maybe you have a leaky one(really not good for yer fd)

are you throwing a CEL? you might want to check your temp sensor, i had a problem kinda like this, changed plugs wires ect turned out the car thought it was running hotter then it was and flooding itself.... but i would throw a CEL after it flooded

just to add it would stink bad of gas if i parked it and tried to start it again soon after IE gas station store, then alot of black smoke.