loss of power, engine is louder, has less power than before Options

[celicamike]

Hey guys, I did a search but didn't find anything useful. I've noticed that my '94 GT has been kind of sluggish recently. It takes forever to accelerate, particularly when going uphill, and it kind of sputters/hesitates when I wind it over 3500 RPM. I've also observed that the engine becomes much louder when I put it under a load, almost like a exhaust leak. Anyway, the car idles fine and there is nothing unusual when cruising once I get up to speed. Have any of you experienced this or have any idea what the problem is? I don't have any apparent vacuum leaks, and the compression was great. The car is pretty old though, with 213,000 miles. I'm thinking that I might need new plug wires and distributor cap and rotor, since the ones I have now are presumably the originals. What do you guys think, could this be the answer to my problem? I appreciate your help. Thanks.

[celicamike]

Ok guys, I have an update on my situation. It turns out that the hose that connects from the EGR valve to the vacuum modulator popped off, venting exhaust gas into the engine compartment, which explains the "exhaust" sound I heard while driving. Attempting to reconnect the hose only resulted in it repeatedly popping off again. Upon further inspection, I noticed that my muffler is not nearly as loud as it used to be, and in fact there is significantly less exhaust coming out of the muffler than there used to be. Additionally, the exhaust gas has a sweet gasoline smell, which leads me to think that my car is running rich (which explains my poor milage). I suspect that the rich mixture burned up my cat, eventually choking off the exhaust flow (resulting in the power loss) and the increased pressure upstream of the cat backed up into the EGR pipe and blew off the hose (causing the exhaust "leak" I mentioned before). Does this series of events seem plausible to you guys? If so I'm going to need a new cat, but that won't fix anything unless I also get it to stop running rich. Do any of you know what could be causing my car to run rich? I would appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks.

This post has been edited by celicamike: Jan 19, 2009 - 1:29 PM