Got some weird problems that are pretty serious that I need help with.

1. When accelerating from a stop, I'll hear a click noise and the engine will go dead quiet.
2. The car throws fits and doesn't let me accelerate past 30-40 mph (sometimes).
3. Exhaust manifold is getting way too hot. Opened the hood today and it was molten red.
4. When trying to drive on the freeway it won't let me over 60, putting it into overdrive seems to make it worse. And at that point I can barely keep it going 60. It seems like it's revving incredibly high and it sounds like it's getting choked.

1987 240 DL. 3 Speed automatic with Overdrive ( I believe?)

This seems to me to be a serious issue. I won't be able to make it to work with these issues. I've been told that it was a transmission issues, problems with my mass airflow sensor, an intake leak, or a clogged catalytic converter.

This is my first 240 and I'm not too bright with them.
Serious help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

 

Exhaust manifold getting hot... I think the first thing to do is to run you car, stop it, and check your spark plugs. I'm guessing the car is running really rich, and some combustion is happening in the manifold, thusly heating it up. I've seen exhaust manifolds get red hot under hard operation with a turbo, but not a nas car.

For 1.... are you saying the engine stops?

Tell us a little bit of the history of the car. How long have you owned it, have you done anything to it, etc.

It might be a combination of issues... and any of what has been listed is possible, but we need to figure out what is happening before we can generally figure out what to replace.

 

No, the engine gets so quiet that I can barely hear it.

I picked it up about 4 months ago. The people that had it before took decent care of it (Normal maintenance). It's got 124k miles and ran very well before this.

I've kept up on general maintenance like changing the oil and fluids. The only thing that I have done that's a little deeper is change the air filter, oil filter, and taken the throttle body out and cleaned it.

I've noticed it smelled like it was burning rich. But I'm not really sure what to do about it.
Not sure if this needs to be known, but the car doesn't have a muffler.

It had slight idle problems, but those were corrected when I cleaned the throttle body last week.

I've never brought this car into a shop and had any work done. It hasn't needed anything.

 

Pull your O2 sensor and take a drive like that. If the symptoms get better, it is likely the cat or an exhaust restriction.
No?
Pull your plugs to see if any are fuel soaked.

 

check and see if your cat is blocked. is there any exhaust pressure coming out of the tailpipe? running rich can ruin a cat...

 

air leaks anywhere between the mass air flow sensor and the engine head can cause all sorts of bad running problems, although these usually make it run lean not rich.

bad readings from the engine coolant sensor can cause the engine to think its cold when it's actually hot, and run too rich.