Hey guys so here's the story, drove the car around 6 miles to grab a bite then when I was ready to head back home I started the car and it started normally and in about 15 seconds of idle it started to run rough and died and wouldn't start up till the 6th try of starting it. It started but ran really rough, my foot was almost floored and the car only idled at around 2000 rpm, it sounds choked, after a minute of fighting for it to idle higher and it finally did, it started to run normally so i took the opportunity and drove home and then I noticed that when I step on the gas to accelerate from a stop the engine hesitates and sputters for a bit then drives normally again. I got home and took a look around and I couldn't see anything wrong (couldn't really see anything because its night time) I left it alone for a couple of hours and tried starting it again and this video shows what happened next.. after that video I took out the MAF and blasted it with a MAF cleaner left it to dry for an hour, installed it and the car idled normally and ran fine on the test drive, i left it alone again for an hour and the problem came back I apologize if my post is hard to understand but I'm terribly tired, the car died on me twice on the road today because of another issue, the fuel pump wire inside the tank kept getting disconnected while driving and I had to pull over to the side of the road and take it apart with the very limited tools i had with me (yup I tackled the plastic ring with my bare hands and a rag on both times lol), I fixed that by crimping the connector so it'll hold on to the pump's connector (at home where i had a pair of pliers).

 

I would think possible fuel pump relay

 

From listening to the video you have at least one dead cyl (not firing). Could be no spark, no compression, etc.

 

the car started up fine and idled normally this morning, drove it 1 mile to do an errand and again when I was ready to head back the car was hard at starting and when it finally started it ran rough this is really confusing me, I'll go check the codes later since I have to borrow a friend's reader and see what it tells me...

 

The built in diagnostic system is much better than a generic reader.

When was the last time the car was tuned up? How old are the wires? Plugs? Rotor? Cap?

 

I checked the rotor and distributor cap and it seems like they're still in good shape, I even cleaned some of the crud on the distributor cap contacts.

I tried diagnosing the MAF by plugging and unplugging it to see if there's a change and here I made this video: as u can see the motor shuddered and bogged when the MAF was plugged in, then when I unplug it the motor revs fine with no shudder

So I went to the junkyard and picked a MAF from another 850 Turbo. At first the car started and revved fine but when i took it for a test drive it stops accelerating at around 2,500 - 3000 RPM even when I floored it it just bogs but no shudder/misfire. I left the car to idle for about 1 min and to my surprise the shudder/misfire came back! here's a video of that, keep in mind every time I step on the gas its about half way through, so when it stops to rev higher that's the car itself doing it


as you can see the car worked fine at the end. Did I get another bad MAF?

 

so it turns out that I needed a replacement MAF with the same part # as my old one, the one I got from the junkyard had a different part # I bought one from ebay with the same part # as my old one and I'll update you guys when it comes. btw when (or if) I get this car up and running nicely again I'm going to do a manual swap on it since the auto trans is going kaput, any tips on that? I already found a whole kit with everything but the clutch for $500 the flywheel was even resurfaced..

 

Looks like the answer to my question is... in need of replacement.

I got nothing out of the video's. Did you scan for codes? What date is on the wires? Have you checked compression?

You may want to check compression before you start tossing money into that old car. Then get it to stage 0.

 

I forgot to mention that the rotor, plugs (OEM), cap, and wires were all done 3 months ago, I was also planning to upgrade to the MSD ignition coil but ran out of funds. I haven't checked compression yet cause I don't have the tool, I'll purchase one when the paycheck comes in. Car drives fine (it cut my boost down of course) without the MAF plugged in, it just dies on idle randomly sometimes if I don't catch it.

 

problem solved! new MAF cured the misfiring and stalling, here's the kick on the power loss around 2500 rpm, when I fixed the fuel pump I managed to get the rubber tube in the fuel pump assembly loose and that killed the fuel pressure. Car is now running great again and will undergo a manual swap soon thanks for the suggestions, sorry it took awhile, I barely have time to fiddle with the car because of school.