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I bought a 1994 SSEi about a year ago, and it has recently started acting up. I had to park the car, and unless the problem is solved soon I will have to junk her. :( Here's the details: When driving the car it would hesitate during acceleration, idle hard and choppy, poor gas mileage, when accelerating you would sometimes have to let off the pedal for gears to change, you could smell gas coming from the tail pipe, and the car was just all around "draggy". It was not like this when I first purchased it, but the complete opposite. It would always pick up and go with no problems at all. I changed the 02 sensor, and spark plugs/wires. After messing around with it, now I can barely even get it to crank. The last time I had it cranked, it smoked up the whole neighborhood. I need help on where to start!

Test the ignition coils first.

What color was the smoke?

I was going to say coils too, but I'm leaning towards he might have a blown head gasket/possible other issues. When you were driving it did it blow white smoke out the tailpipe?

It was black smoke coming from the tail pipe.

If your interested in getting rid of her, where are you located?

Black smoke points toward timing, ignition or fuel issues. If it had been blue/white I'd lean toward the head gaskets or LIMs.

Check the coils, either with a DMM or (take care not to get shocked) by removing a wire from a coil and making sure the spark is white/blue hot, sounds and looks violent, and has a steady tempo.

If coils are good, you should replace the ICM (best to try a used one from a junkyard first) and the crank sensor.

I would also check the fuel pressure regulator. Pull the hose and sniff for a gasoline smell.