Volvo Repair: sudden major lose of power, air intake hose, spark plug wires

Question
I have a 1988 Volvo 740 B230F engine , auto trans, 140,000 miles. Well maintained. As I stopped at a red light the engine started to run as if it was chocking. As I started away from the light I suddenly started to loose most of the power and the engine started to make a ticking sound followed by rod knock as I gave it more gas.It seamed like when I gave it more gas the worse it got and when I was coming to another stop the engine would shutter and stall out again. I barely made it home , driving about 5 miles after this happend and it would stall but restart and I continued home . The exhaust stunk real bad and I opened the hood and the engine was shaking like it was way out of timing or firing on 3 cylinders, or as if the spark plug wires were connecter to the wroung plugs. I shut it off and when I did I could smell raw gas.I pulled the spark plugs and #1 was wet with gas, # 2 was black with soot, #3 was wet with gas and #4 was sooted up. What do you think it could be as your first thought, 2nd and 3rd ? I was thinking timing belt jumped or a coil going south or the FPR? I cheked the timing belt and found it was very, very lose. I checked the coil and got some extremly eratic readings and then it settled down and gave me a steady reading. Could my coil cause all this greef, or could it be a clogged cat or muffler, the cat is original and so is the middle muffler. Please help me out. Thanks, Dan Metz.  

Answer
there are many things that can make it burn too much gas.I would try disconnecting the air mass meter which is the sensor in the air intake hose and see if it idles better if it does it is probably bad,.check that no fuel is in the vacuum side of the fuel pressure regiulator

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