trouble

Okay Okay i have an 87 nova yeah ..it's a import ..so anyway one day i was driving it and out of no where it just starts running like runny poop
..no power at all and in reverse is even worse
the cat isn't cloged and im all out of answer's can anybody help ?

I'm not too farmiliar with these cars, but it sounds to me like a timing issue. Like maybe the timing belt jumped a tooth or something like that. i would look into how hard it is to replace the belt. How many miles are on it and has the belt ever been changed?

the timing belt looks fine the motor only got 80k on it but the car looks like it has bin in a flood but the seller never said nothing and when it ran fine when i got it

I recommend replacing timing belts every 60,000 miles..

running like runny poop? Dont take this the wrong way but your car is toilet paper. You use it, abuse it, then flush it down the toilet. What Im trying to say is Id hate to see you spend a lot of money on a car that has no value to begin with. Your best bet is to get while the getting is good. I had a 90 nissan sentra that blew a motor and I had to pay a junk yard to take it away.

The belt may look fine, but it's still possible that it jumped a tooth and threw the timing off, making it run like crap.
Was it raining by any chance when all this started, or did you hit a big puddle or something. Maybe you have water under the cap?