91' Escort 1.9L Rough Acceloration

[Macro47]

Here is all the information I have. I have a 1991 Ford Escort LX 1.9L SOHC Automatic Trans
I was driving normally one day and at a light, went to give it gas from a stop. I had a sudden decrease of power after a second of normal power. I thought the engine was going to stall. Later I determined the following things:

1) I have Virtually NO horse power when I give a moderate amount of gas. Extream Hesitation)

2) Car idles fine

3) Engine sounds like it is starving for fuel while trying to accelerate at a moderate rate.

4) If I rev the engine in neutral fast… it putters. If I rev it slow, the engine sounds normal.

5) If I accelerate slower then a 105 Year old on her way to church, engine will run fine.

6) If I keep the RPMs high by shifting manually, I can accelerate fine as long as rpms are over 2,500.

7) Idle fuel pressure is about 33lbs. disconnect the vacum line to the Fuel Regulator (plugging end at air intake) and pressure rises to 40Lbs. Reconnect the vacum line and clamp off the fuel return line and pressure rises to 80 Lbs.

8) Exhaust seems fine. Idler seems fine. Got spark at the coil on all wires.

9) Replacing Fuel pressure regulator did nothing.

10) Running dry-gas did nothing.

11) Fuel injectors appear to be firing.

12) Fuel pump seems fine.

13) No check engine codes.

14) Disconnecting MAF makes car run rough at idle. And sometimes
stalls.

15) Trans seems to shift smooth and at normal times. Fluid is full.

This is a really big problem for me and seems to be out of my mechanical abilities. Any help would be appreciated GREATLY!
Thankx

[yotermanic]

When you say fuel pump seems fine, did you check fuel pressure on accel? You need a longer line on the fuel pressure gauge to do this, but just because a fuel pump can keep up at idle doesn't mean anything for on accel. The Focuses we recalled fuel pumps on showed similar symptoms to your Escort.

[Macro47]

Please read #7 again. I was able to get the fuel pressure to 80Lbs., spec is between 30 and 45.Could my timing belt have slipped? I was reciently told that if it has streached and slipped, that it would cause bad hesitation.

[Macro47]

Well, its been a while since I've updated this. It turned out to be a bad spark Plug wire. So I bought a set of wires to replace mine. Now a (3 weeks later), The car started to do the same thing. so today, i got the warrentee exchange on my wires. What would you know, it fixed the problem. I got about 60 miles and the problem started again. But not the store is closed for me to get a replacement. I don't think this is a quincidance. I think that there might be something causing the car to go through wires. Any ideas now? By the way, to fix this problem 3 weeks ago, i found out that the wires i was replacing were origional (1991) with 108,000 miles.

[Davescort97]

I've read about spark plug wires on this forum and more than once people have had to replace aftermarket wires. More than once people have said that aftermarket wires were fried with 50 miles. I had this same problem until I switched over to Autolite 8.5mm PRO-FIT spark plug wires. I understand aftermarket wires from Auto Zone will not hold up. Get the Autolite Original Equipment wires. My vehicle has been running just great after putting these Autolites on.

[Macro47]

What about motorcraft wires? And does the #mm make the difference between good wires and bad ones?