Stalling, Grinding, and Rough Idle..

[CarDood260]

The car is a 1996 Ford Contour SE V6 2.5L with roughly 82,000 Miles.

I had some previous trouble with a hard idle when I started it up where it would idle around 400RPMS and then often cut out on me. I had it worked on at a local shop and they replaced all spark plugs, put in an injection cleaner, and then all vaccum pumps. That worked for about a week.

Then, I blew another spark plug and a gasket, this time however when it was fixed it was a more controlled idle but still sometimes would just shut off after being fixed.

As I was drving the other day I noticed a hard grinding sound after shifting into gears. Each gear would grind very hard and I had little or no power response when I floored the accellerator pedal. Also, the car still cuts out with any warning when coming up on a stop sign or stop light when I shove the clutch in and brake. I'll list some of the problems I'm having below, Please help me diagnose this

-Takes longer to crank and turn over, Idles around 1000RPM and sometimes just shuts off.
-Rather Rough Idle.
-Cuts out alot when stopping at a light or sign.
-Easy shift into gear but extremely hard "clicking" grind when I accellerate.
-Power lacking in gears, and struggles really bad going up hills. First gear struggles on getting me up hills I usually can get up in 4th gear.
-The grinding sound seems to be coming from somewhere in the front on the drivers side

[beyondloadedSE]

MTX or ATX?