b18a1 in 91 hatch, si harnesses.
ran great for a few weeks. yesterday it seemed sluggish, finally lost power and cut off. cranked it up and ran on one cyl. backfired through the IM and smelled like straight fuel. pulled the plugs, gas in cyl. 1, 2, and 3. new plugs, new wires were no help. checked timing, didn't help. any ideas?

Rotor button fixed that.

Now it's being extremely sluggish in turning rpm until it reaches 3k. whyyy :/

 

Verify that 1, 2, and 3 spark plugs are firing. That'd be my first step. Honest guess off the top of my head if they aren't firing is that the cap/rotor might need to be replaced...or the spark plugs are completely covered in nasty stuff.

 

rotor button was my problem. now I have a new problem. it is very very sluggish until 3k rpms then it runs normal. any ideas on this?