Mattster

So I'm driving around today, running fine as usual. Getting close to my home and all the sudden I loose power and I hear metallic pieces braking up, I'm like crap I blew a rod. Don't see anything bouncing in the rear view mirror and it still running just very rough, pull over shut it off, pop the hood look around, don't see anything unusual, no oil leaking anywhere or connecting rods sticking out of the side of the engine.

Look from underneath looked fine. Started the engine again, very rough surges from almost 0rpm to 750. heard a bit of metal fly around somewhere but stopped, since I was like 1/2 mile from home I limped it the rest of the way, took quite awhile at very slow pace, any throttle would make it almost die and didn't improve speed.

Last few weeks or so I have suspected the fuel injectors starting to go bad but haven't had time to get new ones just had poor fuel economy. Exhaust is clear not black like its running rich when its running right now, before this incident a friend said when I really got on it there was a small puff of black smoke, possibly due to the TPS being out of adjustment? Anyways, what should I look for when I got outside again, letting it cool down as its still very hot. If I didn't throw a rod is it possibly the flexplate broke up as it was back of the engine area, but would it started ok so I imagine the teeth on it aren't too bad. Also had to put it in 4Lo to get it to crawl up my driveway which is dirt/gravel because 700rpm wasn't enough to make it up in 2Hi.

BlueXJ

Flexplate or torque converter bolts backed off is my first choice. Check the oil for any smells or contamination. Cooling system as well. Tranny bolts seperated from the block. Harmonic balancer coming apart.
Just a few things to look at then get back with us about your findings.

Mattster

Oil is fine, checked the spark plugs and they were pretty fouled up, cleaned the 4 easy ones to get, ran a little smoother but still quite rough, looked underneath, trans seemed pretty tight. Noticed the top bolt on the CPS is missing, possibly what I heard bouncing around, probably fell down on the flex plate but CPS is still on there pretty good, its moved out a bit but engine still starts up fine.