What happens if you slowly raise the rpm (in neutral) does it still do it?
I would see what the fuel pressure is and where the fuel smell is coming from.

 

I can't remember if I tested it in neutral, I'll need to check that tomorrow. But for example when I take off for work in the morning, that's the only way I can get it to accelarate.
First gear is typically fine, but when I shift to second I have to very slowly apply the throttle in a linear fashion or else it will jerk and almost stall.

The test gauge I have seems to do fuel pressure as well, so I'm going to test that this weekend. This may be a dumb question but, I should check the pressure where the fuel hose connects to the throttle body, right?

 

My fuel tester attaches to the Schraeder valve on the fuel rail. It looks like the valve to fill our tire with air. It works he same way.

 

Ahh ok thank you, that's even better. I'm going to do a test once I get off work.

 

A small update:

I couldn't find a Schrader valve anywhere, and I couldn't find a tee that would fit the hose of the fuel tester I have, so I couldn't test it inline either. In the mean time, the fuel filter and O2 sensor I had already ordered arrived. I swapped out the O2 sensor, which definitely did something. I feel like the car is a bit more responsive/has slightly better power. However, it did not have any effect on the current problem.

For the fuel filter, the one I ordered has the inlet and the outlet on the same side, which caused the fuel lines not to reach it. I blew the old gas and gunk out of the old one and put it back it. There was some dirt in it, but not a lot, but anyway it changed nothing.

I'm going to try and find a tee somewhere, probably i'll just order it online.

The car does not have the evap canister, nor any of the evap stuff. Asking like a noob; would that have any effect on this?

 

almost any hardware store should carry the peices to may a inline fuel pressure gauge. you just have to look in the air tools or plumbing section depending on the store. i preffer a brass T. if your cheap and have air tool fittings you could likely get away with using air tool fittings instead of barbed fittings. if the regulator is working as it should you should be seeing 15psi while running and it should get much higher if you pinch off the return line.

 

It turns out I had everything I needed in the garage. After a couple of tries, I managed to rig up the tester inline at the throttle body inlet.

The fuel pressure seems fine, it sits comfortably around 15psi and it doesn't drop when I apply the throttle. Here's a video of the test I just did: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UJissqiv0_w
I tried squeezing the outlet hose with some pliers, but I didn't see the pressure increase. I could however hear the sound of the engine change.

P.s. I swapped out the TPS just for the heck of it. It had no effect whatsoever.

 

have you tried checking the timing?

 

The timing was checked, but not by me. I'm going to see if I can check the timing this evening. Do I need a tachometer for doing that, or is it enough to check the timing at idle?

P.s. Here's a video that I recorded of the injectors in action. Does this look OK to you? Maybe it's my lack of experience, but this doesn't seem like the most effective spray pattern. Shouldn't there be less splattering and more misting?

https://youtube.com/shorts/cOy7enUV8U8

 

Injectors could stand a good cleaning.....