The engine now sounds like an old Volks Beetle, but worse. It's sputtering, and just barely staying alive. When I give it gas it doesn't ramp up the rpms, just sputters a little faster. When I let it idle it just coughs and eventually sputters out.

For background, I posted recently with a problem involving a rubbing or squeeling noise around the area of the water pump. I got mixed advice, some said replace the water pump because I mentioned I saw a small amount of coolant around the pump-to-block seal. Others said check the harmonic balancer and/or tighten the alternator belt (which made the noise worse so I loosened back to it's normal position). This car has been running poorly, sputtering, and releasing some real stinky fumes. I found a couple vaccuum lines that were cracked- the two lines running from the air induction to the evap. canister. There's one 3/8 inch line and one 1/4 line that's completely severed. How much will this effect the engine running smooth?

It seems to me like the timing is off or maybe there's a fuel or air problem. Where do I start? This is way beyond a water pump. The noise is gone now, by the way, which either means it got better or it got so bad that now I'm experiencing the effects of whatever it was that was making the noise to begin with.