Engine making weird noises and stalling

[Atty]

'99 Camry 2.2L 115k. Recent oil change, water pump changed less than 20k ago, same with timing belts. All fluids checked and are taken care of. Spark plugs recently changed (wires, however, were not).

On my way out of town last week and in a congested area of traffic I felt the engine knocking pretty badly, I could feel it. Not sure if it would be some sort of misfire or something, but it definitely wasn't running properly. A few minutes later the entire thing cut out, no power steering, no throttle, it was dead. Managed to get it out of traffic and onto the shoulder.

Didn't start initially. Took maybe ten minutes for it to start back up again and it did not want to, felt like I had to strangle life into the damn thing.

It performed fine for the rest of the drive and another 80 or so miles of more driving over the next 24 hours. Parked it in the garage at one of the houses I was visiting and when I started it back up, the engine sounded horrific. It was a confined space (think cliche european garage size, no room) so the engine noise was easy to hear. Sounded like it was choking.

I'm thinking maybe bad gas? I'm hoping that is all it is. Any ideas?

I haven't driven it since I got it back home, been driving our other car, but I'm a bit worried about it.

 

[exdeath]

I know that engine inside out, and I can't tell you where to start without seeing it in action. Video?

It sounds like a mechanical problem, and the only real mechanical problem those engines have is the balancer (internal, not a pulley).

What does RPM look like when idle making the noise? Does the knocking sound mechanical or might it just be rough running because it's stalling and barely running? You can disconnect a IAC or MAP and make a perfectly running engine sound pretty bad, for example.