Engine problems

[lchurch]

94 540i with 135,000 on body/frame, 75,000 on engine block replaced 6 years ago by BMW due to casting issue. Intake manifold gasket failed 12 months ago, and was replaced.
Yesterday, 5 minutes after I left the house the Check Engine light suddenly appeared. The car immediately began to lose torque, and it took me 30 minutes to coax it back to the house, with the symptoms getting worse every minute. :(
There was no warning of any problem (it drove home the day before just great). Anyone care to venture a guess as to possible culprits?

[winfred]

seen plugged cat's do weird things, seen blown pcv plates do weird things, seen bad fuel pressure regulators do weird things, seen dieing fuel pumps do weird things and seen bad air mass sensors do weird things, could be any or none of that on a v8 car without getting my hands dirty it's hard to narrow it down any more

[joshua43214]

Check engine light means a code was set, pull the code or take it to a shop that can and let us know where to start. far to many things can go wrong, just shooting in the dark until oyu have the code.

[lchurch]

Do I need a special rig to pull the code or can i use some common electrical or electronic system to read the codes?

[joshua43214]

You can try a stomp test, but it doesn't always seem to work on 540's. Any Euro car specialist will be able to pull the codes.

Stomp test http://www.bmwe34.net/e34main/trouble/engine_codes.htm