1997 Saturn SL driving then just died and won't restart

I was driving along about 40 mph and heard a small pop and then the engine died and won't restart. The car has fuel, it's getting spark at the coil. Not exactly sure what the pop was. If i hold the gas down and crank the key it acts like it wants to start. If i don't hold it down it just turns over. I'm lost. I can hear the fuel pump kick on but i guess it could be malfunctioning. I thought maybe it jumped time. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thats very odd. Id start by replace the ECTS, remove the spark plugs (inspect them also) and crank it over to make sure the cylinders clear. If possible do a compression test also. Replace them and see if you can get it started. Then go from there

Just throwing this out but the first thing I thought of when reading your post was broken timing chain. Does the engine sound different while cranking? Like it's spinning faster than before?

I haven't really noticed a huge difference in the speed of cranking it over but when I first tried restarting it after it died it almost acted like the battery was dead and didn't want to turn over. I pushed it off the road and tried starting it again and it was cranking back over kinda like it normally would.

I hae just recently expierenced simliar problem w/my '96 SL2 twin cam sedan. I can drive for about 10-15minutes until engine warms to operating temp and the engine will jsut randomly die w/o warning and I can crank the engine all I want but it won't restart until it sits for about 20-30min. I have already replaced both coil paks,ignition module,fuel pump relay,ohm'ed the wires and they are all progressively under 1.3K Ohms. I'm leaning in the direction of the fuel pump again, but it's not sputtering like it had been when I replaced it the last two times. I am not sure if it's possibly the fuel pressure regulator. But honestly I'm at a loss at what the problem really is.

Just stumbled upon a gold mise of Saturn YouTube video help. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv6wqQAmXvc&feature=related

Thanks for the posts so far. I got on you tube and checked out all their vids earlier and nothing matched my problem. I'm gonna try to replace the fuel filter and ECTS tomorrow. The car is getting a ton of spark just no fuel.

Wait, now it's NOT getting fuel? You said in your OP that it was.

In my opening post I said the car has fuel in it and the fuel pump kicks on but the fuel pump could be malfunctioning.

Ah, ok. You need to check the fuel pressure. Sometimes a fuel pump can still be running but not have enough pressure to supply the engine.

The pop is weird. I can't think of anything. Was it like something hit the car? Could a fuel line have gotten pinched by road debris? Maybe if you describe the sound a bit better. Was it really loud?

The pop is weird. I can't think of anything.
Me either. The only thing that comes to mind is FUSES.

OP Check all your fuses. And +1 on the fuel pressure test.