Since it's been a while since I personally witnessed the problem I can't say if I remember smelling fuel, but it definitely smoked and back fired for a while before clearing up and then running fine for several months. The only things I've personally done to the car are change fuel filter, spark plugs, and added oil and gas treatments. After reading quite a bit here, I'm going to suggest the mechanic check cap and rotor first. Another post with extremely similiar problem found something loose under the rotor. If the rotor is cracked, burnt or loose that could cause it, although it seems that would not "heal" itself. I'm not a mechanic at all, but I didn't even realize that car engines still had rotors. I thought they were all electronic spark devices of some sort.