Sorry it took so long to follow up on this...
I did some more checking and found that cylinders 2 & 3 were both dead (don't ask me how I missed this in the beginning). Compression test showed 160psi across the board. I was getting good blue spark from all the plug wires and I checked the ignition timing (thanks for the suggestion jlspec) and made a slight adjustment, but it did not really effect performance at all. While doing all of these tests, I noticed a strong smell of gas from the exhaust (gas in the exhaust = bright orange CAT). Being out of ideas, I decided to take it to the shop.
Their initial diagnosis was fuel injectors "dribbling" fuel into the cylinder (rather than spraying). No spray, no ignition. They got the injectors pulled (no small task) and bench tested them - perfect working order! Back to square one, but luckily they did not charge me for all the labor to get to the injectors. Finally, they figured out that the oil leaking into the spark plug tubes was causing the plug wires to arc, so no spark from the plugs in cylinders 2 & 3.
So the final solution was - new valve cover gasket, new spark plug tube gaskets, and new plug wires.
Got the car back on Tuesday night and it is running better than it has since the 90's
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I am getting a strong odor of gas from the engine compartment (not the exhaust), so I'm thinking they may not have gotten everything buttoned up tight after checking the injectors. I will take it back in tomorrow and have them check. If anything else pops up, I will report back.
Thanks to all for the help on this.
Jason
