No I don't have the 10K for a new engine...
I have been doing some searches on it but it's tough to actually fix a car on the computer so I need some time to get to it.
Since the car seems to run perfect. Perfect smooth Idle, no misfire codes present, no stumble or noises. I wonder if the variocam is just not kicking in on the high end. I think I can assume the timing is not way out of whack.
If there are no misfires present how bad can it be??(real question)
It has fresh Syntec 5W40 with 1000 miles on it so I doubt it's dirty oil.
The only think I can think of is I removed my oil cap 2 weeks ago while the car was running to give a friend a reference who is working on his own CEL demons on his 99... It stumbled and sputtered when I did this. Maybe this started this issue.