[Dave928]

just got the car back from the shop today.

disconnecting the MAF did make it run fine but it still ran poorly with a new MAF. reinstalled orginal.

shop thought both aftermarket S1 O2 sensors could be at fault so replaced those. no change. reinstalled originals.

vacuum and smoke checked the intake/vac lines. there are no leaks, so no false air.

checked fuel pump pressure and volume, both are good.

next to last thing the shop did was to reinstall my original exhaust system (bad cat and all), car now runs almost normal.

the only thing they found after this is that the bank 1 cam timing deviation is out of spec. bank 1 is -6.5, bank 2 is -5.5. so the only thing the shop can figure is it needs the cam adjuster pads replaced ($$$$$) and that the better breathing new exhaust was amplifying the condition.

any other guesses? we're fresh out.