Pulled the 1-3 cams and found very worn and broken guides on the variocam actuator. Also the chain rail guides for the IMS chain are worn ... not as bad, but still worn. It looks like I can remove upper and lower so I will see what happens. As far as the cams chain ... I am not sure but it looks like it may have skipped a tooth causing some of the rough running. Along with the wear on the variocam guides ... when they activate, it was enough to cause my misfires and camshaft position sensor codes.
I have only seen a tooth skipped engine code once in my life and that was on a Dodge Neon. No low end but good high end torque with that issue.
So I will probably go down the mini rebuild road replacing items that do not require engine removal. See attached photos.
