Ok, so, triple checked every wire connection and hose. Everything looks good.
Cars not throwing any codes whatsoever. Breaks up below 1,500 rpm, smooths out, and now when I wind it out wide open it stays fairly smooth until about 5,000 then starts breaking up again. But it's definitely down on power regardless. Feels like it lost a cylinder.
It also gets a weird burnt sweet smell to it when I wail on it.
Oh, and it's occasionnaly puffing some white smoke out the exhaust here and there, and, lastly, on a whim checked the radiator and it's about a third of the way empty.

Hmmmmm.......

Uh oh...how does the oil look?

That doesn't sound/smell good Matt! :confused5:

Not bad....... Yet :(

If it wasn't such a bitch to do the plugs I'd compression test it.
I'm thinking fuck it, I'll run it for the next couple weeks until the snow flies before I tear into it and see what happens. Once it's apart and I know what's wrong I wont put it back together so I'd rather keep driving it for now. It's not overheating or anything yet. I figure worst I'll do is cost myself a couple o2 sensors.

If it does need to come apart I'm thinking a properly nitrous built 383 may be in order lol.

I smell head gasket.......

Ahyup. That's what I'm starting to think. Yay :p

My car is misfiring at the top of second gear at close to redline ...

Ok, so, the problem went away for a while. And now I'm not smelling or losing anti freeze anymore and the fill cap/dipstick only show clean oil.

However, now the issue is back with a vengeance. Runs good until it gets up to temp then sputters, pops, loads up, backfires (quite spectacularly sometimes lol) and generally runs like a bag of smashed assholes.

So, I've recently replaced both o2 sensors, the iac, and pulled the air filter to make sure that wasn't the issue. When I changed the iac I pulled the throttle body off, removed the bottom plate, and cleaned it thoroughly.
Now, when it's cold it runs like a raped ape, better than ever. As soon as it gets up to temp it's just a mess. Falls all over itself and is almost undriveable.

HELP!!! I have someone just waiting for me to sort it out and I think I have the car sold for a good price. Want to get it resolved before he moves on but don't want to keep throwing parts at it...

I'm sure we've been through the obvious stuff like ECT sensor already, but Adam's car had a similar issue recently, and it was the wiring to the sensor (specifically the ground wire), not the sensor itself. And you must have tried the coil spacer mod already? But the symptoms are such a dead ringer for an ECT issue that I'd be surprised if that isn't somehow the problem. Not to mention the intermittent nature of the problem suggests wiring or ground.

Yeah I was thinking the same thing but autozone doesn't have the one that goes in the head. Only the one in the water pump. Which one is the ecu sensor? Isn't it the head one?
Last year when I had my ignition issues I went through every ground in the car, took them all off and scraped them all clean so I'm pretty confident it's not a ground unless it's in the harness.

And on another note, kid that wants the car just texted me and wants to meet up mid week... The way I feel right now I really think I'd rather have 6 grand in my pocket than the car lol.