Tonight I got the car back on the road. It sounded like a diesel for about the first four miles. I did some 2nd and 3rd gear vacuum pulls to seat the rings immediately. Parked it, troubleshooted the maf sensor some more, and murlo came over with his MAF. Swapped it in, and it did the *exact* same thing. So not sure what the deal is, BOO!
BUT, the car idles, revs, and drives about 90% fine with the maf unplugged! Its pretty amazing really, there is a slight hesitation around 2500rpm but nothing aweful, I'm sure the map scaling tables need some tweaking.
We drove all over, put another 11 miles on it. Drove to roseys, some freeway time, and side streets, plenty of vacuum pulls the whole way. When we got back to my place, I kept thinking, 'man, it SOUNDS so much better! I thought it was a big exhaust leak but it is breaking in I guess as the engine sounds perfect now.
Anna and I are off to SuperTarget to stock up before the storm
Thanks for the help Murlo!