[djchester]

So this weekend I came up with a hypothesis. About a week after I bought the car, my dad and I tore the top end apart to replace the head gasket. I vividly remember hanging the cams/cam gears to the hood of the car using a wire coat hanger (for the record this last time I replaced the head gasket I zip tied the chain to the cam gears). The coat hanger slipped, but my dad and I both we confident at the time that we caught it with everything still in the correct position. Playing devils advocate I decided I should check the cam gears for alignment.

Turns out this was the problem as the passenger side cam gear (the one picked up by the cam position sensor) was off by 1 tooth. The camshafts were never moved, but the cam gear was off. So therefore the engine was mechanically aligned but the sensor was picking up the cam position incorrectly, thus firing the injectors and spark plugs at the wrong time. Every picture and forum I read about TDC and cam alignment showed 15 'rivets' inclusive between the two TDC arrows of the cam gears...mine had 16. Driving to work this morning was like driving a new car. Idle was silky smooth (for 330,000 km) and definitely more power and likely better mileage. Thanks to everyone who contributed ideas to help fix this problem.