Frank checked everything out. He has it running well now. Turns out that all of the sparg plugs were a little loose. He thinks that either they weren't torqued enough, or too much. It seems that over the 13,000 miles since changing the plugs and wires they've been working themselves loose. I'm PMing someone with "the calibrated elbow" to remind him to make sure his plugs are torqued right. I'm very glad this turned out to be so minor in repair cost. The pre-cats and the rest of the exhaust system are fine.
Frank is also changing the oil, and engine coolant. The oil in case any bits of metal, from him retapping the block, from getting into it. And the coolant because he said it seemed to be old (he was right, I last changed it almost two years ago).
