It sounds like a bad cat. converter to me!!

 

Turns out, it was the distributor.
Just messing around before installing the fuel pump, I got bored and thought it would be a good time to do a tune up.
Popped of the cap and bam! The rotor and cap had disintegrated, shaft had 3" of play.

Went to the parts store and picked up a new dizzy, stabbed it in, runs like new!

 

Im really glad you figured it out before you went with your plan A.

 

glad you found the problem. and i agree with kristophs sig more people need to follow it

 

Thanks guys.
Since it never threw a SES light I never would have suspected the dizzy.

Installed the fuel pump yesterday, fuel gauge actually works now.

 

My husband is having a similar issue with his 2001 manual 2dr RWD except when it began to lose power it also acted as if it had ran out of gas. Did urs act that way as well? Him and I both are strongly leaning toward bad distributor but not 100% sure yet.