Man, can you tell us what else you failed to mention? No sarcasm intended but I think the whole scoop would be appreciated. I will tell you that with your power loss, an exhaust leak won't be the only thing wrong unless you have a pretty good blockage. Have you checked for vacuum leaks? Throw a vacuum gauge on it and see what it reads. Then see if it bounces around at idle. How about your EGR and FCV valves? You have guys willing to help but the whole story would be helpful. Are you displaying any codes? Autozone will read them for free. I believe you need a code reader to pull them on a 96. It has an OBD2 system. This kind of information would help.