Turns out the bore in #1 cylinder is hurt. Probably not related, but its scuffed just the same. I noticed it as I was wiping down everything and cleaning in preparation for bolting the heads back on. You can feel it with the tips of your finger, but you can't really catch a nail on anything.
The motor still made good power before all this, so I don't think its that bad yet to where its causing a loss of compression. Either way I can't put it back together like this, that would just be stupid. So its either rebuild time, or start completely over. Time to do some homework, come up with a budget and a plan.
Does anyone make a conversion kit to transform a 4th Firechicken into a G8 GT, I mean they are both Pontiac's right?