the crank sensor and/or the harness to it has me concerned. the guy didn't mention anything about pulling the crank sensor code. i'm going to hit a junk yard near me this saturday to see what i can find. according to GM'* EPC, that harness has four connectors. one to the ICM, one to the crank sensor....where do the other two go?

The harness connects to the main engine harness, crank sensor, cam sensor, and ICM

okay cool. i obviously know where the crank sensor and ICM connectors are, but are the cam sensor and engine harness conectors just as accessible?

Cam is left of the water pump..you can feel it from the top and see it from the wheel well if you remove the splash guards. Pretty easy.

The connector to main harness on my 97 is up front on the fuel rail. I think in your car it'* right behind the alternator in plain view next tot he fuel rail.

Thanks Bill
Your help is always much appreciated.

Glad to know past pain and suffering can help others.

I'm also considering swapping this harness. Wanna compare cuts and scratches afterward?

MAF sensors can cause a sh*t load of headaches! turns out, that little bugger was the culprit. the mechanic unplugged it, i drove her home and will hopefully have a new/used one soon. i'm not too sure how unhealthy it is to drive without the MAF sensor plugged in.....it was only a few miles that I drove though.
Oh, and here'* what an idiot I am -
the source of my little smoking issue was the compressor wire. the plug into the AC compressor was half plugged in and all kinds of gunked up. i cleaned it with a little alcohol, plugged it in the right way, and the smoke was gone.
Lol, and here I thought it was the crank sensor. Good thing I'm not a mechanic.

Chris...that'* how we all learn the coolest stuff.

The MAF.. our cars can run with almost any sensor unplugged. It'* the great thing about them..the default programming takes over and works like a charm. You are ok to drive w/o the MAF until the new one comes in.

The FSM actually has you unplug and drive to diagnose the MAF.

Okay, I've been driving around with the MAF unplugged until I got a new one. I got a new one....well....used one and it too was bad. My car was running pretty decent without it, until a few days ago. It started idling pretty bad. Both the RPM guage and the boost guage became irratic and the RPM'* themself would jump from 1500 to 75 continously while at a stop. It'* not a huge jump, but it'* noticeable and definitely not normal. Well now, my car won't stay started at a stop. If I can manage to get it out of park and give it some gas, I can drive it. Otherwise, it'* back to the - crank, start for a hot second then stall.
Could I have ruined the PCM by driving around without that sensor plugged in for so long?

No, you won't ruin a PCM by unplugging the MAF for any amount of time. However it could be possible that you might be fighting a bad PCM.

Although I'd like to hear Jr'* comments before saying that as I have no experience with failing PCM'*.