wow, i can't believe it came down to a 2 second spritz of carb cleaner. had decreasing power reported, eventually couldn't even move the car ( would practically die when i touched the accelerator) until it warmed up, then i could go about 10 mph. idled like a champ though. most of the web pointed to the maf sensor, said it got crudded up on the echos so i took it out(easy) and sure enough there's a nice glassy teardrop with two wires, has a tiny bit of surface crud but cleaning it did nothing at all. after looking at throttle positioner, testing it's resistance (nice smooth change as it's opened), checked fuel pressure (42 approx), even pulled a couple injectors and plugs. was about to ream out the cat ( must be plugged!) in desperation, decided to look at the maf one more time. oh, what's this little tube bypassing the big teardrop thingy...look, there's some little wires down inside that i can see if i let the sun shine down the tube...oh my god, that's the part that gets crud! a couple of shots of carb cleaner down the RIGHT hole and all, and i do mean all, is well again in echo land. hope this is of use to someone so you can fix yours in 5 minutes instead of 5 hours.