Alright so good news and bad news as usual lol
Good news: The new MAF fixed a bunch of issues and the Z is running much better. I thought it was running okay before but it's a whole different animal now and seems pretty damn healthy tbh.
Bad news: I've been trying to track down a decent sized vacuum leak that's stopping me getting the idle set spot on, and just ended up smoke testing it at a local shop.
Found a couple small leaks and fixed those, but the main issue was a leak coming from this area of the plenum/fuel rail:
Soooo plenum needed to come back off. Really thankful I did all the simplifications and deletes when I had it off the first time, because that made it much quicker at least (~2 hrs instead of ~2 days lol). Did that, checked for obvious damage to the gasket and the fuel rail insulators and didn't see anything.
My best guess is I just messed up the gasket a little bit or pinched one of the insulators on install so ordered a new one, new fuel rail insulators, and a stud kit to make aligning everything easier in the future.
Now I'm impatiently waiting for parts that I should have just overnighted and I'm still hoping to get everything put back together and ready to hit the road on Thursday. Other than reassembly, I just need to rebleed the clutch, reinstall my fender liners and bumper, and install some windshield wipers just in case. Everything for the plenum should come in Monday or Tuesday at the latest so that should be enough time to get things reassembled and smoke tested again for peace of mind.
Thanks as always for checking in and I'll have a road trip update next week if all goes well!