Turns out the problem was in the distributor. The screw holding the rotor on fell out. Lots of debris in the distributor cap, so I got a new distributor with cap and rotor (i assume) on ebay for 126 bux . Not complaining, though I did take the head off to be sure. Replaced the head gasket, cleaned my pistons,head, and intake manifold.
Hoping to restart in a couple days!