Finally came out of denial and did compression test. All cylinders with 175-180 psi. Except... cylinder 1, at 150 psi. So tonight its pull the valve cover night and see whats up underneath. Maybe a head gasket (only 25k?) or valve seal, or the dreaded cam failure? Engine has never overheated since rebuild (full rebuild), and has rarely if ever gone over 210 deg on the temp gauge (running a 180 deg thermostat).
Also got a misfire code (43) this AM when testing a few things out.
Also, spark plugs all looked the same, and I think ok based on my limited ability to read spark plugs. They looked like the normal one in the back of the Haynes manual.