Sounds like it might be a burned valve to me. Blown HG is also very possible. Check compression on all cyl's, it never hurts to know.
On the vacuum leak- what does it idle at?
FYI- I have seen one of these motors run on one cam. First gen 3.0 had a bad timing belt tensioner, belt was just jumping on cam gear while the cam stayed still and the motor ran on three cyl's. I saw it do this running with the t-belt cover off. Most motors will idle and run with a cam a tooth off.
Pretty sure the 3VZE dist's are all the same.