check one plug and it was white so its running real lean. Could this be because of the fact the my air intake elbow has a rip in it so too much air and not enough fuel?

 

Depends how bad the inlet elbow is torn. The PCM can use the long term fuel corrections to compensate for up to 25% extra fuel.

You have to look at the plugs on both banks of the engine - the PCM controls the A/F independantly to each bank.

 

the intake is torn really bad it has chunks actually missing. My symptoms have gotten worse as the intake has ripped more. First being a small rip now chunks missing. If i take the plug from the other side and its lean is that good or bad?

 

Quit screwing around and FIX the intake elbow. You are screwing thing up royally by letting all that air bypass the MAF sensor. When you have a KNOWN problem, you fix that before attempting to solve the unknowns.

 

lol easy for you to say dang things are expensive and hard to find for cheap. Since I'm just a broke college student I'm trying to find one for cheap before i give up and spend 70 or 80 bucks.

 

How about some duct tape until you find one..better than leaving a gapping hole there...if its running that bad, you may end up with fouled O2 sensors and plugs...that will run more than $50-$70 to replace them then.

 

Did you check the parts for sale forum?

If you can't take the time/money to fix it, park the car until you can.