1992 nissan maxima missing and sputtering?

This is more details on earlier question for my 92 maxima 6 cylinder VG30E engine that is missing and sputtering. car has about 160k miles. it started out small with a slight hesitation and slowly got worse. now it misses and sputters and barley wants to go anywhere when i step on the gas. It bogs down bad when i hit the throttle. I did onboard self diagnosis and it gave me code for oxygen sensor. so i changed oxygen sensor and spark plugs. both were very white in color indicating running very lean. I cleaned all wires and connections including cap and rotor. Although I know its dangerous, I used starting fluid to check for vacuum leaks. when spray into intake, engine ran almost perfect for maybe 20 seconds. I unplugged m air sensor and engine stalled. is that normal? anyway, everything looks good and yet engine still running bad. could m airflow sensor cause engine to miss and bog down? maybe throttle position sensor? im at a loss. please help. thank you