Sorry about the late response. I ended up doing the job a week later.

So on saturday I replaced the radiator, the coolant overflow reservoir, and the ignition coil bolts. Basically I started by taking out the radiator and the fan(for some reason... there was no condensor in the car..)
With the much improved space to work on, I remove one of the two lower bolts with a vice grip, because the tool I was looking at was much bigger than the photos made it out to be. No big deal. However, the other bolt I had to end up grinding the head off just to pull the coil packs off. Once the pack/module were off, I was able to turn the bolt out.

To get the bolt out, I bent it so that I could twist it out with pliers and by hand. Very easy process surprisingly.

I wAS careful not to grind away the grounding wire for the coil and have the battery disconnected. Once removed I cleaned up the surfaces and reassembled. Boy did it help. Car runs great!

I actually was worried and thought it had a misfire but it was just a code for an intake air sensor that I forgot to plug back in. As soon as I plugged that in it has no codes. The next day my dad and I went on a little trip with it and it was reliable and ran well the whole time!

 

Wow I just typed up a big post and none of it actually posted when I pressed quick reply.So im just gonna say it again but abridged

Misfire was because of poor grounds. Coils are fine.

Removed radiator and fan to gain much needed space. Helped a lot. very very easy job. 2 10mm bolts, 1 wiring connector, 2 stock 7mm hose clamp bolts for radiator hoses.

Got one bolt out with vice grips, one by grinding.(made sure not to ruin the metal ground wire on the outside of the coil.)

New bolts worked great. Car runs great. Had a code but it was because I forgot to plug air cleaner temp sensor back in. Drove it on a 40 min or so road trip with my dad on Sunday, ran really well. No codes.

Very pleased with my cheap saturn., Giving it to my dad so he has a reliable vehicle and good on gas.

 

Happy to hear that you got it fixed and kudos for giving it to your Dad. So many of us Dads give cars to their kids nowadays and barely get a thank you for it. Tell him to join up with us. I'm sure he'll have questions from time to time. Either that or YOU stick around and become a larger part of the forum by trying to help others.