So many of these posts die without a final resolution, so I'm going to post mine now.

I ended up purchasing an EZL (Ignition Control Module) on Ebay for $129 (not my favorite idea, but it provided me with purchasing protection that a boneyard purchase would not).

I disconnected the negative battery terminal and applied Arctic Silver Thermal Paste and installed the new unit. After removing the old EZL, the thermal paste was still tacky. I simply cleaned it off the engine to install the new one. When I started the engine, it roared up with a moment of hesitation, but all 8 cylinders were firing!

I purchased a '71 220D for $500 last week, that I happened upon at a shop in the middle of nowhere, but I love them and it gave me something to drive while I fixed this issue. Needless to say, though I adore the old diesels, when I got in the 140 to hit the highway and work out the recent tuneup, I was ever so impressed! What a ride and so much power. It was like a new car. Hit 120MPH so easily that I'll likely lose my license in no time.

In summary, right side (passenger) cap and plugs got wet. Started the car with wet components and probably shorted the EZL for that bank. Replaced caps, rotors, plugs, camshaft position sensor, crank position sensor and right bank ignition coil. None of those corrected the problem, so I replaced the EZL (Bosch number 014 545 43 42 with Seimens number 013 545 64 32) and the problem was corrected. I tried to find some conclusive answers to whether the newest part numbers were ideal and why, but never really found anything to support spending more for the 015 545 61 32 part over the older version I ended up purchasing. Now that I know this corrected the problem, I may opt for one as a backup or would choose to spend the extra cash in hindsight, but with the new parts installed, it is far more powerful and responsive than before, so I don't know that the newest EZL matters at all. New ignition maps would be the only benefit, if they existed.

I didn't change the plug or ignition wires, as they were in good shape and are a nice Beru set. I also didn't replace the left bank ignition coil, but I will likely do that soon. It's just too damn cold now and it's a pain to access.

As for the thermal paste, I did a whole bunch of research and found that this paste (which I have used when building a computer) has one of the best heat transfer capacities in tests against ceramic/silicone-based pastes. Some of the ceramic/silicone pastes were also highly rated, but this one contains 99% silver, so I felt it would be the best solution for this application.

Hopefully this answers most or all of the questions someone might have regarding this problem. I couldn't find all the answers I was looking to understand, so I'm trying to include them all here.