Nissan Altima: 1994 Altima GXE Can’t find the answer to this one!

My altima has 187k on it. I am am an avid prevenative maint. guy
with my cars...learning the hard way

Recently I have been smelling a little bit of oil burning, mostly
noticable when I stop the car right after driving it. Passing it off
as probably a leaky head gasket, I waited a couple of days before
checking it out. A few days ago I noticed a little more smoke this
time and decided to give it a look. When I popped the hood, all four
plug-wire plungers (boot covers) had popped out of the plug access
holes in the engine. While the car was running I tried to push the
plug boots back down into the holes. To my astonishment, the engine
had not previously, nor then had it shown signs of cylinder misfire.
The plug boots would not stay down into the holes!

I proceeded to then, (call it instinct), remove the plug boot from the
number three cyclinder with the engine running. Without any
difficulty, I pulled the plug boot out of the hole to find the entire
end of the boot melted off. I then cut the engine of course. I
assumed that the plugs were running much hotter than usual and/or the
engine is just running too hot itself. I have never seen this before
and by the way, I cannot figure out where exactly the "oil smell" is
coming from. I am only assuming that it is coming from the plug
holes...I hope not!

I just pulled out what was left of the wires and the ends of the
composite boots (the hard part of the boot/wire) and the ends had
obvious severe heat damage.

Can anyone give me some insight on this, and what might be causing the
overheating? By the way, the oil (half a qt. low) and the coolant are
all appearing to be relatively normal in level and consistancy. I
have not been noticing any lack of power recently, or any strange
noises. The only thing is that my a/c seems to be flaking out on me
within the past four days....sometimes cold, sometimes not...I am
stumped!

HELP!

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This has happened to me a couple of times. I've found that if I move the
dimmer wheel a little bit they come back on. also, sometimes when I adjust
the dimmer all the interior lights go off, but will come back on with a
little move of the wheel.