The Driver's side cyl or furthest on the right looking at the engine has a dry spark plug when I pull it. I pulled all 4 injectors and mailed them in to be tested and clean and they where OK and now cleaned. I tried hooking up the wire from the cyl next to it and it did not seem to get the injector to spray either. what else would cause it to not get gas in there. it runs, but sounds like it is on 3 cyls. cap and rotor are very old, spark plug wires have at least 100k on them. engine has 197k on it. compression is even at 110psi in each. seems like an ignition issue, not sure where to turn or what to test. THANKS!!

 

Just to make sure, test for spark on all cylinders. You should also replace the cap and rotor (rotor can't be the problem since 3 cylinders run but should be replaced anyway, but cap might be a problem), and the spark plugs (use NGK V-power). I would also replace the spark plug wires... I recommend NGK OEM style wires, they run about $50, and will last way longer than the cheap generic crap from the auto parts store. I have had those generic wires crumble on me twice at the boots.

 

There should not be gas on any of the plugs if you run the engine, stop it, and take the plugs out. Normally they run "dry". The cylinder you are talking about is #1. they are numbered 1 through 4 starting from the pulley end of the engine.

Confirm that it really is running on 3 cylinders by disconnecting the injectors one at a time while the engine is idling. The easiest way to confirm a bad injector is swap it with one of the other ones and see if the problem moves to the other cylinder.

To confirm the ECU is driving the injector, listen for it to click or unplug the wire and plug a small light bulb (such as a #194 with the pins on the bottom bent out) into the harness plug. Bulb should flash when the engine turns.

But what I really wanted to say here is do a compression test. Bad valves or valves adjusted too tight will cause loss of compression and a dead cylinder.

New wires and plugs of course.

 

Thanks! I played around with it some more. I checked the fuel pump, it is at 35psi and 47psi with the vac pulled off the fuel pressure regulator. Then I checked the compression. #2 has 15psi!! Yes, only 15 psi, the rest are at 115-120psi. Yikes!! I dont know what to do next. that explains the dark exhaust and reason it runs like it is on 3 cyls, it is!

 

Remove the valve cover. Rotate the engine by hand until all the valves on #2 are closed (springs not pressed down). Check that the rocker arms for #2 are slack, they should move up and down very slightly before hitting the top of the valve stem. If not, loosen the adjuster bolt some, tighten the locknut, and try compression test again. If that restores operation, do a full valve adjustment.