1996 Villager Cylinder #4 Misfire

[n4hmr]

Hello -

I have a 96 Villager (160K mi) with a bad lazy #4 cylinder - pull the plug wire at idle & no change to the engine sound. I *WAS* getting (only) a knock sensor DTC.

The vehicle was parked for about 8 mos but ran ok when I started it up; it then developed this problem. It did run out of gas recently and I have maybe 3-4 gals in it now. I poured about 1/2 bottle of Prestone Concentrated Injector Cleaner in but have only driven about 15 or so miles.

I have a factory CD for this monster. Just to make dead certain, I show cylinders 2, 4 & 6 to be toward the radiator & left to right.

Pulled all the plugs first - Bosch Platinum +4's with only about 40K on them. All plugs looked great - no oil fouling at all and just a very light brownish coating on the tips. BTW, this short block was replaced by Ford at 69K due to knocking when cold start; factory didn't bore oil holes in the piston rods so the wrist pins wore out.

Replaced the dist cap, rotor & wires; I still get the knock sensor DTC BUT now also getting the #4 misfire code. Ain't that a bitch! Put new stuff in and it gets worse! Used the original plug wire for #4, no change. Swapped the plugs between 4 & 6 - no change.

If I pull the plug wire partially loose from #4 plug, I can hear a real strong spark; same as for #6. Put a neon tester inline with #4 wire - solid strong flash.

Ok, what now? Haven't done a compression check yet (have a KAL compression tester set). But was thinking maybe a bad injector. Used a screwdriver on the 2, 4 & 6 injectors, heard the clicking sound & appeared about the same on all 3.

On that point, JUST HOW do you get the Daggone connector off of the injector? Factory manual doesn't bother to advise on that. It appears that there is a sliding wedge in the front that locks the connector in place - wiggle it upwards and it comes out???

Fact manual sez the solenoid should measure between 10-14 ohms, so I'll check that when I figure out how to get the Dang connector off.

If it isn't a compression problem (shouldn't be), then any easy way to test that injector for flow?

I'm gettin' aggravated with this machine!

Help, please!

Thx

Fred