Peering down the cylinder hole, I noticed a pool of oil on top of the piston. A leaking valve stem seal could put too much oil into they cylinder and foiled the proper mixture for combustion. So I replaced them and cylinder #3 was still dead.
I then wanted to double check the compression test figures. It showed 170psi for all cylinders. That was a good figure, but it measured only the peak compression and did not show there was enough compression at the right time. So I bought Harbor Freight Tool's leak down cylinder tester for $30.
But they showed minimal leakage.
I was desperate by this time. I decided to take a look at the fuel injector. Two years ago I replaced fuel injector for cylinder #3 because it went bad. So I was very doubtful that the fuel injector could go bad again within just 2 years. But I was desperate.
Just for the record, it's possible to remove the fuel injector harness (fuel rail) without removing the intake plenum. You need to remove the bracket that secures the accelerator cable though. The bracket is secured by 1 bolt on the cylinder head and 2 studs on the intake plenum. Remove the bolt and twist open the studs with vice grips. Doing so will damage the studs. I replaced the studs with bolts. Good riddance since I hate dealing with studs in general.
That's when I found the culprit. Compare cylinder 1 and 3's fuel injectors:
No wonder cylinder #3 was dead. The bad o-ring must had been leaking fuel into the cylinder.
It seemed that the replacement pintle cap I used was too wide. When securing the fuel injector into the harness, the smaller opening on the harness pushed the cap against the o-ring.
Fortunately I had spare pintle caps. It was a good thing I didn't cheapen out two years ago by ordering more than I needed. I trimmed the rim of one and installed it.
That's all it took to bring the cylinder operational again.
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