'86 Trooper head problem?

[LoFrontier]

so after a little more fudging and fiddling with my super trooper I'm thinking my problem is in the head.

The truck actually runs now but not well. No power, sputters, etc. I replaced the plugs, cap and distributor, yanked the air injection BS and some of the useless emissions stuff. Anyway, when I pull a plug wire off of a plug the engine will die down and run rough like it should EXCEPT when I pull the wire on the #2 cylinder. When I pull this wire nothing changes and the truck still runs like crap. Last time I pulled the plugs the #2 plug had the most black crap built up on it. I swapped the wires on #1 and #2 to see if the problem was with the wire but the problem didn't follow with the wire.

Tomorrow's plan is to take the valve cover off and see if anything looks fishy under there.

I'm going to try to get my buddy to help me out with a compression check and leak-down test. I haven't given up on this truck yet!

[paulevans76]

the vegas odds are in:

3 to 1 you have a fawked head

good luck though, and dont get too discouraged. remember, it could ALWAYS be worse

[Marlin Crawler]

Maybe a tight exhaust valve?
Run a compression check................
Vacume leak on the #2 intake runner?
Leaking intake gasket?