[Dave at Pelican Parts]

If you dropped a valve, you'd know it. If you dropped a seat, the starter would sound very uneven. "RR-RR-..-RR-RR-RR-..-RR-RR-RR-..-RR" Same goes for anything else giving you zero compression on one hole.

If you leave the fuel pressure reg out of the circuit, you will get very close to zero fuel pressure. The stock regulator acts as a restriction on the "downstream" end of the high-pressure loop. Think of it like putting your thumb over the end of a garden hose; the pressure inside the hose will go up. The regulator is that thumb.

Let's check the basics: Do you have spark on all four? Hunt down an extra plug and a friend who can crank the starter for you. Tape the plug with the threaded part or the outer electrode touching ground, and then crank the starter. You should be able to see the sparks at the plug. Make sure all four wires are producing sparks.

Are you getting fuel? Do you smell fuel at the tailpipe after cranking the starter for a while? For a finer-grained answer, remove the injectors from the manifold (and unplug the points/points-replacement from the coil). There's only one M6 (10mm wrench) nut that holds each injector to the manifold, you can remove the two nuts holding both injectors on one side and then pull the injectors and the fuel rail up away from the motor. Put the injectors in separate clean (ish) glass jars, or one large jar. Have someone crank the starter while you look at the injectors. You'll see if fuel comes out of all four injectors, and you'll also get to see what sort of spray pattern they have.

If you have those, then do a compression check. But as I said, one bad cylinder will generally be obvious when you crank the starter.

Once those are verified, the only variables left are the spark timing and the amount of fuel going in.

--DD