With the engine running, can you use some sort of thermal meassuring device to check if # 1 is hot at the header. A thermal imaging camera would be perfect. You may be able to just grabb the header pipe ( not after it has been running ).
With the engine running, take a can of carb cleaner and spray around the intake of # 1. If the Rs go up, you have an intake leak and will look like a dead cylinder.
Stupid as this sounds, I got a car in once that had two dead cylinders. Ended up disassembling the top end to find a rag in the intake manifold. I talked to the guy and he said his sons were "helping" clean the engine as dad was putting it back together.
Set the idle down to limp the engine. It will sound like it is going to stall at any minute. Then pull the plug wire. If # 1 is adding anything to the engine, it should die or at least sputter.
Read the plug. if it is burning fuel, it will have some deposits. You may want to force an issue but sraying WD40 down the carb.
Hope this helps.
Trularin
