There is a lot of work needed. Be sure to follow the exact procedure for the compression check. The Haynes manual will tell exactly how to do it. If the compression is above the minimum, which yours seems to be and there isn’t a 25% variation beween cylinders, the check is OK. Minimum pressure should be listed. It’s 100 PSI for the 4.8 Chevy V-8
Hydraulic or solid lifters? Maybe you don’t have to worry about tappet clearance, with the compression mostly even across the board.
I don’t think that you mentioned checking the crank position sensor and its reluctor wheel. On modern cars, that is one of the first things I look at when I have a misfire. Check for loose reluctor wheel, clearance between the sensor and reluctor, sensor resistance, and the condition of the lead to the sensor.
I know nothing about VWs but I presume this car has a variable cam. If so, then the cam position sensor can also cause a misfire and poor performance. I had one last year that caused a rough idle for months before the car’s computer detected a poor signal from the sensor. All the car’s computer could detect for a long time was that it had a misfire that I could not trace.
I’d just stick a new plug (something cheap) in the No. 1 cylinder for test purposes and ignore the rest at this point. Even with No. 1 hitting again the engine still has a serious problem.
That sounds like a good idea. I will check cam pos sen. It’s new from aug but there has been a lot of salt/slush in NYC lately, maybe it got gooped up.
I swapped the injectors around and no change. I am going to recheck the compression, my friend returned my comp tester. I put in some Bosch Platinum +4’s I had and while It still has the misfire, the car has better pickup and feels less like it’s going to stall out when at a light. Pulled the intake manifold and cleaned it and the throttle body. That’s about where I am with it-had big rain storms for 2 days, so I’m hoping Sun is nice.