I suppose, but that wouldn't account for why it had no fuel on it when I pulled it immediately after shutting the engine off. If the plug were faulty and the fuel injector behaving normally, then it should've been fouled with fuel and wet still. What I found was a dry, super-lean plug...

96_4wdr, what makes replacing the intake gasket (I assume you meant the lower manifold to block gasket) so much more work than replacing an injector, if I've already taken that much apart? I would think that if I've already burrowed in far enough to take the upper intake and fuel rail off, removing the lower intake would be incrimentally more effort. What I'd much rather avoid is digging in that far, putting in fresh injectors, put it all back together again, only to find I have to do it all over again for an intake gasket that I could've done when I was in there before. Again, that's how it appears to me, but since I've tried it yet, I may be missing something that's a glaring problem.

Can anyone direct me to a write-up that tells how to tackle this in an Aerostar (as opposed to a Ranger/Explorer)?