ZeroHour

K I know it's a painfully redundant topic, but I've been searching and researching and absorbing as much as I possibly can as I near the task of tackling whatever is the problem.

I just bought a 95 4Runner, I'm told the #2 cylinder was found to have a loss of compression. We drove it home and it's got an epic miss but also seems to run rich as it can (at least that's the assumption with the heavy fumes and burning eyes) I'm going today to finally rent a compression tester and see for myself. I've no water/oil mixing and no exhaust pushing into the cooling system (at least in relation to this miss, I know it's not)
Basically I'm hoping that it they'd be wrong and it would be something a bit minor but I'm expecting the worse, maybe a valve or head gasket? I've not pulled a head off in years and even then I wasn't working by myself so I'm just looking for some quick tips as to what to look for if I do find loss of compression and pull the head. Then again if I can correct problems like that it won't be the worst, because I would hope to not have to remove the motor. The AC even works! I've got to figure out what the problem is this week so I can decide wether to put the 3.0 from a 92 I got a couple weeks ago into this 95, or into my 89 to at least test it, that way if the motor I got from the yard is bad, I can return it for a credit for now.