OK, my title may sound familiar to some of you, cause I recently posted a similar thread on
The Valve Adjustment Blues. If you read through that one, you'll see that my valve adjustment blues were mostly cause it was my first valve adjustment ever and I was slow, and then I didn't fully prime it after I reassembled the fuel lines (supply and return). But I still had lots of white smoke, and a rough idle, and it was recommended I stop where I was and do a compression test.
I was finally able to get out there and do that today and thought I'd use a different post since it's a different topic. I started with the HF compression test kit for $25, cause the leak down gauge was like $55 and I don't have air until I can get down to Junkman's place (thanks again for the offer Junkman!).
First, though I drove the car 3-4 miles to the car wash and back so I'd be working with a hot engine, it took me a while to actually get started on the compression. I'd say probably about an hour. Reason was my 27mm deep socket was only deep enough if the inside part of it barely fit over the metal fuel return nipples...I actually had to ever so slightly bend one of those that had been been out (probably by me tugging on the flexible fuel lines at an angle). And also I had to stop and fabricate the wooden stick to hold the throttle to the stop position. So I'm sure that my numbers would have been higher had I started the test within 10-15 minutes.
But I finally got the lines off, injectors out, and everything set up, and had a friend to crank ten revolutions for each cylinder. I tested all five cylinders in order and then went back again and repeated every one again, and here are the results:
Cyl - 1st Test - 2nd Test
1- 250 200
2- 260 220
3- 200 160
4- 75 65
5- 100 80
Ouch, especially cylinders 4 and 5. At first I thought it might be just cheap equipment that was causing the inconsistency, but then remembered how drastic a difference the readings are hot vs cold, and there seemed to be a fairly consistent
percentage drop as the temperature continued to lower.
So maybe I would be up in the 300s with a nice hot engine, but still...4 and 5. I guess you guys are gonna tell me to do a leak down next to try and figure out where the leak is coming from in 4 and 5. Is that right? Looks like I need that gauge after all. Could someone please explain (keeping in mind I've just begun to learn the workings of engines) what the possibilities are, and what can be done (if anything) to correct them?
(or feel free to direct me to another thread that details those possibilities)
Thanks everyone!
Guess I'll get to work on cleaning the injectors and replacing the nozzles with my new Monark ones for when I eventually put everything back together.