All good. Mine was the head gaskets. Not a bad job really, just take your time, get an heavy duty impact wrench and a ball joint 16mm or 5/8 socket. The AB guide is pretty helpful.

 

you check your coil pack first by moving one cyl to another to check for misfire

 

You guys rock. Way more responsive than other rover forms.

I’ll get a bite scoped and see what I can find.

I did get the engine up to temp and redid the test. Bank 1 was all at 115-120. Except for cylinder 5.

i chatted with a shop out in Salt Lake City, they said if after doing wet test there no improvement then your rings are bad. Which doesn’t make a bit of sense. They then recommended a new motor.

I picked this ride up for a low price and I am hoping I can revive it.

I will post my updates on what I find in a few weeks.

 

Unless you have a cracked block or some major failure like a failed oil pump you continued to run on your block is likely fine.

Our daily driver 99 had almost 250k on her and the bore was still in spec.

Also, correcting a miss fire from a coil pack or other ignition source won't magically restore compression from 40 up to where the other cylinders are.

You don't so much care what the compression is so long as that they are all about even. Weak battery, dry cylinders, failure to remove all plugs and open throttle while doing the test will all lead to skewed results which is why a leak down test is preferred over that of compression test. Cold ours was about 125ish per cylinder about 1000 miles after a new set of rings and tossing the 4.6 internals into the 99 block.

A local shop will skim both heads plus seat valves and install provided valve stem seals for about 150.

I did soak submerged in aluminum safe cleanerfor a few days so they cleaned off easily before dropping them off to the shop which helps save a few bucks.

 

Okay question then. When I did the compression test cold, I took one plug out, one by one then reinserted them after each test. I also only disconnected the fuel pump fuse and the ignition relay as to make sure I got no spark and no gas dumped into the motor.

when I did the warm test, I pulled all plugs and tested bank 1 cylinder.

Could this have skewed things?

the cold test was done with the car being not being driven for about 2 weeks.

 

I don't like warm compression test because that manifold is awfully hot and my fingers burn easily.
You can always do it again if you'd like just make sure the method that you test one cylinder with you test all cylinders with to keep all controls as equal as humanly possible including the amount of revolutions for each test. I usually keep bumping until the gauge stops going up

 

Okay I’ll see if I can do that today. I’ll report back with what I find

 

FWIW, when I was researching my issue, it seemed like #5 was the most common cylinder to leak at the HG. It ran mostly fine, but was loud, clearly blow-by towards the center of the engine so I could not feel it on the exterior bank. If it is valves, Is suggest you know pretty quickly, find a machine shop to clean them up. Probably a great use of time/money. I did not have one nearby and just cleaned everything w mineral spirits, really cleaned all the carbon off. I would get enough to make a bath for your parts to soak.

 

Yeah, either they said it wrong or you heard it wrong. The wet test - oil squirted into the cylinder - makes the rings seal a little better. If the reading is the same, then the rings are probably fine, as the additional sealing didn't raise the number. It is possible that the rings ARE bad, but other stuff is worse. What the wet test has told you if there is no improvement in the number is that you have a leak above the rings; like a hole in the piston or cyl or head, bad head gasket, bad valve, that sort of thing. 40 psi is low, so is 50. Make sure you performed that test correctly, as mentioned above already.

 

Okay just to make sure I don’t botch it. Should this be done cold or warm?

then I remove all plugs, disconnect the fuses for throttle and ignition, squirt a bit of oil in the cylinder and test it. Correct?