cheap car, van or truck needed

[BrianChevy]

I have the tools to do a leak down test, so I'll do that tomorrow and report back.

i'm thinking i'll pull the head and see what the situation looks like. I sure hope it would be rings, it was way down on power so maybe that was it.. I sure hope the block is not cracked.. This is a charity car, we are not going to put alot of money into it... I'm already $450 bucks out of luck on it so far. (loaning the charity money for the car)

[BrianChevy]

I just can't believe that this apparently 'weird' problem would be something so simple as rings... It was down on power, so I'm not doubting that it needed them... oh well, the journey continue and oh boy are we having fun!!!

[TedV]

Even better would be some strange valves going out of adjustment. Like they didn't tighten the lash adjusting lock nuts and they vibrated out of adjustment. If over head cam with hydrolic lifters, trashed lifters wouldnt allow the valves enough lift to let air in, compression test would be low but leak down will show good.

[MARKP]

How do the plugs look? If they aren't oily or full of ash, I doubt you have a ring problem.

I would lean more to a valve issue or a blown head gasket. The gasket could allow coolant to leak into the cylinder without getting into the oil. The cylinder goes dead. Again, how do the plugs look. If they are completely clean, except for #1, could be head gasket.

Sent from the Galaxy.

[TedV]

Head gasket blown between cylinders would not show in coolant or oil. They sure do run like crap that way

[BrianChevy]

So leak down test shows that the #2 and #3 cylinders are compromised (with each other most likely) -- it's possible that the #4 cylinder is also compromised but I'm not completely sure. I've begun tearing it down to have a look.

Thanks for the suggestions Ted, i surely hope that the valves are just out of adjustment, but I won't know until I get the head off. it sure does seem like that COULD be the behavior as well -- because as you said "it sure does run like shit".

ha ha. Thanks again.

Brian