Wicked sad.

I finally decided to do a compression test, and upon the wet test, cylinder 1 went from 150 to 195. All other cylinders are 195 dry. I did the test with all the plugs out, and also with them all in, in two separate tests. Also had the electrical system plugged in with a battery charger.

I've been chasing after my poor fuel economy for about 1.5 years, albeit a fun time to go through all the systems... I only get about 19 mpg on a really really good tank. I've done everything imaginable to narrow down the bad economy... and I think this poor compression is why.

I'm asking the forum and my fellow friends, does anyone have any good news for me? This is making me hit the bottle rather hard.

Feel free to ask me if I've checked X Y or Z, but I've done a whole lot of maintenance to the vehicle.

The car runs smooth, but lacks complete power and obviously the poor fuel economy sucks. But it's such a pretty car

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All I can say is, when you tell us that ur hittin the bottle, u mean alcohol? If so that's not helping ur situation.
You could try putting some fogging spray in the cylinder and maybe it will build the compression back up?

 

I read a little into fogging spray. Rather ingenious idea, I'm surprised I didn't hear of it earlier.

Just to get my facts straight, I have a bad piston ring right?

 

Minimum compression for that motor is 142 psi. I was in the low 130's and got better mileage than that. Either way, if the compression rose after a little bit of oil in the cylinders then the rings are starting to wear. This may be a dumb question but when you were doing the test, did you block the throttle open? Air needs to be able to get into the cylinder to build compression.

 

Well I was aware that there was quite a range of compression stats that the engines were made with, but I thought the delta had to be less than 12 in relation to other cylinders for the engine to properly run itself.

That's a great point, and I will run the test again after Easter dinner. Thanks for trying to help me out.

 

no problem-o. Oh and yeah you are right there is an allowable 14 psi variation of compression.

 

.. compression test doesn't tell you a whole lot.. you need to do a leak down test..

 

i deff. agree on a leakdown test fo sho. you could have a pin size whole in your headgasket right at that cylinder with low compression. is the engine consuming any amount of coolant or oil. if oil could be rings if coolant could be head gasket. if its one replace them all. get a set of rings,head gasket manifold gasket and exhaust gasket. a whole gasket set. if you need to save up just run lucas for the time being. that may patch it up for a lil bit