Damn. Ok. I'll try again today and see if my numbers improve. Thanks.

 

Sitrep fellers. I have just finished a wet compression test of the cylinders. I removed the fuel pump relay and disconnected the injectors. I held the throttle wide open on each cylinder and gave each about a cupful of oil prior to connecting the tester hose. I gave each cylinder about 7 seconds of crank. Results.

Cylinder 1 - 85
Cylinder 2 - 100
Cylinder 3 - 95
Cylinder 4 - 170

Looks better. What are we thinking 🤔?


​​​​​​​I also noticed that although I removed the #2 dash fuse for the pump, it doesn't prime when I open the key which it shouldn't and I unplugged all 4 injectors wiring harness, I can still smell fuel. Maybe it's just the fuel that has been sprayed in the cylinders during prior testing? Hmm.

 

Compression on a new 2.2L engine is 178 psi and the minimum compression is 135 psi. Max variation between cylinders should be <28 psi. Your issue is low compression on cylinders 1, 2, and 3. Now the challenge is to figure out why there is low compression. The simplest explanation is that you still have fuel in the cylinders since you still smell fuel and the fuel is thinning out the oil and causing compression loss. Plus your last compression test on #4 is 170 and you may have dried the cylinder when testing 1, 2, and 3. I'd leave the spark plugs out of the engine block to allow fuel evaporation. If you have compressed air, you can blow out the cylinders.

I'd probably change the oil as you can have gasoline mixed with the motor oil. Since this engine could be toast, I'd get inexpensive oil of the correct viscosity to save money while you are getting this up and running.

Once you don't smell fuel in the engine block, repeat the compression test without adding oil to each cylinder (dry compression test) with fuel pump disabled and wide open throttle. I disagree with a previous post about wide open throttle not changing the compression numbers, because I didn't do wide open throttle early on with DIY work and got much lower comression numbers vs wide open throttle. It was a 2.2L engine like yours.

Post the dry compression numbers, then add a cap full (~few mL) into each cylinder and do the wet compression test. Post both sets of numbers.

Lets see what you get for compression and hope the numbers are higher before doing any more testing or throwing parts at this car.

 

Thanks for the excellent advice. I'll swing by store tomorrow and get some basic oil n filter.

I also received my NGK plugs from RockAuto today. Should I go ahead and install those to replace the Amazon Bosch plugs in it now?

 

With the increase in compression with oil you have a piston ring issue. A valve or head gasket issue would not change with oil. If you get it running compression may go up.

 

Seeing as the compression improved with the oil, I have decided to soak the cylinders with Seafoam and leave it sitting for a while to see if it loosens those rings a bit so they will help seal better. The car was running fine up until the time it was parked so I think the rings must be stuck to the pistons since sitting for so long. I'll let the Seafoam do its thing and then will try some Berrymans B12 if I need to do another soak. I'll work on it again during the upcoming weekend and will post some updates.

 

The cylinders may have rusted or rings seized to the pistons.

 

You are probably right. I hope the Seafoam soak will break them loose enough to get compression up high enough it'll fire up into life and then the heat will help loosen them up even more. Gonna check it later this week and may give them a second soak using Berrymans B12.

When I started working on it, the engine was seized. I soaked the cylinders with Marvel Mystery Oil for a week or so and turned the crank by hand and it broke loose.

 

Whelp. No go. The seafoam soak seems to have done the opposite of what I was hoping for. Lol. All the seafoam liquid leaked down and the cylinders were bone dry before today's compression test. What the hell happened?

Cylinder 4 - 70psi
Cylinder 3 - 40psi
Cylinder 2 - 25psi
Cylinder 1 - 60psi

I was so pissed I didn't even try a wet compression test after that. I'm bout ready to just give up on this thing. Dammit.

 

I expect when the rings were seized to the cylinder walls they left them damaged.