no compression
 

99 honda accord 2.3L. this is my brothers car. he said he was driving and it died out. now its a crank no start. i thought broken timing belt so i pulled valve cover, the belt seems ok and the valvetrain looks like its moving as should. checked compression found 0psi in all cylinders. what would cause no compression on all cylinders all of a sudden. i think its a cylinder head issue but cant pinpoint. the one thing that scares me is theres no oil on the dipstick. not sure exactly how low oil is. any info appreciated.thanks

Seems kinda odd that it would have 0psi on all cylinders instantly like that. So it went from driving fine to not driving at all?

Have an air compressor? A leak down test will let you know where the air is coming out.

yeah he was driving it yesterday when it died. towed to my house and its cranks but sounds weird when cranking and has no compression all 4. ive turned it over manually and valvetrain is moving and pistons moving. rotating assy seems to be in sync. i cant imagine it jumped that far out of time to get no compression at all. i dont have a leakdown tester at home with me.

Timing belt jumped more than a few notches?

Ya, you're pretty much going to have to pull the timing belt covers and check the timing.

I ran out of time for today. tomorrow i plan to pull timing covers and check marks. will post update when i have one. it just seems unrealistic to me that it would lose compression on all 4 suddenly.

I think it's safe to assume that you tried a second tester ?

do you mean a second compression gauge. no i only have one in garage other at work. or do you mean another test method ie leakdown test

1. Like above, I'd also try to get a 2nd compression test gauge or somehow verify that the one you have registers.
2. and I'd go buy 2 qts of el cheapo 5w-30 oil and add it to crankcase.
why I don't know, seems like damage has been done, but $6 would be worth some peace of mind.
(You say it sounds weird when cranking ... hhmmm no oil at all sound?)

luck.

I got some oil, part of my plan tomorrow. I'm pretty sure my gauge works used it for a misfire couple weeks ago. Doubt it went bad from sitting but I guess anything possible. When cranking its not loud like low oil it sounds "dead" if that makes any sense. You can tell when cranking that's its not anywhere close to firing up.