Compression test

The Dreaded Compression Test

I was really concerned that with the lack of the engine starting I was going to have a compression problem. I haven't done engine work yet and am not looking forward to it. I consider engine work to be like heart surgery, if you don't know how to do it, don't.


Well, leaving my fears of what I might find behind, I borrowed a compression test kit from my friend who owns the shop my car is at. I methodically tested each cylinder for compression, starting from the one farthest to the left. With the tester hooked up it looked like this:

The first two cylinders tested to about 110 PSI, which I am very pleased with. The third tested at about 50-60 PSI, disturbing me greatly, and the forth tested to about 110 PSI. I was worried about the third cylinder. It's kinda hard to get to and I wasn't sure if I had seated the tested firmly in place so I re-tested it. Low and behold it tested at the same 110 PSI as the rest of the cylinders as shown below on the simulated image.


Well, I'm totally stoked that the compression is good and even across all the cylinders, but that brings up a sour fact. The engine is still not running. I smelled gasoline on the spark part of the spark plugs so fuel was making it to the cylinder. Further investigation showed that I'm not getting spark to the Spark plugs. Another point to investigate in my quest to get the engine running.