Expert: autohelp - 4/8/2005

Question
My Talon ESI 2.0 has a miss the car shakes badly when in park or stopped at a light. I ran a compression test and the #1 cylinder has 125 pounds of compression and the other 3 have 150# of compression. There is no blowby,no water in the oil and I scoped the #1 piston,there is no damage to the cylinder walls. Can you point me in some sort of direction before I start tearing apart the engine?

Answer
# 1 cylinder either has a broken compression ring on the piston and or a crack in the intake or exhaust valve or possibly a problem with the exhaust valve stem guides.



What you may find useful is to:

1. remove all the spark plugs.

2. Pull off the valve cover to expose the valve stem area for # 1 cylinder.

3. Apply constant shop air pressure of about 100 lbs into the # 1 cylinder via a compression tester hose with the check valve removed and thread it into the # 1 cylinder.

4. Watch/listen for air leaking from the valve stem areas or from the intake manifold or from the oil pan dipstick area.

Any EXCESSIVE air escaping will usually confirm if it's valves or piston rings.


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