Well I just did my first headgasket job on a car. Well it ends up being a 89 acura integra. everything comes apart some what smoothly and goes back together smoothly. Well being the smart ones we are, we decide to do a compression test on the motor before getting everything back together. compression reads 150, 30, 30, 30. What the going on!!? We pulled the head of the car again and recheck the valves to make sure there seated ok and they look fine. No cracks in pistons or evidence of the head gasket leaking. So what could it be?

Couldn't do a leak down test because don't have the tester.

 

Have you performed a valve adjustment?

You should get a new head gasket since you already torqued the current one.

 

maybe the timing belt is off a little bit? or like the guy above me said, ajust valves

 

The timing belt could cause low compression. However, the low compression should be uniform across the board.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Dogginator &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The timing belt could cause low compression. However, the low compression should be uniform across the board.</TD></TR></TABLE>

exactly

 

I havn't performed a valve adjustment. Should I? I take it the machine shop should handle that...no?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Sisqo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I havn't performed a valve adjustment. Should I? I take it the machine shop should handle that...no?</TD></TR></TABLE>

The camshafts must be installed to do the valve lash adjustment. That is most likely your problem. Search Google for "hondahookup manuals" to find more information.

 

Well would the valve lash out of adjustment cause that low of compression numbers?

Side note.... when timing the car we found an issue with lineing up the timing marks on the crankshaft with the indicator on the timing cover.

We would bring the car to tdc and the the marks would no be any where close on the crankshaft compared to the timing cover indicator.

btw marks on crankshaft was as follows...... /// // Which line are we suppose to line up with?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Sisqo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Well would the valve lash out of adjustment cause that low of compression numbers?

Side note.... when timing the car we found an issue with lineing up the timing marks on the crankshaft with the indicator on the timing cover.

We would bring the car to tdc and the the marks would no be any where close on the crankshaft compared to the timing cover indicator.

btw marks on crankshaft was as follows...... /// // Which line are we suppose to line up with?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Use the white mark to find TDC. The red mark is 16 degrees BTDC.

If the valves are adjusted too tightly, they will not fully close and seal. That is what causes low compression numbers.