I recently did a compression test on the R because there was a coolant leak starting at the headgasket on the distributor side. The cars been also running really rough and throws a little blueish smoke under hard accelaration. Theres also definaltely a power loss as well. Here are the results

1 210
2 200
3 220
4 220

Also I saw a little oil buildup on the top of the pistons.

 

those numbers arent horrible. and I seriously doubt you would notice any power loss just based on those numbers. it probably wouldnt even stumble while idling.

are you sure the coolant hoses under the distributor arent leaking, instead of the head gasket?

bluish smoke is usually oil. coolant smoke is normally whitish. you could also check inside the radiator cap to see if any oil is floating around or built up on the bottom of the cap.

 

if your worried about a gasket leak use "block tester" rent the pump at autozone and buy the blue liquid. liquid will change from blue to yellow if there are any gases from the engine into your coolant (headgasket leak).

this is the only way to do it without taking the head off.

 

you have the same symptoms as me

do a leak down test, my compression was 225 on all 4. but i noticed a significant power loss. i also blew bluish smoke

checked the leakdown and had 20% on cylinder 1 and 4. my car only put down 185 with i/h/e/cams/gears

 

Yea thats what worries me is the power loss and the vibration. I will try the leakdown test next to see how there holding. Also it look like the gasket isnt oem so the head has been off before.

 

arent bad numbers. should be 200 +/- 20 from that. I had 175 on all 4.

 

Did you have power loss with 175 across the board?

 

never dyno'd the car....idk?

 

http://www.c-speedracing.com/h...t.php

 

compression test can only tell you so much, a leakdown test is much more accurate and will tell you exactly whats wrong

 

x2 on leakdown...

 

Ok next step will be a leakdown and will post results

 

cool...leakdown will tell you so much more...my old itr had like 240 compression across the board, but leakdown was like 6% 15% 40% 20% or some ****...

 

What range is good for the leakdown test?

 

Mine is 5 to 7 % with a fresh head and 129k bottom end.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ITR32 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What range is good for the leakdown test?</TD></TR></TABLE>

iirc below 10%

 

Also the oil buildup on top of all four pistons any reason for concern.If looks like its fresh oil that like turned into tiny little globs of oil.

 

Id take a look at your valve seals.....under acceleration oil is forced into the combustion chamber via the valve seals. It also occurs when the caR sits for a while oil drips onto the top of the piston where is pools and burns away when you start the caR.

The smoking on accel is a dead giveaway.....I'll be it does it on initial start-up, and also during engine braking.......

 

Yea I noticed also when I let up on the gas and when braking usually when under hard braking I noticed some smoking as well.

 

That compression test looks fine actually almost better than normal.

 

So most likely sounds like a top end issue.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ITR32 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">So most likely sounds like a top end issue.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Nobody can tell you.

Do a leakdown.