Setup:
GSR block, ITR pistons
ITR head
ITR cams

Results from compression and leak down:

-Cyl 1
Comp: 250
Leak: 8% drop

-Cyl 2
Comp: 250
Leak 2% drop

-Cyl 3
Comp: 250
Leak 3% drop

-Cyl 4
Comp: 210
32% drop

I pulled the head off thinking I was going to need to pull the whole motor apart in prep for a full rebuild. Figured from the compression results that it would be the rings. The sleeves look good, but the valves and piston top don’t on cyl 4. Take a look at the pictures....could it be loosing all of the compression out of the head (through the valves), or is it possible that its the rings as well? The piston top and valves are very oily, whereas the other pistons are dry.

The previous owner of the car built the motor, so i do not know its history. I did however noticed that only 2 layers of a OEM head gasket were used(top and center layer).








I dont want to pull the bottom end apart until I determine if all of the problems are coming from the head or not. What do you think?

 

That looks an awfull lot like oil is entering the chamber. You loose oil? Smoke? The point also of the leakdown is to listen for where the air is escaping from so you can pinpoint the problem. If you just ripped it apart without actually listening then you short changed yourself on that one.

 

Not loosing much oil, a little smoke... also, I did not perform the leak down because I do not have a leak down tester...a local shop did.

 

spray break cleaner in the intake and exhaust ports to see if the valves are bent....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hondeducation &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Not loosing much oil, a little smoke... also, I did not perform the leak down because I do not have a leak down tester...a local shop did.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Sounds to me like the rings are gone, not the head.

 

looks like you need new rings

 

new rings? hmmm. is that what's causing the oil to get onto the spark plug and valve seats? cuz before, i'd drive around and i could not drive with the windows down because it stunk so bad, i thought i was gonna die from poisonous gas or something! that was probably the oil burning up right?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Hybrid93Eg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The point also of the leakdown is to listen for where the air is escaping from so you can pinpoint the problem.</TD></TR></TABLE>He's right on that one..wonder why the guy who did the leakdown didn't say where that 32% leakage is coming from? It's a pretty easy process to listen for the leakage after the tester is hooked up properly in each cylinder.

If the air leaking was heard through the throttle body or exhaust, then it would definitely be your valves..or if the leakage (during cylinder leakdown test) was through the crankcase, it could be your rings, pistons, or bottom end related.

Now your best bet would be to take the head in to get it checked out or slap it back on the block and run the leakdown test again yourself (that's if you don't want to rip the head/block apart to check everything out yourself like i would do if i was in ur shoes with the head off already). Good luck man.