My car started acting funny today out of nowhere. It started backfiring, would hesitate at random times, and sometimes would even stale when idling. I figured I would do a compression test and pull my plugs to see what might be the problem.

My question is, on a compression test should I crank it say 10 times only for every cylinder, or keeping cracking it untill the needle on the compression tester stops? Also if anybody has insight as to what might have caused the gremlin under my hood to acquire; knowledgeable help from experience preferred.

My plugs looked dirty. black soot out the anus. They normally look fine. Also, I have been driving my car with a turbo. I am still running stock fuel setup as the h22 runs without a turbo, but I don't drive it hard. I keep the engine in vacume at all times.