I bought a car with the intention of selling it after I got it running. I can get a motor for pretty cheap, but I'm just curious as to whats wrong with this engine. I just can't seem to find what the problem is. I did a compression test on the engine when I bought it. It came out to be 130 (without WOT..forgot) and then 30,30,30 on the rest. I figured it had a few bent valves or maybe the cylinder walls would be fcked but everything LOOKED ok.

I checked for bent valves and they all seemed to be ok... The previous owner said there was a glow from under neigh the car so they turned it off and it never turned back on, so I figured it was a clogged cat. What kind of damage would a clogged cat produce? (and yes I did try cranking with the cat removed).

Would a timing belt that has jumped a few teeth cause 3 cyls to be around 30 and one to be ~130? Any other suggestions?

 

a jumped belt can cause a cat to go into thermonuclear melt down.

make sure the t belt is on right and maybe drop the a pipe and see if the cat is clogged.

but yes effed up timing can cause the cat to glow. but you may have another issue with the compression.

leakage test?

 

I didn't do a leak down test before I started ripping things apart... I just don't see where I'm losing compression. Would the off-timing cause one cyl to be higher than the rest?

 

Found the problem, turned out that the valves were bent...

 

Can you show some pics of the bent valves? I'd like to see what they look like.