ok so i did a compression test on my civic hatch today. its all stock exept for a mini me swap. d15 w/ z6 head. it read about 80 psi across the board give or take a few psi. isnt this extremly low? the car drives fine and pulls hard. it does smoke but only at really high rpm but normal driving doesnt smoke at all. it uses about a quart of oil every 500-700 miles. should i be concerned about this? how much longer will my engine last? you couldn't tell the compression is low by driving the car it runs perfect.

 

I would be concerned. A leakdown test will tell you where you're losing compression.

 

You could run it for a long time like this or it may give up sooner. Hard to say how long it will last, but it won't get any better.

I had a friend with an EF that had a bad HG and rings. Drove it for months like that.
He gave up on it eventually and sold it I think.

 

Just to be sure, are you sure you did the compression test right? Those numbers are extremely low (correct me if I'm wrong but aren't they supposed to be in the 160psi area?)

 

did you do this test with the motor cold or warm? also did u crank the car over with the throttle wide open? if not retest again with the engine at normal engine temp not cold and hold the throttle wide open while cranking. if its consistent like that u probably do not have a problem and the numbers will stay consistent when u retest it. its always best to do the test a few times on each cylinder.

 

what he said, and also try adding a small amount of oil (said rule is a full cap from a quart of oil) into each cylinder and retesting. this will point to bad rings.

 

Keep cranking the motor over until you get the absolute highest reading you can, it's not like it'll keep building more and more pressure. It'll get to a point where the pressure will start to leak past the rings and that's what you're looking at.

 

Forgot to mention, if it was reading 60 across the board and that was after cranking it over and over and over again, that's not good. Hence why I don't think you cranked it over enough times per cylinder.

 

the engine was at normal temp but no i did not hold down the throttle, but i heard that will only increase it by like 15 so even if i did and i got 100psi thats still to low.. and i cranked it like 3 times and i tested each cylinder 2-3 times

 

Holding the throttle will cut off the injectors... You crank it for maybe 5 seconds per cylinder... maybe your comp tester is bad?

 

i took the ecu fuse out if that makes any difference?
how tight does the tester have to be screwed into the head? because i could only get it hand tight. it was one i rented from autozone

 

I don't think the ecu fuse makes a difference. It should be just as tight as you would put a spark plug into the car.