I’m not sure if it’s just me or if I purchased a bad motor....
I just put a motor in my 01 accord 4cyl and it won’t start ....
when I check compression it’s like it doesn’t want to
I put a new battery in but immediately killed it when I didn’t notice the
brake light switch was busted, but hooked it up to another battery and read
12v...
any ideas what I might be doing wrong?
I just got done testing the same model car and did everything the same...

 

no, we do not know what you are doing, how can we say it is wrong.
Does the engine crank??
Is your gauge working? If so what are tour numbers.
Did you change the timing belt?

 

haven’t touched the timing belt Bc it looks fairly new
The gauge appears to work on the other Honda just fine. The numbers are well below the other Honda which read
about 200 each cylinder

I swapped the charged battery to the car I’m testing and it cranks better now, but compression still very low.

cylinder 1: 180
cly.2: 170
cyl.3: 150
cyl.4: 115

I guess I should begin with lash adjustment?
or should I do the leak down test first?

 

leak down test will give a clue to air escaping, you will have three main areas of air escape. Valve cover. Intake or exhaust. Have the oil cap off.