oleblue22

First post, I love the forum, lots of good information here. I bought an 87 with a 22r in it thinking it had a blown head gasket. It would run, but really rough and it had water in the oil. Had only 132,000 miles and I got it cheap enough so I brought it home on a trailer. Did a compression test on it and found that it was running only on the number 1 cylinder. The other 3 cylinders were totally dead at 0 psi. Squirted oil in the dead cylinders and still 0 psi. Guy said that it ran hot so I'm thinking the head gasket must be blown and the head possibly warped. So I take the head off, take it to a machine shop, where they took of 12 thousandths. They pressure tested the head for cracks, we looked over the valves and everything looked good. Got a new gasket kit from egnbldr and put everything back together. I also did the timing chain and guides while I was in there. Long story short, got it all back together today and went to start it, wouldn't start. Ended up being the timing was off a tooth on the distributor. Fixed that and finally got it started up but only by holding the gas to the floor to get it to start. It would run smooth anywhere over 2000 rpm, but wouldn't idle. Got the timing light out and timed it by the FSM and finally got it to idle, not the smoothest but it was idling. I turned the ac compressor on and it killed the motor. Got it started back and it wouldn't idle again. I pulled plug 1 and did a compression check, 150 psi. Pulled 2,3, and 4 and 0 psi again. I don't have a leakdown tester but could buy one if I really needed it. I did not adjust valve lash after the head gasket change. Guy around here said that could be it, haven't tried it yet. Any ideas on what it could be? Pistons kept oil on top of them for 3 days, so I was thinking the rings were good especially with that low of miles. Head is not cracked, new gaskets, valves looked good. I'm lost on it. I appreciate any help yall could offer.

oleblue22

Anyone?

millball

Adjust them valves.

I can't believe that you would even think that the valve lash could be ignored after facing the head .012 and installing a new gasket.

oleblue22

I'll adjust them today and see what happens. Could the valves being out of adjustment cause 3 dead cylinders? What's weird is the cylinders were dead before I did all the work, now after milled head, new timing chain and back together they're still dead.

RJR

Actual zero compression suggests to me the valves are sticking. Leaky valves would typically at least give you some compression. By the time you got it apart and to the machine shop, the valves likely would have returned to their proper closed position, and looked OK, but during dynamic operation they may stick long enough to make your compression test read zero.

My guess is you will need to pull the head again and have the valves reworked. Given a 29 year-old, 132,000 mile motor with water in the oil, I would have done that while I had the head off the first time. The machine shop should have suggested that.

Yotafarts89

Did you check that the block was not warped? If the guy you bought it from said it ran hot. Then you should assume it was run hot a lot and potentially in the red for extended periods of time and on different occasions. Did you check the block for warpage? if you took 12 thousands off the head then you should do the same with the block! That way when you install the new head gasket and head bolts you have the exact factory mesh/pinch between the block, head gasket, and head itself. Taking any amount off the head or block alone and not both will affect this bringing the head closer to the block then whats intended. Also its importand to remember that you will also have to take 12 thousands off the top of the timing cover. If you don't, again you'll have issues. So again if you take any amount off the head take the same amount off the block and the top of the timing cover that way everything will be even. People might argue over a small amount but if you want to do things right then in my opinion this is what should be done.

oleblue22

I found the problem. The valve lash was way off. The rocker was so far down on the valves that they weren't fully closing on the compression stroke. Adjusted the valves to spec, checked compression all was good. Started up first time and runs great. I now understand the importance of valve lash. I'm thinking in a 50-100 miles I'll retorque the head bolts and hopefully everything stays good. I appreciate the help.