Hi,
I have a 1986 Ford Bronco II with of course the 2.9L engine which was rebuilt about 10k miles ago. Cylinders bored 20 over, new pistons, new crankshaft, new camshaft, new heads (the old ones were cracked), new valves and valve springs. The whole works so far as a rebuild goes.

My brother was driving it when the engine died; additionally he had only just learned to drive a manual and it was his first time out alone and i suspect he may have red lined the engine trying to start on a hill (we have lots of those around here). He called me and i showed up to find that it had overheated and that the coolant was gone, luckily the engine had't seized. I am pretty sure the driver side head gasket has blow since all the coolant was gone but there are no visible leaks i can find. After changing the oil to check for coolant in it, there is not any so far as i could tell, I did a compression test and found that there was 0 psi at the driver side front cylinder. All the other cylinders have around 140 psi of compression (this was with a cold engine since i can't start it to warm it up so the values are a little low as expected).

Now here are my questions since there is 0 psi on the one cylinder is this indicative of greater problems than just a blow head gasket, such as are the piston rings in the cylinder now shot or are the valve seats shot or possibly both. Any advice on how to diagnose and go about getting it running again would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your help in advance!

 

Loosing compression on just one cyl. wouldn't cause the engine to die, and not restart. things that could've happened include, a broken valve spring, a stuck valve, head gasket blown to the outside, it might have dropped a valve, broken a piston, threw a rod. You need to pull the valve cover and check for things amiss there, look for leaking coolant hoses to find the lose of coolant and heating problems, an engine tear down looks to be in order though.