Well my neighbor let me borrow one of his compression testers. Cylinder 1 read 0 PSI, Cylinder 2 was at about 83-85 PSI, Cyl. 3 was at 170+ and 4-6 were at 160+. I hadn't gotten to the no compression cylinder yet when i asked my mechanic neighbor, he gave me a bottle of Marvel's Mystery Oil, said to dump half the in the gas and half in the crank, mumbled something about stuck rings. When I talked to my grandfather, he said in addition to putting it in the crank and fuel tank, put just a bit in each spark plug hole and let it work in over night, and also pull the valve covers and check the lifters.

I haven't done any of this yet, except the compression test of course, but does it sound like I'm on the right track?

I would think no-compression on cylinder 1 would point to a broken valve rather then a stuck lifter. I should also mention that cylinder 1 seems to be dumping quite a bit of oil straight into the exhaust. I pressure rized the radiator, and it steady at about 17 PSI, so I think that rules out a cracked head.

 

Bad rings or burnt through piston if its dumping oil. Did you try doing the compression check after you put oil in the cylinder to see if #1 went up a little? If it did probably bad rings!

 

Blue beast is right. If the oil in the chamber helps the compression go up even just a bit, bad rings is the answer. It wouldn't hurt to check all the valves and lifters when (if) you pull the piston to replace it.

 

Wouldn't bad rings or a burned through piston cause blow by? I have none what so ever.

 

I just pulled the valve cover on the passenger side. The Cylinder 1 exhaust push rod was just hanging off to the side. I cranked it over a few times with the ignition off, and it appeard that the Cylinder 3 valves were working properly, but would cause the insanely high compression on those cylinders?

 

What do you mean push rod hanging off! Do you mean rocker? I got a perfectly good generator from the garbage It looked nasty (drywall work I guess) I grabbed it anyway took it home tried cranking it, It was blowing out the intake and making a sharp pop so it took the valve cover off the exhaust rocker came loose and was sitting sideways.
I put it back adjusted then locktited the little set screw. Now my mone has a nice generator for hurricane season!!

 

Just that, the push rod was just laying there, not between the lifter and the rocker arm. The rocker arm seems perfectly fine, not bent, and the valve appears to be fine to..

 

Is it bent? Was it holding the valve open? I never saw that happen (ouch) Put it back or a new one and turn the motor over by hand and see what is happening in there. Let us know what happens.

 

A good compression will be 160 to 180 lb/sq", I don't think you have insanely high compression.
...Terry

 

Oh alright, I guess my mechanic friend did not expect the compression to be that high for an engine of this age. I went ahead and lostend the bolt that comes incontact with the push rod, put the rod into place and tighted the bolt down to a level that *seemed* okay, I'll do a proper adjustment later on. I cranked it a few times with the ignition off, lots of oil shot out the spark plug hole, then gradually stopped. I had never noticed it doing that before when I took the plugs out and cranked it.

I put the compression guage in and got about 26-29 pounds. Looks like a bad ring. Once I get new gaskets, I'll try some of the Marvel Mystery Oil and see if it at least gets compression semi-up. Maby just runnign with a proper function exhaust valve will get compression back up, I'm not crossing my fingers though.

Also, after the engine has been sitting a while, and you try to start it, it makes a loud knocking noise, I found out that its one of the valves on the driver's size bank snapping shut. I'm guessing the lifter juts collapses a bit when its been sitting, hopefully, from what other people have told me, the marvel's will fix that.

 

What kind of oil filter do you use? If it lets the oil drain out you will get bottom end knock on startup a motorcraft filter or quality filter will stop that. Was the truck pinging hard core for a while if it was you probably have a hole in the piston. Time for a rebuild my friend! If oil is coming out of that cylinder you got all the oil in it you need, the marvel isn't going to help you out with compression.

 

Its an STP Filter, but afaik, it has proper anti drain back valves. Its only the intake valve on cylinder 5 that shuts too fast, and only for 2-3 seconds. There was no pinging at all, the engine basically sounded like it wasn't firing on one cylinder, just like if you pulled a plug wire or something. I'll see if I can pick up some new valve cover gaskets tommorow, and see where that gets me.

 

Well after fixing the pushrod and getting new valve cover gaskets. I ran her for a bit, and the compression on that cylinder is climbing, now at about 130 PSI, still low, but much better.

 

By the way, compression should be checked while the engine is HOT, not cold...

 

I did. Compression is upto around 150-155 now, and the enigne has stopped billowing clouds of white smoke, and also stopped burning nearly as much oil as it was.