Yow! Using Oil!

[MustangPaul]

I prefer the home brewed kind. Maybe you can hook me up with Gator McClusky. Let us know how it comes out. I think a vac gauge is one of THE most important tools on the shelf.

OK, OZ, here is what I found out.

First. Off the manifold vacuum line, it wiggles slightly between 16 and 17, but no higher or lower at idle.

The compression test gave me this.

1-170
2-150
3-150
4-140
5-140
6-160
7-150
8-150

All of the plugs looked good, but most had some amount of oil on the threads, none on the end, though.

What d'ya make of these numbers?

--Paul

PS You were right. It wasn't that hard--short of keeping your fingers from getting burned on the exhause while you try to thread the hose for the compression test in. . .

 

[Ronstang]

Most mechanics will tell you that all cylinders need to be within 10% (some say 5%) of each other for the engine to be considered healthy. Your highest is 170 and all the others except one are more than 10% below that so either that cylinder is a fluke or the rest of the engine is on the low side. I think you need to redo the compression test to confirm the numbers. On each cylinder test normally and then retest right away after squirting some oil in the cylinder. If the compression goes up considerably with the oil then the rings are suspect in that cylinder.

 

[MustangPaul]

Most mechanics will tell you that all cylinders need to be within 10% (some say 5%) of each other for the engine to be considered healthy. Your highest is 170 and all the others except one are more than 10% below that so either that cylinder is a fluke or the rest of the engine is on the low side. I think you need to redo the compression test to confirm the numbers. On each cylinder test normally and then retest right away after squirting some oil in the cylinder. If the compression goes up considerably with the oil then the rings are suspect in that cylinder.

Hmmm. I wondered what I was going to do this afternoon. I'll run them again and see. #1 was the first one I tested, so it might be a fluke. How much oil--a squirt or two?

--P

 

[Ozsum2]

Well you have some variances, but about what one would expect for an engine with some age on it. Nothing too severe though. The needle wiggle may indicate that everytime the effected cylinder fires, and the compression goes down, there is a drop in vacumm. You can run like this for a very long time. Just check your oil level. When it gets bad enough that your plugs start to foul, or the mosquitoes pack up and move to another county, you may think about a rebuild.