I just completed the wet compression test and frankly, I'm a little shocked. I was expecting a much different outcome. Each cylinder was around 150 psi each. So it looks like new rings at the very least. What is the most shocking to me is how all 4 cylinders went at the same time, unless that is common. I'm not sure.

I'm thinking about rebuilding the entire engine. Sneed4speed.com has some reasonably priced rebuild kits. I have a local machine shop that quoted me $30 per cylinder plus $54 hot dip to bore the block over. I'm considering the 77.5 mm CP pistons with the stock rod's, assuming they are in good shape. I'm just not sure when I'll get to this part of the project.

 

Very strange; I got nothin'..

Curious as to whether you tried to start the engine with this "temporary compression?"

 

I did try to start it. I got a bunch of black smoke out of the horn that the intercooler attaches to, but it did not start.

 

Pulled the head off today. Nothing looks damaged.



Cylinder 1
Cylinder 2
Cylinder 3
Cylinder 4

 

Like you said, doesn't appear to be any catastrophic damage, but there is a load of carbon build-up...

How did the head gasket look?

 

The head gasket looked fine to me. Is that carbon evidence of it running lean?

 

The carbon build-up can result from a wide variety of sources.

Worn valves/valve guides, poor quality fuel, bad injectors, leaking head gasket -- the list can get long...

One of them might be from the very low compression you seem to have. If oil is getting by the rings into the combustion chamber, then burning, baked on carbon (like what it appears you have) can and will result. The bottoms of your plugs are also fouled up by baked-on oil.

When the car ran, did the car burn/consume a lot of oil? Was there bluish smoke coming from the exhaust?

Maybe have a knowledgeable mechanic drop by to have a look at the block and the head?
A trained eye can sometimes see something in particular that might be the smoking gun...

 

It did consume a little bit, but the block is pretty oily, so I thought maybe there was a sight leak somewhere. I've never seen any blue smoke out the exhaust. Someone at work said the rings may have seized to the pistons in the 3 years it has been sitting. What do you think?

 

hi did you ever get this sorted i have same issue on my r53 cooper s..started out over heating so i changed timing chain and guides and cogs and head... all valves are fine... i have piston one at top dead centre both coloured links on bottom crank lined up and the top cam i have coloured link on the arrow..car will turn the engine but will not start up.. i have been trying for 2 days now car ran fine just over heated..?