Sages,

Here's the Story, some are familiar with it:

1998 V70, Approximately 178,000 on it as of today.

- Replaced the head in March 2013, had roughly 145,000 on it then. Immediately upon starting it up for the first time I heard some loud tapping noise that immediately went away as soon as I stopped the engine and then started it back up again. Thoughts on this???

- Almost immediately started consuming about 3 - 4 Quarts of oil per 5k change. There appears to be some sort of leak where the head meets the block on the read of the engine next to the firewall on the passengers side.

- Through multiple misfires before on all 5 cylinders, fix was Crank Alignment sensor, definitely Crank Position Sensor. Have to check BB to verify my old post.

- Then is started, and continues till today to throw, in this order, P302 (cylinder 2) P305 (cylinder 5), and then P300 multiple misfires.

Took it in 2 weeks ago for Marylands Emissions test, I mean Emissions Tax, and it failed with the above codes as I knew it would.

I performed a compression test today and here are the results:

Starting Left (passenger side) to right (drivers side)
cylinder 1: 245 PSI
cylinder 2: 245 PSI
cylinder 3: 80 PSI
cylinder 4: 185 PSI
cylinder 5: 210 PSI

Performed the test again on cylinder 3 and 4 with a teaspoon of oil in the cylinder, and here are the results:

cylinder 3: 80 PSI
cylinder 4: 80 PSI

I have till July 22nd to fix said issue and get it retested at no charge.

I have to find the oil leak for sure and that is going to entail removing the head to do that. I'm afraid that I'm going to find bent values as well in 3 & 4. If I do, is this something that I can fix myself or should I just get another head and take my chances???

Thoughts and advice on this matter are greatly needed and desired.

Thanks in advance,

Matt