Something you need to consider here:

According to your statement the engine has less than 5 PSI compression. This means that it has NO compression in it whatsoever. In order for this to happen you need to have a catastrophic failure of a component in that ONE cylinder. Did you hear anything rattling or banging around in there?

The original shop has re-inspected it and said the engine is done and you need a new one. At this point you have to assume that they have re-checked the belt installation and more than likely covered their tracks on anything left loose.

You said that you had cam seals done which means they took the cam gears off which leaves a potential for them to be left loose. If they were left loose though it would cause a problem for ALL cylinders not just one.

You have a motor with 236K on it that has a blown up #1 cylinder, you need a new engine. Does the original shop have any financial responsibility in this matter? You will need to spend some money to find that out, and truthfully unless the belt is installed incorrectly (out of time) I don't think you are going to find anything conclusive enough to hang it on the shop that did the work originally.

If you are going to spend the money to have someone inspect the damage and try to ascertain just exactly what happened then your money is best spent at another shop that has no interest in it one way or the other. Either way you need to plan on spending the money to check it out AND to fix or replace it.


I do not see the shop stepping up and spending thousands to fix your car out of the goodness of their heart. If I were you I would either dump a new motor in it or get rid of the car and put the money into a newer one. Make sure that you have a pre-purchase inspection done on it first.

You will be money ahead if you just fix it or replace it but you will never know why it dropped the number one hole and if you do spend the money to inspect you may still not ever really know what happened.