Hey there cats and kittens -

Ok then back to it!

Boy am I glad I'm an optimist. And I think a bit before I leap.

First things first - hey trichard can't get compression numbers from a nonrunning engine. Has to be hot to be "meaningful", that's why I didn't post em. Could do with a bit less surly too, it scares away other posters, but meh, oh well.

Now what HillBilly said, now that was useful! But not directly, I had to nosh on it for a while, but it finally hit me. You know, you get some rash ideas in your head and you move too quickly and this happens:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnZw5C8AtqU

Heh.

Well I've done all kinds of dumb $hit over the years to these cars and they just keep coming back for more. Really really hard to kill. Hell I drove one for 100k without ever changing the oil or even bothering to check the coolant. Free car, a beater for city commuting, why bother? HillBilly reports back, with engines nobody wants, because they never go bad. Hmm....hunh......

And it was so UNIFORM. Whizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz when you bump the key. Not ruh-buh-buh-buh-buh-ba. And I pulled plugs and it wouldn't develop vacuum in the cylinders, ANY of them.

I hateth myself! I do! I do!

So long story short - the KEY SHEARED OFF THE FRONT OF THE CRANK GEAR that drives the timing belt so the engine stayed synchronized but the crank pulley with the timing marks migrated to almost perfectly 180 degrees out.

I pulled the head again with the timing marks lined up and when it came off #2 & #3 were up, #1 & #4 were down. I had to look at it for a long time before the lightbulb went off. Arrrrgghhh.

Anyhoo, I tried to include a picture of the sheared key in the image url. lets see if it worked.

Started on the first key and I drove it for an hour and she's running like a champ.

Sure am glad I din't scrap the engine.

LOL!!!