UH oh..I have not gotten around to changing my tranny solenoid for the past 6 months and now I see the engine running really rough..so I play around with it and no change....then I hear a noise...then I do a comperssion check and see no compression on cylinders 2 and 3...I can actually start the engine on just 1 and 4...does this mean my cylinder head gasket has taken a dump....thanks....Jeffrey...

Compression comes from a couple different things - Exhaust and intake valves, head gasket, piston rings, perhaps scoring on the cylinder walls... a broken head gasket would have other symptoms such as oil in the cooland, coolant in the oil, and the most teletale sign... puffing white smoke out of the tailpipe, even when warm. hope this helps!

-Flup

You more than likely have blown the gasket out between the two cylinders. In that part of the gasket it does nothing more than seperate the cylinders and if it blows out in between then the two cylinders are as one and you can imagine what that will do. If you have not checked it with a compression guage yet then do so, I think you will find that you actually do have some compression in those holes but it will be low and matching. In other words you'll find that you have in the area of 30-40 pounds in each of those holes. It is time for a head gasket/valve job.

Mark