Over the weekend I took a second and used a freinds compression checker to check on the health of my engine. Here are the results I got:

Cyl 1: 155 PSI
Cyl 2: 160 PSI
Cyl 3: 160 PSI
Cyl 4: 162 PSI

Adding a bit of oil to cylinder #1 brought the pressure up to 167 so I'm not led to suspect the rings. Seeing the numbers I started fuming that the previous owner had sold me a '71 142 with a B20F transplant -- I knew a lot less about OHV volvos when I bought this a year ago. A quick consultation with the archives and a close look at the center head bolt and I was able to show that indeed I have the 'E' head, yet, these numbers still match the 'F' (150-170) more than the 'E' (180-200)

So that produces a couple of questions:
1) how large of a grain of salt do I take these compression numbers. The engine did crank for a good while until a maximum number was reached.

2) Looking on the iPd web site, they sell thick head gaskets (say goodby to quench). Is there a way to tell if one of those has been installed?

Thanks

Joel