No compression I'd walk away, and let the owner deal with it. If it's such a good car he'll fix it. Maybe I'd pay $100.00 for it plus the cost of the tow. Thats if I had the time and place to mess with it. Right now I don't have the time and I'm not leaving any of my three cars sitting in the drive while I rebuild something that could have more wrong with it after I get it running.

 

Compression test fairly easy? Without it being warm I heard it's not accurate.

 

Search the internet it'll tell you how to do a complete compression test.

 

it wont give you "true" numbers but it will reveal dead cylinders or any disparate values

 

In todays world of High Tech analysis of problems with automobiles and how they work and a some times need for an understanding of why MY $50,000 motor (yes motor) does not run as well as YOUR $50,000 motor with out the need of pulling it and taking it apart, both a viable option because I am paying people a lot of money to do that there are now more sophisticated methods of determining things such as say compression testing.
What is forgotten in the equation is the testing for basics which also requires an understanding of the basics to analyse the results of the tests.
When you are driving a $500.00 car and need to determine the need to find out if you have to take it apart due to a potential but as yet uncomfirmed problem with compression, a simple compression test tell you whether something is broke or not. If 3 of the cylinder measure some where around 100# more or less and one of them measures 10#s its broke. How broke? Squirt Oil in the cylinder and try again, if the number gets better, it is a problem with the rings. If it does not, it is a problem with the valves. You really don't care whether it is accurate any better than that, it is broke and you can determine it with a compression testing gauge. Cheap! You can now decied to take it apart or get rid of it. Whether it is warm or not is insignificant. You are probably having problems making it run anyway so who cares. You have determined the need to take it apart.
However, if you have already taken it apart? Guess what? You have to put it back together to run a compression test. There are an awful lot of basic diagnostics that a shade tree mechanic can use to determine whether something needs a major repair or not but you have to also have a basic understanding how things work in the first place in order to analyse the results. Lacking that?
To be honest, you might as well wait for elves to come fix it. There are many questions asked here that represent people looking for simple answers to problems that generally are related to a complex failure mode which are hard to understand from a forum format unless you either:
1. Have some basic knowledge as to what is taking place
or
2. Have spent $20.00 on some kind of a service document that gives you additional information on how to understand what is taking place.
I have been shade tree mechanicing for a long time. With the advent of computor controlled cars and fuel injection I started collecting manuals on cars I own. I just used my Saturn manual last night for reference for a problem I am having with it and I have owned this car for 14 years. It took me about 3 min. to find what I needed to know in order to take the next step in diagnostics. With out it, I probably would have spent a couple of days.
Yes a compression test is more accurate if the engine is warm. How ever you are not looking for accurate, you are looking for broke, and broke is it either has compression or it don't. And if it don"t? It's broke.

 

But isn't that the purpose of a forum, to pick the brain of people know more than you on the subject?

 

I'm a very fast learner, and I self teach myself how to do things. I just need a direction and boom.

Ive self taught myself to:

Fly a dragon
Hack into a supercomputer
Drive a ferrari using only my toes
Write a 750page book in 2 days
Fight jujitsu.
Eat 400 pounds of salad in 5 minutes.

Like I said, I simply need direction. Appreciate your input all of you. I now know several things to check to make sure it's not toast. I also learned about interference engines. Which I'll never buy another one again lol. Rubber timing belts/valves that can hit the pistons and bend for the lose.

I'll go pick up a compression tool today. I need one anyway.

And I'm buying the car, fixing it, and selling it. Ill barely drive it. Profit. Some times there is a small, common problem with a car,that appears larger to others like me, and sometimes, just sometimes, some guy on the Internet knows EXACTLY what it is. Sorry if I wasted your time asking questions!

 

it's fine to ask questions -- we're all here to help -- it just makes your' life easier if you have a manual b/c then you don't need to sign on to ask about the simpler stuff.

And surely the dragon came with a manual

 

Yeah the dragon came with a manual. But it cost 400 gold doubloons!

If I buy the car I'll be sure to get a manual for it. I just figured that most of you know more about the internal workings of these motors specifically.

Thanks again.

 

If you are going to ask questions, be sure when you do you are prepared to deal with an answer.
Answers are given with all due respect. They come from both knowledge, experiance and in many cases reading the same manual you very well could have purchased yourself. There are many cases when a simple answer is given assuming you have some clue how to deal with it.
If things need to be explained step by step, that is beyond in many cases the format of a forum.
At the level you are at right this moment, there would be an assumption that you do not need that. There is a pictue of parts all over the place and the question of what you should check. The answer basically is, before you take it apart, it is not a bad idea to run a compression check. To late for that now.
In order to do that you have to put it back together.
How do you check things? By using tools correctly, if you never used a tool, you need to read the instructions and know wht you are looking for.
Interferance engines have been around since overhead cam engines have been around. I saw my first overhead cam engine in an american car in 1956. Some are some arn't.
I just looked at the timing belt picture, maybe it is the picture but it looks as if the teeth are missing from the belt looking at the photograph where the belt goes down around the crankshaft pulley on the left side of the pulley as indicated in the picture. Is it the belt or just an illusion.
As to specifically? I have never pulled one of these engines apart. But I have a manual for one to look the instructions up in.
Generally if I was some what concerned if a timing belt problem has occured before I would have picked up a wrench I would have removed the Add Oil cap and looked down inside to see if I could see a cam shaft in there. In some engines you can. If I could see a cam shaft I would have some how actuated the starter and looked to see if it was turning. If it turned, the belt ain't broken. If I could not see a cam shaft, some engines have a rocker which actualtes the valve from the cam shaft or shafts. I would have checked that too to see if it could be seen and moving when the engine starter was energized. If not that some engines have something driven off of the back end of the cam shaft drive that turns. Don't know if this one does or not. Lacking that I might even have tried putting my hand over the intake manifold after removing the rubber tube that goes to the air cleaner and see if I could feel the thing sucking air. If it didn't the cams are not turning. If at that point I still did not know what was going on, and the car was not mine AND I am not getting paid? I probably would have sent out for more salad and called it a day.