Heres a good one...

[TurboGalant]

Any help would be great...

Put my engine back in the car, started right up. No oil to the top. Oops, somebody forgot to put the head gasket on right. OK, fixed that. Started right up again. Could hear the ticking fade as oil got to the top end and filled in the lifters (hydraulic). Then the engine putters out. It has spark, and gas. There are no leaks from the valves (leak down test was good). But the compression is way low, varies from 90-60 psi. I put in some lower compression pistons (wiseco), but they are not that much lower. We can't figure this out. It started up before, and ran. The only difference is that the top end has oil now. I have the timing advanced as far as the distributor will turn. It wants to, it is trying to start, but not quite. The head is stock, the only things I changed was the pistons, rods, and balanced the crank shaft. The head was cleaned up, and I have all new seals, bearings and gaskets. I did not know better and put full synthetic oil in it, but have replaced that with some 10w-30. I was running spark plugs 2 degrees cooler and put stock ones back in, still not starting.

Any ideas? My car looks cool sitting in front of the house, but it would look so much better rolling down the street (on its own power).

[rfpa1]

If you started the engine and had no oil on the top and low presure, then you need to pull the pistons out and check the rings.

Personally - I think you fried the new rings around the pistons.

I just rebuilded my engine, still stock, but now it does have kick.

Open the engine and check if the pistons have play, also on one of the pistons, pour some oil to cover it and see if the oil leaks down, if it does, good luck. You will need to start again.

RF

[paulbunyan]

Did you figure out the problem yet????

[JiP]

Did you replace the headgasket with a brand new one ?

[rfpa1]

Any updates.

[TurboGalant]

When we started it up at first, with no oil to the top, there was plenty of pressure.

So after about two weeks at one shop, I have taken it to another. A shop where they specialize in DSMs and turbos (but is two hours away, yea that was a fun trip).

It wants to start still, but it just is not quite there. Very frustrating. I was talking to the guys at the auto hobby shop here on base. They threw out the idea that the cam timing may be off. Just enough to keep the cylinders from having enough compression. I have between 90 and 60 psi of compression.

When there was no oil on top, it started right up. And ran just fine. The only difference is that now there is oil to the top end. So the lifters are hydraulic, and now they are full of oil. This is why the guys are thinking cam timing. It has to be something with the valves or lifters or something on top. I don't think the piston rings are a problem since it ran earlier without oil in the top.

Thanks for the input so far.

[TurboGalant]

Finally got somewhere...

Got a another used head, rebuilt at a good shop. Good as new. Slapped it back together, no change. Problem is in the bottom end.

Just talked to my mechanic. The block is at the machine shop.

The piston rings have basically fused to the pistons. Neither the machine shop guy, nor the guys at the shop I am using have ever seen/heard this one before. Any one have any ideas as to how this can happen? The car was never driven after putting those new pistons in. The machine shop does not know if they can remove the rings without damaging the pistons ($600!!).

How much can I sell a kidney for?

[rfpa1]

I thought so. I almost did the same thing on my car. Good thing that I put oil first all over and them hand cranked the engine like 20 minutes each day for 2 days before starting it. You will need new pistons. Sorry, but once they are in that condition ------- forget about ----

Why you needed a new head, did it warped.

[rfpa1]

I thought so. I almost did the same thing on my car. Good thing that I put oil first all over and them hand cranked the engine like 20 minutes each day for 2 days before starting it. You will need new pistons. Sorry, but once they are in that condition ------- forget about ----

Why you needed a new head, did it warped.

[TurboGalant]

The old head had some cracks in it. It was still usable, but I had this other head laying around, so I had them look it over. They said it would be better to use the new one. It was dirty, so we sent it to the machine shop to get it cleaned up.

The machinist got one of the rings off, so I may not need new pistons.

Those were expensive, so I am really hoping I can keep them, specially since I never drove with them.

We'll see...