during my first intial reseal of the engine, everything looked fine so i threw it together. im not going for a crazy build, just a running ka24e. so whatever is salvagable gets used. well...after i got it together i ran a compression test, everything was great except cyl 1, no compression. hmmm the 3 other cyls read around 180psi. nothing on 1, not even a slight movement:(. i threw some oil in and it read around 180. i ran it like that for a while and recently it started stumbling again. i did another compression test, nothing on cyl 1 again, 0psi:(. keep in mind in between those two test with the 0 readings i tested cold and warm and got great compression all the way across. several times in between. but all of a sudden, now theres nothing in cyl1. so i took my head off, fearing a broken piston or valve. neither. both look great. valves look to be seating correctly. my timing is dead on. ive checked that over and over. my plugs are not fouled, they look great. i was burning oil but i replaced my vlave seals and it stopped smoking(blue smoke=oil) under accel.
so it leads me to believe the rings are shot. ive heard though with blown rings you should still get a reading during a comression test. i get nothing. i also heard with blown rings when the engine is running to take the dipstick out and if you see vapor its the rings. i tried that and didnt see anything... so hoping my rings arent shot, im leaning towards a warped head not sealing between the timing chain and cyl 1. is that plausable.

so my plans are...
deck the head
lap valves
re-ring cyl 1
new headgasket

which i hope should fix my probem.

im just stumped as to what would cause a cyl to read nothing if the piston and valves are intact.

heres some pics from today
cyl 1 has oil i put in it, to see if it would pass thru, the piston looks fine.

the head


the bad valve seals

Got it buddy.... your rings are SHOT and big time.... usually you'll see a low reading, maybe 80 or 90 but not a slight bump means they are totaly destroyed... or dropped in the sump... be careful to inspect the cylinder wall, when you'll crack it open, if one of the compression ring got stuck in it's groove, it might have scratched the walls, you'll probably have to get a good honning job.

Think about the good side of this... you'll have a great oportunity to rebuild the bottom, something that a lot of the guys on the forum should do, but never bother to......

If you'd like to try, you could roll a thin sheet of wax paper and try to slide it down the bore around the piton, to see if it passed trough, if it is, you are missing some rings.... and I highly doubt that a warped head could give a zero reading, well a naturaly warped head... if you torch it and drop it on the garage floor, maybe it could, but while being tighten to specs and without blowing a HG... very improbable

Tom

^+1

ring gaps not staggered? unlikely but figured i'd mention it

i just was playing around with my feeler gauges and the head has a definate warp to it. almost twisted in a way. the rings are there, i tried to pass a feeler gauge thru.

i had the cyl filled with wd-40 and none of it passed thru????? its been sitting for a few hours. if it were the rings, being as bad as they should be to read 0 compression it should spill thru rather quickly. the cyl wall looks great, you can still see the cross-hatching from the previous honing. i suppose the rings would leave obvious scratches up and down right? theres nothing like that.

most of the time when a head gasket is leaking at least 2 cyls will see 0 compression, not 1. im still guessing my head is warped enough to spill comression into the front cover. so only cyl 1 would be low. is that possible???



thanks a ton for the replys guys...keep em coming please

i pulled piston #1 to check the rings.....ITS NOT TEH RINGS???????
they look fine...i think...look













it has to be the head not sealing???????

did you try another gauge? check the o-ring on the gauge to make sure its not going bad/cracked. that and where the o-ring on the guage seals onto the head, that needs to be clean and smooth as to get a good reading.

I think you've got two separate problems. I don't see how it would be physically possible to have 0 compression and perfect the next, the issue likely lies elsewhere.

check the cyl walls and for cracks as well, try using penetrating dye to find leaks, but again i think its just a gauge issue with something else the matter.

my gauge is good. those where the first things i thought of instantly too. i did another car later that day with the same gauge with good results. so i can rule that out.

my cyl walls look good too. i'll get a pic of that later.

i think my head has issues......i need to go to a machine shop

Check your cyl 1 valve springs and seats. and the valve itself. Maybe the valve is a little bent and getting stuck, Just coincindentally working with the oil. Seems the rings are good and the cylinder is a-ok from the pics, so that only leaves valvetrain. But even if it was stuck I would think it would still read something. But that's where I'd go. I know you said they're intact. but maybe

also, maybe a sock or something is stuck in the number 1 runner

current plan....
get head checked n decked-definate
new timing kit
new valve springs and or valves
new head gasket
hone cyl 1 a lil and hope rings re-seat(if they're even bad)


hopefully that should bump some compression out of that cylinder, if not i...?????????
i'll put it back together and give it a leakdown test is theres still no compression. or run it like that until i get a major fail....


my trans touk a shit on me....it doesnt want to spin freely in nuetral...maybe bearing failure there. i have a perfect spare thats getting swapped back in. that might have had something to do with the engine not running so smooth.......

Wow talk about ka24de install horror story. Considering how much all that head work would cost and the fact your tranny is now apparently bad (even though you have a spare) you might just consider getting a new ka24de motor set. It will probably save you a lot of headache in the end than taking the chance of freshening up a head that has the possibly of being permanently warped and wasting even more money if that doesn't fix your problem. Whatever you decide to do hope everything works out. Seems like a pretty frustrating problem.

yeah i know....but its a ka24e. any engine has a chance of something like this happening, even a 24de could have more/less problems. i like my 24e so for me its fine. i'll fix it.


i was thinking maybe my valves are old and stretched, possibly causing the valve to never seat. the extra length isnt gonna be slacked from my lifters so the valve would move first. i have been having my lifters fail alot, i could point a finger at bad valves for that too. i ordered all new valves today and took the head to the machine shop! hopefully something gives. im still looking for a good price on springs.

i will get this engine running right, its not a lost cause. theres gotta be something simple im missing.

Haha. Oops. I saw the small pic of the head and saw the valves next to each other and assumed it was a de but I always forget the ka24e has a 12 valve head .