sudden loss of compression

Post Thu Jan 24, 2013 9:26 pm

Hi could do with ,well a confirmation of what i suspect .

I bought a second hand engine from a lad on the zone ,i believe he did genuinely think it was good but anyway i put it in the other day and on Sunday i tired to start it but it didnt want to start,anyway i found a problem ignition side with the car (dreaded green wire fault ) stopping the engine injecting ,so tonight i fixed the fault and tried to start the car ,it was turning over ok at first but still no fire then it started turning over faster .Stupidly i didnt compression test it when i first installed it but now i have no compression on any cylinder i do have good oil pressure and if you take the oil cap off you can see the cam going round ,also the cam belt feels ok and tight . now i suspect something has gone wrong timing wise and it has bent all the valves .is there anything i could be missing (hydraulic lifters that need priming or anything silly like that ? )

here is a quick vid of how it sounds turning over now

before

then a few seconds later no funny noises or anything ???well apart from the squeaking

Post Thu Jan 24, 2013 10:33 pm

No hydraulic lifters on an M20.

Pull the front covers off and check the timing marks.

Post Fri Jan 25, 2013 2:00 pm

Will do that going to just pull it back out tonight and give it a full strip down and rebuild as a spare ,I didn't think it would have hydraulic lifters but tbh u know much about the engines yet .

Post Fri Jan 25, 2013 2:26 pm

If you're lucky it might just be that the starter isn't engaging. Dificult to tell from the sound on the videos.

As above pull the front covers off first and check the marks and belt. Then pull the rocker cover off and turn by hand from the crank to feel the resistance and see if the cam is being turned. Even with no compression I think they don't sound that 'free'.
Either way, good luck