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Technical Zero compression on two cylinders

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Technical Zero compression on two cylinders

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Silent Chris

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Mar 17, 2012
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Hi. I'm having some problems with my 1.2 8v 2001 Punto (85,000 miles). About a week ago I was driving and suddenly the car started vibrating and I lost power so I pulled into a side street and stopped the car. The engine would still start up and run but, looking under the bonnet it was shaking around a lot.

I suspected a misfire. A compression test (dry) gave these results:

Cylinder 1 (timing belt end): 0
Cylinder 2: 0
Cylinder 3: 140
Cylinder 4: 180

So there's no pressure at all on cylinders 1+2. It continues to start up ok but obviously runs very rough (car stationary). Strangely I'm not getting any error codes or warning lights.

Would this be a blown head gasket, or a problem with the valves? I'm guessing head gasket as it would be odd for the valves to go in two cylinders wouldn't it?

Bit of background, about 2 weeks previous the engine overheated, went right to maximum on the dial and I stopped the car as soon as I noticed. I changed the thermostat and it was running great afterwards with the temperature gauge in the centre. I must have done about 400 miles after that and before the latest breakdown.

It would be great to have your thoughts. Are there any more checks I should do or is it definitely HG?
 
Silent Chris said:
Hi. I'm having some problems with my 1.2 8v 2001 Punto (85,000 miles). About a week ago I was driving and suddenly the car started vibrating and I lost power so I pulled into a side street and stopped the car. The engine would still start up and run but, looking under the bonnet it was shaking around a lot.

I suspected a misfire. A compression test (dry) gave these results:

Cylinder 1 (timing belt end): 0
Cylinder 2: 0
Cylinder 3: 140
Cylinder 4: 180

So there's no pressure at all on cylinders 1+2. It continues to start up ok but obviously runs very rough (car stationary). Strangely I'm not getting any error codes or warning lights.

Would this be a blown head gasket, or a problem with the valves? I'm guessing head gasket as it would be odd for the valves to go in two cylinders wouldn't it?

Bit of background, about 2 weeks previous the engine overheated, went right to maximum on the dial and I stopped the car as soon as I noticed. I changed the thermostat and it was running great afterwards with the temperature gauge in the centre. I must have done about 400 miles after that and before the latest breakdown.

It would be great to have your thoughts. Are there any more checks I should do or is it definitely HG?
Click to expand...

I would have thought it would be easy to see if you are losing coolant and coolant is being altered by the piston movement if you have no compression and a blown head gasket. Then there is the situation with the oil which most likely would be contaminated and you would notice that.
 
Thanks for your advice. I'm tempted to have a go at doing the head gasket myself. I've got some guides for it, as well as reading plenty of posts on here about HG. I'll get a machine shop to skim the head.

I'm wondering what else I should do when I've got the engine apart. I thought of changing timing belt, tensioner, and maybe water pump. Is it worth changing or checking anything else, seals etc? I'll check valve clearances, but what else is there to check regarding valves?

Cheers!
 
A HG job needs a diagnosis on what causes it - since you may have sorted it already with a Thermostat stuck issue, but by then the damage was done

If it was my car
New Oil
New Oil filter
New plugs
New air filter
New Belt kit *tensioner should be included*
new water pump - ensure you note the number of teeth though, there IS a variation amongst engines, wrong pitch and you'll be back at square one
Fresh coolant NEVER HURTS
A decent HG kit, should include new manifold seals as well

ziggy
 
Just a quick update:

I took the head off and as some of you suggested it was blown between cylinders 1 and 2 (see pic).
photo(5).JPG

I've sent the head for a skim and hope to put it all back together this weekend. It's been a bit challenging to do but not too bad (not that I've finished it yet). And like a lot of jobs on the car if I had to do it again I think it would be much quicker. Not that I'm wanting to do it again any time soon!
 
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