View single post by Greg Fletcher
 Posted: 01-06-2011 09:08 pm
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Greg Fletcher



Joined: 03-11-2005
Location: Lake Nacimiento, California USA
Posts: 430
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 The engine should be warm, otherwise you'll most likely get inaccurate readings. If the engine is cold, you can still check for a dead cylinder, since that would be dead either way. A manual compression test is done by removing a spark plug and screwing in a compression gauge in it's place. The engine is not running of course in this scenario.

Typically, one will disconnect the coil (since we can't have a running engine), insert your compression tester gauge, open throttle to full open position, have someone crank engine 3-5 seconds. Repeat for each cylinder. If your engine were warm, you would expect readings within 10% of each cylinder and 140 to 160 pounds in each cylinder.