Loss of compression

Most likely is probably the cylinder head gasket but you need to investigate further. Check inside oil and water filling points for a creamy substance and check that the oil level isn't rising or the water disappearing. Another possibility is broken or badly worn piston rings. Blue smoke from the exhaust is a symptom of that. Post back with more information if you can and the folks on here may be able to advise you further. A compression test on each cylinder would tell you if the problem is one cylinder or more.

When you say loss of compression, have you tested it? And if so, have you tested it both dry and wet? And is the compression loss one one or more or all cylinders? And what are the results?

Or do you mean loss of power, and you're attributing this to compression loss, which may or may not be the case?

Otherwise, what keith said.

Steve

Hi,

That might be interresting too...

The vicious case : worn cam/camshaft or burnt valve. Even if it usually makes a certain kind of noise you can't miss (ie, lost cylinder for example).

Regards,

-- G.T

Just as an aside, and to give some amusement. Back in the early 1960's, a guy I worked with bought an MG Magnet saloon at auction. In those days you couldn't start the engine when you inspected the car before bidding for it, but you could turn the engine over with the starting handle (for younger readers, this is the thing you really miss these days when your battery goes flat). He turned it over and felt the good compression of each cylinder and finished up buying the car.

It was delivered to his house on a low loader a few days later and that evening he decided to go for a run. The engine wouldn't start. With friends he spent two days trying to start it. Eventually, they decided to remove the cylinder head. That was when they found that the good compression was provided by a tennis ball in each cylinder.

I doubt you could start any diesel engine with a starting handle. They had other uses though. More than once I have "wound" a car up onto ramps using the handle and leaving the car in either first or reverse. They also provided a good way to turn the engine for setting the timing. If you held them wrongly when starting an engine it was a very simple way to get a broken thumb.

Hi,

Err, I know that, a little. Mind you, when I was a very little boy, and up to early 90's I'd say, my dad had an Ami8. But I never attempted to start an engine with that... and anyway, modern Diesel engines with electronics and compression ratios, may be difficult to start with such a tool :-)

And so he wrote a page of the legend. Here, it's known as being risky to buy a car in an auction, because of the robberies possible, as it happened to your friend. OK, you can start the engine now, which reduces the risk.

Regards,

-- G.T

Not just at auction! I remember some 30 years ago when a mate bought a three cylinder motorbike, a Kawasaki S1C 250 IIRC, if was a "bit flat". Now they were prone to eating spark plugs and needing rings/breaking rings so he didn't worry too much about it. When he stripped it down a few days later he found that the center piston was missing - as in no longer physically in place - and had been replaced by a tennis ball neatly slipped onto the end of the con rod. It ended up being broken for parts!

Hi,

True. Even starting "designed for" like oldest tractors (Lanz or Vierzon) wasn't easy.

Eeeer my mum being a lock-keeper, and as I've been one in my early days, I have to agree :-)

Cheers,

-- G.T