blown heagasket, fixed...now won't start

[khartley]

This is my friends 91 Laser RS, FWD turbo. His compression before the blown headgasket was 120 all the way across. The gasket blew, and when he pulled the head the cylinders had quite a bit of water in them. He cleaned it out, changed the oil, new headgasket, and now the car cranks but won't start. The compression is now 120 90 110 120.

Any ideas of what happened? The car wasn't over stock boost EVER, and he had to drive it a bit after the gasket blew just to get it home...maybe a few blocks.

 

[MountainDew]

Did your friend get his head surface milled?

Also did he re-use the stock head bolts?

Not sure if that contributes to the problem itself, just throwing those out there.

Do you know if it's mechanical or electrical related? Just a few off the top of my head.. Make sure Intake Manifold is grounded to the block. Correct firing order. CAS test. Simple stuff like that to help further diagnose the problem.

 

[khartley]

he got APR headstuds...head was checked with a straight edge. What is a CAS test?

 

[19Eclipse90]

That compression is low, I personally wouldn't expect it to start like that. Make sure the torque is correct on the head studs first off - it's free and easy. I would then perform a leakdown test and find out where the compression is not holding. That's your best bet and will tell you what your problem is. But the numbers as is are all below the service limit. Chances are he's going to have to look into pulling the head once again.

 

[khartley]

torqued them from 20-to-50-to-80 and went over them 2 more time to make sure they were at 80.....use a snap-on torque wrench....and i for the compression when it was first bought it was at 120 all the way across but well do the leak down test

 

[MountainDew]

If it was 120 across before and 120 across now, maybe it wasn't the headgasket causing the problem. Sounds like a leakdown test will really help figure out what's wrong with this car.

 

[khartley]

bent valves on #2 cylinder and for #3 valve is bent slightly

 

[MountainDew]

bent valves on #2 cylinder and for #3 valve is bent slightly

Bummer, now he's got to do all that work AGAIN.