Trying to revive a sleeping midget

[WmWatt]

The valves do look crudy. I've used a chemical cleaner in a running engine to remove carbon deposits on valve seats and brign the compression back up. Turn the valve cover over and look for soot deposits on the underside as an indication of leaking exhast gases due to exhaust valves not closing completely.

[Solmangrundy]

Took the valve out of my compression test hose and hooked it up to the air compressor at 25psi dry cylinders/no oil squirted in

Cyl 1no compression) air leak from intake
Cyl 2: (has compression) air leak noise from oil cap
Cyl 3no compression) air leaking from intake
Cyl 4: (has compression) air leak from oil cap.

Also is it normal for the rocker arms to have slack/play in them, or are these worn out? I can pretty much just grab the intake arms and wiggle them side to side and up and down when the cylinder is at TDC. cyl 4 intake rocker arm seems like its the only one that actualy sits still.

Odometer sitting at 136650.3miles

[Rick the Quick]

I would also try checking the valve lash. Seeing that these engines have hydraulic adjusters you should read approximately zero lash. If it sat for a while you may read some slight clearance, however if you rotate the crankshaft to #1 compression and measure the clearance between the valve stem and the tip of the rockers both valves should read zero clearance. Rotate the crank shaft 180 degrees and check #3, another 180 degrees and #4 another 180 degrees and #2. If you find any clearance such as 020." or larger you have found a valve that is sticking and not closing as it should. You might want to squirt some penetrating oil through the spring and try to direct the stream onto the valve stem. Follow up with finding a block of wood that you get to sit on top of the spring retainer. You are not trying to push the valve down as the camshaft is able to open the valve. It is closing the valve that is the problem. The spring pressure can't overcome the varnish or crud on the valve stem. Smack the wood to put some force on the valve to shock it enough to free it up. If the valves are being held open buy crud or varnish this may work. If the valves are not closing because they are bent you will probably be best to replace the B3 with a B6. Taking the head off to fix it will be like opening the proverbial can of worms. A good running B6 will be cheaper and a nice upgrade not to mention a B6 will be easier to find then a B3.
I JUST READ your results and it sounds like you have two intake valves that are stuck open. Try the penetrating oil and a wood block and hammer. Your engine has hydraulic lifters that will bleed down when the engine has not run for a while. If you get 'er running they will fill up and take the looseness out. As for hearing the air escaping through the oil filler that's not good but not necessarily bad or I should say not unusual. Let's not forget that your car is not new anymore. Miles on the odometer mean nothing. How many times was the cable broken or the cluster changed? How many owners and drivers? How much neglect? No body knows. Forget about what compression the book says you should have. It will run on a lot less. Not perfectly but it will run. I'm a mile high and have had cars that ran well with 100 psi compression. See if you can free the 2 intakes and get it running. Change oil and filter and drive it for a day. Pull the plugs and check the compression and see what you get. If it's not blowing a blue smoke cloud and the oil light does not come on at idle it will probably get you down the road for many more miles. And yes it will not run as well as a well maintained high miler with 190 psi measured on all 4 cylinders. But if you need transportation you now have it. Keep us posted!

[Solmangrundy]

Just shot some 5w-30 into the cyclinders.

1 still leaking

2 sealed.

3 sealed.

4 stayed sealed for a few seconds then started blow-bying again through the oil filler area.

Gonna try and use some Wd40 like you mentioned and see if i can free up these valves. So far its getting better, test results wise, as i tinker with it.

[Rick the Quick]

If you free up #1 intake it should run. Of course there may be other problems. If it sat for a long time dump some fresh gas in the tank. It's going to leak some air past the rings until you get it running. See about getting the valves to all close. After you get it running change the oil and filter and make sure it has coolant. Actually check all fluids before driving it. That and check your tires. Check the air pressures and tread and sidewalls for dry rotting. It sucks to have a tire blow on your maiden voyage. Let us know how it goes.

[Solmangrundy]

Damn, had the retainer clip pop out of the valve stem when i was tapping on vale #3. Thats it for today. Any tips on how to compress that spring to put it back on? Its still stuck in the open position, didnt drop into the cylinder.

[WmWatt]

Some auto parts stores have free loaner tools. That might include a spring compressor.

[radi8u]

First, support the valve using the "rope trick" threaded in through the spark plug hole. Like Wm said, see if you can get a tool from your local parts store. Bad thing is, you usually have to have the head off for the tools they have. I have fabricated a tool from bar stock for this in the past but that was on an old school V8. Good luck!!!

[Rick the Quick]

The rope trick might work. I actually seen it mentioned in an old Harley Davidson factory shop manual. You than need to figure out a way to lever the valve retainer down far enough to get the keeper in. It can be done. Did you find the keeper?

[Rick the Quick]

I should have made it more clear. You smack the tip of the valve stem to push it down or jar it. Not the retainer or spring. It looks like you found out the hard way. If you need keepers I can send them to you.

[william]

For the 0 psi cyliners check that there's nothing in the valves.
I had a b6me car that sat for some time and when I tried to start it it pulled a mouse nest from the intake into the valves and caused a 0 compression on cylinder 2-4
Pulled the intake and head and cleaned out all the nest bolted it back together and she fired right up.
If you do pull the intake and find something in the valves you'll need to pull the head to clean it all out and then you can easily put that valve retainer back on with a rented tool with the head off.
The head is easily pulled on these engines and the head bolts are not torque to yeald so they can be reused you can leave the intake and exhaust on the head when you pull it as well witch will save some time. (Although you'll have the intake off anyway )

[Solmangrundy]

It starts up, runs and drives. Very noisey and tickey underneath the valve cover, expected. Check engine light came on, expected that lol.

I ended up getting a univeral spring compression tool from orielys to put the retainer clips back on the valve.

Currently it has a hard time getting past 60mph, guessing its off a tooth as my truck did the same thing right after i had the top end rebuilt.

Here is a video of first start-up

https://youtu.be/ofEA6xGyZ-Q

Thanks again guys, you really helped me get this thing moving again with your tip's.

[WmWatt]

Good news. Now that it's running you might want to try a chemical cleaner. One I've used goes in the crankcase and the engine is run for 5 min then the oil is changed. (If left in more than 5 min it can corrode the aluminum parts of the engine.) It improved the compression on my car's engine. There are other cleaners which are added to teh fuel tank. Seafoam is one recommended here. I think these come under the general classification of top end cleaners, meaning valves and hydraulic lifters.

[firebush357]

Pour a Quart of ATF into the oil and let it idle for about 15-20 minutes then change the oil afterwards and get some fresh stuff in there. That ticking is because HLAs are not pumping up, it should quite down with time but if not they are easy to replace, they just pull out of the Rocker Arms. Most of our cars tick a little but yours is a bit excessive which is probably causing your Power Loss/Low Compression.

[Solmangrundy]

Changed the oil and filter before i started it up. The valve area had a lot of sludge, vaccumed out what i could, draining the oil revealed just how much sludge was in the pan, ick. Oil also wreaked of gas, despite looking "new and fresh" on the dipstick didn't want to risk blowing it up 3seconds after getting it running lol.

Piston rings seem pretty good, car doesn't buck/missfire and from what i can see, it isnt burning any oil.

Will try that atf in the oil and see if anything changes.

Also dumped 2 bottles of Lucas Tune-up-in-a-bottle in the gas tank.