last week my trucks power loss/missing/ect. got worse than usual and wasn't drivable at all.

today just out of curiosity i added gas, and wow, it was drivable again. I still don't have the type of power i need and i think it will still get hot and start doing what it normally does.

i got to thinkin maybe the guy i bought it from neglected to tell me to use higher octane or something, so i checked the comrpession.

the gauge on no. 1 cyl read 70 psi. Its cold and dark here so I decided id check my other cyls. another time.

i checked the haynes book and says 100psi minimum.

is this realistic? I'm wondering if i didn't get a good enough seal on the plug hole, or if i should have started TDC or something, because im not quite sure why it would be this bad.

 

be sure the compression gauge is in there good and turn it over a few times with the throttle open. look at the result and if it is still low then squirt some light weight oil(i always use marvel mystery oil) in the sparkplug hole and see if it comes up, if it does probably compression rings gone bad. try the other cylinders and see if they are the same. 70 is pretty low, so i would check it again.

 

ok well, apparently i didn't check vary well. Must not have sealed correctly or turned it over enough. it now looks like all 8 cylinders are between 125-130psi give or take 1-2 psi. I also found out (on accident) that i can get around the block without the number 7 cylinder, and it will start w/o no 7 and 1 and 3 are swapped. my lesson being... check all the wires before you fire the engine.

if the minimum is 100 psi, 130 sounds a little high, would this be normal? i just wonder if i should be running higher octane.

 

130 is fine. so atleast the internals are working good sounds like. try running 93 in it to see if it makes a difference, and i would pour some injector cleaner in there too. are you haveing any labor knocking isseues?

 

what exactly is labor knocking? aside from the clicking of the arms i dont have any knocking sounds coming from anywhere.

 

it is when it is under a load it will make a knocking sound, also called pinging.

 

it does, but it also looses power and backfires if I keep on the gas to long.