before too long that much burning up will clog a cat I'd assume O.o

 

Well unfortunately other than external leaks there aren't really very many places oil can be lost inside the engine.

Either you have bad rings (which should show up on a compression test), or you have some bad valve seals.

Regardless it probably means some engine repair.

 

Spark plug #3 was fouled beyond belief; barnacles of white with sludge visible in the chamber.

And the compression test results are in:

Dry
1 - 150
2 - 175
3 - 150
4 - 175

Wet
1 - 175
2 - 235
3 - 175
4 - 235

Cool story bro. Can an experienced mechanic explain this to me? This is the first time I've ever done it.

 

He didn't has breakfast that morning.
That is 15% different right there.

 

If the compression readings improve with a wet test, it generally means the rings are worn and the oil you put in the cylinder helped seal them. 235 seems a little high though, how much oil did you add before you did the test? lol

 

Did you rig the throttle wide open and pull the ASD relay to kill the injectors when you did the compression test? You'll get inaccurate readings if you don't.

 

Good points! That, and was the engine warm?

 

I did it again, this time with help as to be more accurate. So, with a warm engine, throttle all the way open, and an exact amount of oil in each chamber, I got this:

Dry
1 - 200
2 - 200
3 - 200
4 - 200

Wet
1 - 210
2 - 210
3 - 225
4 - 225

The pressure jumped by the same amount each time it built up in each cylinder, evenly across the board in both wet and dry. As I've said, cylinder #3 had visible sludge in it, and the spark plug was fouled like crazy. I have not done a leak down test yet.

 

I would say get an accurate leak down tester. I was just working on a PT cruiser this week with readings that were

1- 170
2- 150
3- 150
4- 170

Which normally wouldn't bother me, but I leak tested it anyways and found that it had a bad head gasket.

 

I think a leakdown test is next, yes.