I think I had it wrong... must be 2000 and newer thats different.

 

Sorry that would help i guess huh. I have a 99 1500 with a 360. Also i checked last night and no compression in most of my cylinders. So if i do my heads from ebay i think i should do new rings too because pistons looked black and thick from what i could see, psi did go as high as 120 when friend watched the gauge, but it would hold or build and the spark plugs were white. How difficult is it to replace the rings? never done it but i'm not scared to i've work aircraft, quads and other crap, just new that type of work. Figure timing and all that **** too. I need to do price list, if it gets crazy might just trade it for a 4th gen if my mother in law will let me use her discount. i'm sure they have a list of problems too... and i cant really afford that every month either. I don't know just really aggravated right now, lot of work, my time is worth something too, i'd never pay for all this work on it that's for sure.

 

Gotta completely disassemble the engine to change rings. Means pulling the motor.

If the gauge was getting up to 120, that is actually ok.

 

I know 120 is ok, low but ok. What scares me is one cylinder did hold after a few tries and said 150, now that's great but if others are not really that, and I can't check because of bad heads I'm afraid of truck becoming a money pit. Plus it won't hold coolant, exhaust shot, rear brake line leaking, power steering pump intermittent, oh and plenum. Figure should do timing crap too while in there. Hell that's like 2k in parts... I dont know what to do with it right now...

 

I'd be real curious about your test procedure. No cylinder is going to hold pressure very long...... (seconds......) they ALL leak down. Some faster than others...... The gauge holding is a property of the GAUGE though.... if yours wasn't workin' quite right, and the needle would just bounce, instead of go up, and stay..... may wanna try a different gauge.

 

It worked on one of the cylinders and held until I released it. The other cylinders I checked with a buddy watching, said it jumped to 120 and back down while cranking.

 

That's the valve on the gauge sticking open. Gauge behavior in such a case as that is normal. I would retest with a good gauge.

 

I would do that before I would tear into engine.....lots cheaper, and a "second opinion" is always good!

 

Did you have the gas pedal set at WOT for these tests, Cuz it needs to be at WOT.

New test with new gauge as others have posted.

 

I have 2 sets of these eBay headers. On both sets I had to grind half moons into the flanges for the spark plugs. One set on my 4wd and another set on the 318 I put in my Mazda.