hey i recently acquired a 86 turbo that was mostly running. i started doing some work on it and started with a cold compression test. i have about 150-120 psi across all the cylinders except #2 im getting 40. its leaking past the intake valve. i was doing some work on the engine so im not sure if something accidentally get lodged in the intake valve. but worst case i could swap the head.

is the na and turbo heads the same? i know the compression is 9 and 7.8 and from my reading of the fsm they should be the same.

hopefully its just something easy i probed the cylinder and valve runner with a scope and nothing stood out. piston tops are all carbon covered from the lack of an o2 sensor. i drove it 70 miles very gently and it didn't smoke or smell funny.

Could be any number of things, cracked valve seat, bent valve, sticking valve etc. but sadly you gotta pull it apart to find out. Yes the heads are the same 84-87, the 87-89's are a little different.

is it possible to pull the drivers side head while in the vehicle? and if so how hard? i just worried about the turbo stuff coming off.

seems to have just been a sticky valve or some carbon stuck in it. did some cleaning and its back up to 150 psi

Glad you got it worked out. For future reference yes you can pull the heads off int he car. I prefer to pull the motor, it's probably a little quicker in the car but I'd rather work on a bench than bent over.

runs great now now on to suspension issues! yay