Head compression help

[240donnie]

My 91 KA24de hasn't ran in the last month. I've been trying to troubleshoot what could've been wrong since, and finally, have a legit mechanic take a quick look, and turns out cyl 3 has bad compression. But he said that it's not the headgasket, cuz it would be starting.(car's not starting period.) He suggested that it's the valves or the cams. So, i'm just wondering, before I go on this wonderful learning adventure of taking apart my head, what part(s) am I looking for that would be causing no compression.And any advice on what parts I should replace, or what I should do to get it working again would be awesome. I've never really done a head job before. I've swapped in engines and such, but never done internal work, so, I'm mainly going off the FSM and a couple threads. I'm just trying to get my KA to work, no horsepower gains, or anything, I just want to be able to drive my car.thanks.

[moso]

i would say its most likely your headgasket (yes it will make your car not run but is pretty easy to spot if you know what to look for), rings, or valve seats. pretty much in that order. as far as what to look for when you disassemble, that all depends on what the last run of this motor was like. did it go out quietly or with a bang? and how low is low compression? what were the numbers like in all the pistons? if it was my car i would probably be more suspicious of the rings.

good luck

[240donnie]

When it last ran, it clugged before I was able to get it back into my driveway, then never started again. No bang or anything. As for compression, mechanic said compression was good and even in all other cylinders, but no compression in cyl 3 at all.