Just picked up a 1988 245 that seems to be running on two cylinders. Thought it wasn't firing on cylinders 1 and 2 because it shakes like crazy and off balance. It's getting spark so I did a compression test; absolutely 0 psi on cylinders 1 & 2 and the gauge doesn't even move when cranking but 145-150 psi on 3&4. Leak down test it blows out the adjacent spark plug hole and if that's sealed up with a plug you can hear a slight hiss in the oil cap. Anyone have any suggestions? Previous owner swears it didn't overheat, it's got over 300k on what I'm assuming is he original motor. Popped the valve cover off and he cam looks fine, oil is a bit milky/orange. It starts right up but runs horribly and shakes like a bat out if hell. Should I throw a HG at it or try to source a new to me motor? Anyone ever experience this? Thanks!

 

0psi suggests it might be broken valves or something, as even a leaky head gasket would have /some/ compression when the engine is cranking, albeit, it would bleed off really fast when you stopped.

 

I thought the same but there is no abnormal noise like broken or loose components. Should I bother with head removal or just pull the whole engine? This evening I'm going to pull the head off and go from there I guess. Any other suggestions are welcome.

 

I'd pull the head and go from there.

 

As Pierce said, pull the head. Once it is off you will be able to tell if there is further damage such as burned valves, etc. The bottom ends of these engines are extremely sturdy so odds are if you fix the top end it should be ok. While the head is off you might want to consider cleaning out or replacing the oil separator and water pump.

 

Head gasket blew between 1&2 and also looks like it was ran that way for some time as te head has been melted and grooved between the two cylinders. There was some oil in cylinder 2 and I mentioned I had hissing from the oil cap leading me to believe the rings are allowing too much blow by? Should I be sourcing an entire engine at this point or possible to rebuild? The block side shows no grooving like the head but has anyone seen these blocks warp? Found a guy that has a head with no cam from a running b230ft for $125 shipped. Worth it? Tempted to slap a head on and go for it but would rather not end up having to rering or replace the engine in the end. Suggestions?

 

the engine blocks on these are pretty much indestructible, as long as there's no sign of scoring on the piston walls (turn the engine two full turns by hand in small increments to raise/lower all the pistons to check the sidewalls).

the turbo head with your non-turbo cam should work fine. the turbo was probably out of a 740/940 so likely had the distributor on the back end of the head, you can take the block plate out of yours and install it on the turbo replacement so you can continue to use the 240 distributor on the side of the engine block.

 

Awesome sounds great. I'll order the head and couple gasket sets, couple broken sensors, and a truck load of engine degreaser and get this thing back together. Thanks for the help.