Automotive maintenance

Compression test

Directed to: Dr/ Ehab Nossier

Hazem Mohamed Hamouda Nouh

2000255
 Compression test

A compression test is a test method to assess the condition of your engine’s valves, valve seat, cylinder
head, head gasket, and piston rings.

If the material of these intake parts wears out and leads to reduced compression in one or more engine
cylinders, there won’t be enough force to move the cylinder pistons and crankshaft. Moreover,
compression loss in a cylinder could lead to a misfire or cause your engine to fail entirely.

To avoid this, a compression test is conducted on each cylinder using a compression gauge or tester.

The engine compression or compressive load is measured in PSI. Ideally, a healthy engine will have a
compression (cylinder pressure) of over 100 PSI per cylinder. Also, there shouldn’t be more than a 10%
variation between the highest and the lowest compression readings.

When we need compression test

Usually, you need a compression test if your car experiences any of the following symptoms:

• Smoke comes from the exhaust system when you accelerate or decelerate.
• The engine feels sluggish when you accelerate.
• The engine vibrates when driving down the road.
• The engine runs hot.
• Reduced fuel economy

That said, you shouldn’t wait for such alarming signs to get compression tests. You could also get them
done as preventive maintenance with every tune-up to maintain good compression and a healthy
engine.

How To Perform a Compression Test?

I found a good video that shows it in an easy way. Click here.
Steps of the test

1- Gather the needed tools.

• Insulated gloves and safety gloves (to protect yourself from hot engine parts and oil sprays)
• Ratchet and extension.
• Spark plug socket
• A compression testing kit (diesel engines have high compression that require a special
compression gauge or compression tester)
• Notepad to note down the test result.

2- Warm Up Your Engine

While you can perform compression tests on cold engines, you should ideally be running the
test while the engine is warm.

Why?
The piston rings, valve seat, head gasket, and other engine component material expand as they
heat up. This creates the required compression ratio inside the engine. So if you perform this
test on a cold engine, the pressure reading might be inaccurate.
 3- Disable The Ignition and Fuel Delivery Systems

remove the fuel pump relay switch and the coil pack harness.

CAUTION: Avoid removing only the coil-to-distributor wire as the ignition coil is still charged and can
shock you if it finds ground.

4- Remove The Spark Plugs

Use a ratchet with an extension to remove all the spark plugs.

5- Install The Gauge in The First Spark Plug Hole

Ask someone to crank the engine while you note the compression readings.

Note the reading when the gauge reading is not increasing.

6- Repeat The Process on Each Cylinder

Repeat inserting the compression tester inside each spark plug hole, cranking the engine, and
record the readings .

Conclusion:
If the pressure reading is low in one cylinder, the issue is with a single cylinder. But if the readings are low
on multiple cylinders, it’s a sign of other engine issues. Also, the cylinder pressure readings shouldn’t be
more than 10% apart.

My test records.

In KPa 1st cylinder 2nd cylinder 3rd cylinder 4th cylinder

My reading 1000 1200 1300 1050
Standard 1500 1500 1500 1500
limit 1200 1200 1200 1200
Max difference 150 150 150 150
Between cylinders
Comment
There is a serious decrease from the standard values in cylinders (1 and 4) but we don’t know if that
problem is with the piston clearance or the cylinder head so we should do the wet compression test
to detect the problem.
And the difference between the cylinder with highest pressure and the one with the lowest exceeds
the max limit so we need to go on other tests to take the right decision of repair.

Some problems expected to be with the engine.

- Worn cylinder liner. (The engine block is worn as the rings are stiffer) in this case may
need to change the cylinder liners or get new bigger pistons after CNC boring.

- Worn head casket. (Needs to be replaced)

- Valve seat worn (needs to be replaced or CNC refining)

- Valve timing mismatch (needs to tunned )