My brother has a 1998 SL2 with 150K on it. His engine started to misfire so we changed the plugs and wires, that did not solve the problem. He brought it in to the local shop and they told him that his exhaust valves on the #3 cylinder are bad. the #3 cylinder has only about 30 lbs of compression, the rest are at 180 lbs.


I have a couple of questions, What should the compression be?And how hard would it be to have a valve job done if I pull the head? The car has the 1.9l DOHC engine.


Thanks for any thoughts or information. I'm just trying to figure out what to do, the shop wants $1500 for the work.

 

185 lbs is the service limit. So all four cylinders are bad. Compression should be between 195 and 225 and all four cylinders should be within 10% of one another.


For less then $1500 you can completly rebuild the engine to better than new specs. Or for $1500 you can buy ten used engines.

I'd try a top end cleaning before I'd open up the engine. I seriously doubt its a valve problem. Most likely a ring problem.

 

When the shop checked the compression, the also did a leak down test and the leak was at the #3 exhaust valves, they said that was the only leak. What do you mean when you say a top end cleaning?


thanks

 

buy another head from junk yard $75-$250. Or just push the easy button.