It looks like you are asking how to determine how healthy your engine is before you start doing things to it? If that is correct, the first thing you should do is take a compression test of each cylinder and write it down. You are looking for balance between the cylinders. In other words, you don't want one to be 130 and the next one 60 lbs. About 10 percent variation is good, but you can go a little more and still be ok, but not much. Before you do this test, pull all the plugs out, disconnect the coil wire so the car won't want to start, and hold the choke open. Do one cylinder at a time, and let the engine spin several revolutions to peak the gauge.

There are other tests beyond this, like leakdown, and squirting some oil into the cylinders to determine if any low compression is valves or rings, but do the compression test first.

Some of the really good mechanics on here will have better ways to do this than I have outlined, I'm sure, but these are the basics.

Ok good engine guys, what should he do next??


Don