After a long delay the work begins

OK - after a long delay, occasioned by a bad bout of arthritis, I have resumed work on the beast!

As 865CHT has not been started for at least 20 years I thought I would check out the engine first; my thinking on this is that if I can get it running it would make moving it around a lot easier than the old pushing method.

First up I did a compression test - the workshop manual gives the compression figures of 100lb per sq in +/- 10% across the 4 cylinders.

Well, good news/bad news.

Pots 1 & 2 show 85psi - not brilliant, but borderline. However, pots 3&4 are only 35psi - not good, to say the least!

That could mean that the head gasket is shot between pots 3&4, the rings could be stuck, or the valves could be suspect.

I removed the cylinder head and checked the gasket; looks OK.

I tried the usual trick of putting some diesel down the bores to check the seal - again, OK.

Therefore, looks like valve seats may be the problem.

I will strip down the cylinder head and post pics in a future post.