On a laptop....I probably need updates or some ****

 

Yes they are pretty much lined up. I say pretty much lined up because it looks to be off by only 1/10 of an inch at the most. The angle I am at to see the marking makes it tough to tell.

 

I drained the oil and pulled the head. Nothing unusual was found.

Valvetrain looks good. Oil had no flakes. What now?

 

A visual inspection (by you) will not tell you if you have any bent valves....Take it to a shop to determine if your valves are straight and have them inspect the head while you're at it (cams, seals, lifters, etc...).

How do the piston tops look?

 

I am not 100% sure but I think I bent a rod.

I checked compression (145, 145, 145, 70). Then did a leakdown (8%, 6%, 7%, 8%). So good leakdown but bad compression.

Pulled the valve cover off and saw nothing unusual. Drained the oil and found no metal flakes.

I came to the conclusion of a bent rod by bringing every piston to TDC individually and measuring the distance from top of piston to top of valve cover. Cylinder 1-3 had the same reading but Cylinder 4 had a lower reading than all the others.

 

I know I could bring it somewhere but I will never learn if I continue to have someone else diagnose my problems.

I like problem solving and I want to learn

 

added oil to cylinder 4 and did the compression check again and it raised the compression to 140.

That makes me think its a piston ring or bore issue, so maybe I did bend a rod which caused piston ring damage. Does that sound logical? Cause if it was just a piston ring or bore issue, what would cause the ticking noise?

 

ticking noise is from damaged lifter when your valve hit the piston. As you suggested you may have bent a rod. The rod wont tick, it might knock from the bottom if the bearing was damaged. If the piston kissed the wall too much during the contact then the wall could be damaged, but any of those scenarios require dis-assembly and inspection along with measurement, etc

So pull the head, disassemble the valves springs and check for any sticking of the valves on the cylinder in question. While youe in there check the valve stem for concentricity. Any issues, replace them and the valve guides. Inspect the bores for all the cylinders for any markings on the wall from any piston to valve contact. Measure the piston to deck clearance at tdc for all cylinders to confirm bent rod. If there was significant hit from a suick valve there is going to be marks on that piston.

Hope that helps

 

Wouldn't the leak down test have told me if it was a sticking valve or damaged lifter?

I already did the measurement from tdc, it confirmed a bent rod in cylinder 4. I am just confused about the tick now.

 

the leakdown test would not tell you about the lifter because it measures cylinder leak and once the valve is not bent and it is closed then the leakdown would be good. The noise is most likely the piston ring that I am guessing is broken. Pull out the piston and check it. A rod hardly ever bends an does not damage anything else. The compression got better with the added oil because it helped to seal the bore