Did you do the compression check on a warm motor? Doing it on a cold motor can give you false low readings.

 

it was a cold motor (I talked to him at C&C). He's gonna redo it hot.

 

No. I did it again and this one was hot. I let the motor warm up and then gave it time to warm the oil up as well.

 

What were your warm engine readings? Factory spec is 145psi with a minimum limit of 92.

 

It was 110-115. Still within spec, but I figured it would have been higher considering only 33000 miles.

 

Could very well be your gauge. Not sure what kind you're using, but cheap compression gauges are notorious for reading either very low or high. Also, does your engine have aftermarket cams? Might be worthwhile to perform a leak-down test.

 

Every evo I have seen with a bad head gasket will puke out coolant out of the overflow after you turn the car off... have to checked that yet? Just take it for a drive so that it gets up to temp... go home and park it.... then check back in about 5 to 10mins... if there is a puddle... you have a problem :-)

 

I have 125 125 115 130 with none of those symptoms. But I have big fawking cams which in theory should make my numbers lower. This was on as hot of an engine as I could get. Fully warmed up and the only delay was pulling off my sparktech coil on plug and being on the phone with Denver trying to find a fuse that I didn't need to touch.

 

I used a compression gauge that I borrowed from my boss. Doesn't have any markings on it but he only buys really nice stuff, so I trust the readings. I have the FP4R cams and I don't know if that will make a difference.

I feel pretty comfortable driving it around so I'll bring it to Don's show and shine this weekend.