what would cause zero compression in all cylinders?
 

I'm trying to help out my mother from 1000 miles away. She has an '89 Civic DX (100% stock) that was running poorly for a while, then gave up altogether. (Won't start.) Her mechanic told her the motor is blown and would have to be replaced. From previous experience ('83 Civic, I think it had a blown head gasket because it was overheating and loosing power, brother overheated badly once, water in the oil, same mechanic said the same thing without even looking at it. I didn't know much at the time, but I still think that motor could have been fixed) I don't really trust his judgement. I told her to have a compression test run. My brother claims the compression was checked already (although I have doubts this was done) and there was zero compression in all 4 cylinders. What would be the most likely cause of this?

Re:what would cause zero compression in all cylinders?
 

no pistons.

hehe jk, seriously i would test it yourself before you trust the word of someone else.

Re:what would cause zero compression in all cylinders?
 

I don't even think that is possible. ??? Even if the timing belt was broke it would get compression in at least one cylinder. If the head gasket was completely missing it would still build a little compression. If the motor has pistons in it, there should be some compression.

I think somebody is full of ----. ;)
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Re:what would cause zero compression in all cylinders?
 

I would like to, but I was serious about being 1000 miles away. If those compression results are true, I guess it doesn't matter anyway. I would think it would be something fairly catistrophic (sp?) to do that. Maybe I can still talk someone into verifying it.

Re:what would cause zero compression in all cylinders?
 

Yes, I thought that sounded wrong too. I guess if all 4 cylinder walls split open... but I would think it would stop running before that happened.

Re:what would cause zero compression in all cylinders?
 

she would have to have melted all the pistons down so there were none. No turbo right? :D No I think that the mecanic is trying to make some money like what they told my sister man. When women come through that door they can change their blinker fluid for $50 and they didn't even know they had blinker fluid.

Re:what would cause zero compression in all cylinders?
 

it`d be zero if.
1)bent valve on each cylinder.
2)sleevs cracked on all cylinder
3)He`s full of ----.

me personally will go with #1 or 3 :P

Re:what would cause zero compression in all cylinders?
 

Either that or they're tryin to test it with the head off ::)

Re:what would cause zero compression in all cylinders?
 

valve lash way too tight.

is the engine loping at idle?
if not will it not start?
and if it starts did you check comp with motor hot?

Re:what would cause zero compression in all cylinders?
 

my cylinder had 10 pounds of compression with a cracked sleeve...

https://www.homemadeturbo.com/jbliss/integra_blown1.jpg