Compression??

[utey]

How hard/ easy should it be to turn over a standard grey?
I have 2 motors in the shed and both are very easy to turn by hand using the fly wheel.
Does this indicate a lack of compression or is this normal?

Nick  

[mcl1959]

It is fairly normal to be able to turn over the motor without much effort.  They are a low compression motor after all.

Ken

[fccool59]

best thing is if your starter or battery dies, you just stick your leg out the door, whack it in 2nd, kick off and away she goes.

[utey]

To determine if either these motors are any good should I remove the head?
(then what)
The oil in both looks ok there is no build up on the rockers.
Anything else to do rather than fitting and hoping for the best?

Thanks

Nick

[craiga]

Pull the heads off.

A head service is cheap, and you'll be able to check for worn/lipped bores. These things are always full of carbon build up so head off if they are unknown would be best.

They also wear in the gudgeon pin area so if the engine is going to be in the car for a while the extra investment of a strip, inspection and freshen will pay off.

Cheers,

Craig.

[Brad]

Hello Nick
              You could bench start the motors. ( start them out of the car) It's a bit of mucking around but not as much as pulling out a motor then fitting another only to find out the new motor is stuffed. You will need a gearbox and starter. It's ok to run them for a few minutes without a radiator just block the bottom radiator hose and fill the block with water. Don't let it get to hot  ;) . If you want to run it for more than two minutes jamb a running hose into the bottom radiator hose  . Also a slap up exhaust will be on the cards if you want to listen to the donk and don't want to upset the neighbors or the missus.
    A mate of mine used to start / check motors with no cooling and no exhaust. He would fill the carby with fuel and if it started hold the throttle full open , if it didn't hand grenade he figured it was ok :o
                 Brad.
  Ps  if you do this , tie the motor to something solid on the distributor side so it won't bugger off down the paddock when you rev it.

[suziecreamcheese]

do a compression test first