Chehalis Jeff wrote:

Before I tore down my engine, I would carefully redo the compression
test, and then do it again... The individual who 'tested' it may have
been looking for a lower price and fudged on the results. Just a
possibility.

That was my thought, too.

My other thought was that someone who was working on the ignition
wiring as first aid to a compression situation might be well-served by
saving the cost of a compression tester and instead paying a trusted,
experienced mechanic to perform the test.

But then I just re-read the original post:

"One of the possible buyers took the spark plugs off and tested the
combustion of each of the cylinders... one of them failed badly.... "

That's combustion, not compression. Like (apparently) everybody else, I
thought the buyer did a compression test and found a bad cylinder. In
the best case scenario this could be gummed rings; the worst cases have
already been mentioned.

So maybe the buyer did a simple "spark test" on each cylinder and
simply found a plug that was oil-fouled and wasn't firing? The owner
may have already fixed that by securing "the red wire that goes to the
little box which goes to the spark plug." There's reason to be
optimistic here.

%mod%