1997 Chevy Truck 97 K1500 w/305

One more question? I just bought the right compression tester.

Will my compression readings be low - since the engine is only turning over and not idling at higher rpm's, nor hasn't run in a while and will not be at normal operating temp?

Or, should they be pretty close to spec (>100psi) while turning over without spark?

Won't know until tonight. Still at work. Thanks!

Sorry all. Not much to report this morning. I'm chasing down an intermittent short or open to my starter solenoid. Thought I had it fixed (see previous post) and now I'm back at it. It's doing the same thing as earlier. Turn the key to start - and nothin'.

I can hear the fuel pump kick in and the new starter realy at the underhood fuse box click. But nothing at the starter solenoid - not even a click.

Hopefully will find it tonight and get back to my firing issue. Thanks.

Ok. Just in case someone has issues in the future and finds this thread.

For starters. I put the compression tester in cylinder #1 - found the compression stroke. My harmonic balancer had NOT slipped - TDC was right where it was supposed to be.

I was one tooth off on the distributor. If you're even one off, the engine will not fire.

Secondly - truck ran great for about 5 mins and then died.

When I originally tore the crank apart, I laid out all of my nut caps, nuts, etc. Just the way I took them off.

RULE #1 - kick buddies out of the garage for reassembly.

They started grabbing nuts for the push rod caps from anywhere - the nuts SHOULD go back on the same bolt they came off of - otherwise when putting the torque wrench to it - you will not get a good reading for 22# torque.

I burnt up one bearing (which seized after 5 mins) and messed up the threads on two push rods. Not only that but scored my new reman'd 2020 crankshaft.

RULE #2 - don't bother with a 2020 reman'd crankshaft. Buy a 1020. After seizing that one bearing, I also scarred the crankshaft - it's too far out to be reground.

End result - bought a reman'd engine from O'reilly's today (3 year warranty/40,000 miles = $1800.00 including fulll gasket kit). Should be here soon. My uncle decided after tearing into it that it wasn't worth the effort to rebuild because of low compression in a couple of cylinders. He also couldn't buy new bolts for the push rods, and I had a few close to being burnt valves. By the time we got done going through it - we decided to just buy the reman'd engine.

Mostly because I HAVE to use this truck to tow my Lund. Could've got it running but would not have felt like we made the best choice for salmon/walleye fishing all across Michigan.

Truck will be on the road again soon - with a new engine.

Many, many thanks to all who tried to help!