Low Compression?

Girl friend backed into a hill and plugged the exhaust with dirt car started and ran for awhile then died now it sounds like the engine is free spinning I checked the timing belt it wasnt broke or out of time
ive done a compression test and all cylinders have only 30 to 60 pounds of pressure if my gauge is working right I just purches the compression gauge so it should be right could the plugged exhaust blown the head gasket or messed up anything else? Thanks for any help you can give

I brought the car in about a week ago due to some misfires in cylinders 1, 3, and 4. The mechanic, who is very trusted, did a compression test and said that the 3rd cylinder basically had no compression, only 50 lbs. The 1st and 4th had 200 lbs, while the 2nd had 150. He said that the 3rd cylinder was likely causing the other two to misfire due to non combusted materials pushing back up into the intake.

The mechanic said it was probably a valve problem, and though I've asked him several times he insists it is probably not a head gasket. I agree that I don't see any other symptoms of a head gasket problem. The engine was too old for any valve repairs to do much good without causing other problems, he said. He told me to try, as a last ditch effort, various engine cleaning products.

I tried a number of those, and the engine began to run much more smoothly. Whereas before it would hiccup during acceleration, the acceleration was now near perfect, and there was a lot more power than there had been. The car also ran smoother while driving it.

However, the idle performance of the car got worse. I lost about 200 RPMs off of what was already a low idle. As of today, it now stalls anytime it is not being given gas, but seems to run fine when it is getting gas. Even before I saw the mechanic, the misfires seemed not to occur when giving the engine gas.

So I am trying to figure out #1) why it would have misfired only on idle if the compression on that cylinder was really that bad, in other words, if something caused the compression to be better when getting gas, and #2) what could have happened that would cause the engine to operate more smoothly after being cleaned but at the same time to lose idle RPMs and now to stall altogether.

Thanks!

My car is not starting and the mancanic said it is not getting enough compression. Now we do not know what to do next.

Engine Mechanical problem
1997 Honda Civic 4 cyl Front Wheel Drive Automatic

My civic is burning oil especially at start up. I checked compression and it is 180 psi on all cylinders. All cylinders go to 90 on first stroke then 120 psi on next then up to 180. Spark plugs have black soot on them. Engine runs smooth and quiet.

Any ideas for me.

My daughter overheated my car and so we blew a head gasket we replaced that and checked the head over it was not warped and we could not find anything else wrong. Now we checked the compression after it was all put together and it is low is this caused by the timing or are the piston rings burnt out or do you think we missed something on the head. Also I should say when they put it back together it kept sheering the pin on the cam shaft pulley so my brother made one out of steel and it quit doing it.

I have a 1995 Honda Civic Lx 1.5 5 speed. I recently changed the head in it. It ran like a beauty for a five days or so then just died suddenly. The cam chipped itself and it jumped time I set the time and replaced the cam. Still no compression help me please.

The cam shaft where the timming belt sprocket goes chipped on the end where the sprocket is bolted to cam where it is slotted at.

When sitting the timming what two pistons remain up and what two remain down

92 honda civic vx. 102k miles. 1.5L vtec

I just ran the compression test. For the dry test the results were: cylinder1: 195psi (6 cranks) 2: 200psi (7 cranks) 3: 200psi (8 cranks) 4: 200psi (8 cranks)
wet test results: cylinder 1: 220psi (7 cranks) 2: 230psi (8 cranks) 3: 230psi (8 cranks) 4: 230psi (7 cranks).

I was told that it should be reading 125-135psi on the dry test. Why do you think it is consistently reading so much higher?

Could you explain to me how to set my cam and cam shaft to set my timming. If no 1 is always up is it the only one up and the others down? I'm sorry this is my first time on a honda if you could just walk me thru it I would be forever grateful.