2001 Mazda Protege compression issues

Asked by Logan Aug 23, 2018 at 11:03 PM about the 2001 Mazda Protege SE

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

I had a blown head gasket overheat the car that
caused it to die before I could get pulled over.
Pulled the head and it looked in good shape with
obvious signs of a leak in the head gasket.
Replaced the head gasket, cleaned out and flushed
the engine, and refilled radiator. Everything is back
together and looks good, however, when trying to
get the car to crank ive got no compression. I get
an occasional backfire "plob" but that's all. The
timing is on correct and yet we have a "crank
position sensor" and a "cam position sensor"
signal. What do you think? Is there a direct
approach that will be reasonable money wise or
am I looking at a new engine?

4 Answers
7,465

Brianator answered 6 years ago

Are you sure it in proper time? Cylinder one must be at TDC (0 degrees) and the valves for number 1 cylinder must both be closed. I've seen friends put distributors 180 degrees out and blow flames out the carb and alot of backfiring. If also seen people be a tooth or 2 out with the timing belt on modern engines to the same effect

Mark helpful

Logan answered 6 years ago

Am I sure it's in time, yes and no. I had a machanic work on the timing alone for 2 or 3 hours. Doesn't mean he was correct. Based off the diagrams he found online the cam gears are in the correct spot. Now, I was not watching at the time so I dont know how many different positions he tried based on the two different "key-lock" slots the cam gears have. Might be worth having a second set of eyes on it.

Mark helpful

Clint answered 3 years ago

Did you ever resolve this? What was root cause? I had exactly same scenario. Overheat, replace head gasket, no compression. But when I had the head off I noticed the exhaust valves weren't seating properly. I replaced them, but still very low compression.

Mark helpful

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