Bobthecat01

I didn't put oil in the plug holes and recheck compression. My battery is good as far as I know. It was cranking quickly and I had 12.6 Volts before cranking, should be plenty. The gauge would jump up the 30 and stay there. The timing marks were dead nuts on both cams and crank too. The only way I could see the timing being a problem is if the crank pulley slipped exactly 180 degrees and miraculously landed back on the timing mark? I don't have the protective plate over the crank sprocket, this thing has jumped time on me twice before during similar hard-turns open throttle situations and I've always been able to reset the belt and fix it. The last time it happened I replaced the tensioner and pulley.

That's what I thought but it wont even try and run. I tested it with a Snap-on compression tester and some other brand one of the guys in the shop had and they were the same with both tools.

Here's the story: Driving my '93 legacy wagon home from work about two months ago. Bone stock EJ22 running perfectly fine. Take a hard left turn from a stop and shift into 2nd in the middle of said turn. Car starts bogging and not responding to throttle input as if MAF is failing and I'm able to limp it home while engine runs progressively worse. No loud noise, no puff of smoke, no strange engine noises, no milkshake, engine and coolant level are fine Go out to start in the morning, crank no start and sounds like bad compression. First thing I do is check timing, all marks are perfect, belt isn't damaged, keyway didn't shear off, everything is business as usual. Do a compression test: Cyl 1 - 30PSI Cyl 3 - 30PSI Cyl 2 - 30 PSI Cyl 4 - 30 PSI Pull the engine, took both heads off. Headgaskets are perfect on both banks. Valves are clean and in great shape, no damage whatsoever. Cylinder walls look great, pistons move freely and smoothly in the block. From everything I (and every other tech worth their salt at my shop) see, this engine should run and run well. I can not for the life of me wrap my mind around an engine failure like this, ESPECIALLY an EJ22. These things are known for being bullet proof and this one has been. For a long time. Any advice or some fresh perspective on something I may be missing would be very appreciated.