I finished taking my motor apart yesterday. I never thought I would ever get this far on my own car in my wildest dreams/nightmares. I pulled the head expecting to see a burnt valve of something else. Nope. http://www.sr20deforum.com/eric/motor%20pics/DSC01853.JPG

So then I moved to the piston. First I had to drop the oil pans, baffle, and bearing girdle, then remove the piston and rod. No broken ring lands. http://www.sr20deforum.com/eric/motor%20pics/DSC01855.JPG

I'm at a loss. The walls of the cylinder look perfect. You can still see the factory hone scratches. The piston looked fine minus the carbon build up. I saw that Nissan Motorsports sells 10:1 pistons for $36 each. I'm already going to replace all the rings, so I might as well get higher compression pistons. I don't plan on NOS or turbo on this car(that's what the '91 is for). You guys think the 10:1 pistons are worth it? Here are some pics.

http://www.sr20deforum.com/eric/motor%20pics/

Holy crap! You've gone to town on that thing. Wierd that everything looks good. Has Pete looked at it?

http://www.sr20deforum.com/eric/motor%20pics/DSC01837.JPG

eric, hasn't your mother ever told you NOT to lift an enigne up by it's timing chain? ;)

i am jealous that you have a garage and the skills to do all this. yet at the same time, i'm glad i don't have your frustration from a erroneous prob. you're smart enough, i'm positive you'll fix it. personally, if i had the $$ i would definitiely get the higher comp pistons.

still sorry i didnt get down to take a look/help out. i was just dog tired. sat here and watched grand prix on tcm, what a good movie. but im still at a loss on what it could be at this point. head gasket leaking at all??? hell i have no clue on this one. looks like the valves are fine, did they leak out any simple green over night? dont think that the rings lined up would have given such a reading on the compression do ya? but funny how leak down was pretty good yet static compression was low. which kinda sounds like it just isnt building the compression somehow cause it holds what it has. what could cause that? im still baffled....that or my mind is just still mush, me go to sleep now

Originally posted by Bowlcut
but funny how leak down was pretty good yet static compression was low. which kinda sounds like it just isnt building the compression somehow cause it holds what it has. what could cause that? im still baffled....that or my mind is just still mush, me go to sleep now
It seems to me like the air somehow isn't getting IN to that cylinder. That's where I would look now, anyway.
Good luck.