Cavalier low compression

Hi,
I recently had the transmission rebuilt on a 1994 cavalier, about 3 or 4 days after I got the car back from the transmission shop the engine seemed to start missing (jerking).

I took it to a mechanic and they took the spark plugs out and checked the compression. He told me that three cylinders have 150 lbs of compression but one cylinder had only 90 lbs of compression.

He seems to think it is a head gasket problem but the head gasket does not seem to be leaking anywhere. Does anyone out there know if there is anything else that could cause this problem?

The car only has a little over 66,000 miles on it.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Saturnguy

Piston rings. Bad intake or exhaust valves.

I just found out that the head gasket is leaking, it is leaking in the rear of the engine, you can see the coolant ooze out when the car is running.

The cylinder that he said had low compression is in the front of the engine.

Could I have a bad valve along with the head gasket leak?

Anyway, I since I recently had the transmission rebuilt and new struts put on the car I think I'll just have the head gasket fixed and have them check the valves when they do that job.

What is a fair price for that kind of work on a 2.2 L Chevrolet engine?

Yea you could have both. It all depends on the place you are getting it fixed. A dealer will charge more but the job will be done right. Or they will fix it for free. Do you know the shop, can you trust them?

one i did at the dealership i worked at was somwhere around $850 all said and done. had head milled, cleaned, and flow tested cause it was wapred real bad. car had been overheated because head gasket was leaking. in all honesty, it's not too hard to do if you are a shadetree mechanic, might have to buy a couple tools. biggest thing is downtime of vehicle. a shop can probably do it in a day to day and half depending on machine shop time needed.

Thanks, I've done some checking around and decided to get the car fixed, I think $750 is a fair price.

I will do some things on a car such as disc brakes, starter, etc but this is too big of a job for me and I don't have the proper tools, for me it's well worth paying someone else to do this job and I will get some sort of warranty.

After this is done I think my daughter should have a pretty decent car. I would hope anyway.

Thanks for all your help.