Hi Everyone,
I believe I have a chevy 350 (I still haven't gotten a straight answer) and the engine is in dire need of reworking. I did a compression check on the cylinders, and I got 92-110 PSI across them all. The pressure dropped as I went back from the front cylinders as well. I poured some oil into cylinder 1, and it raised the pressure by 3 PSI, so I'm guessing the rings are good, or at least passable.
My confusion starts at the valves. The lashing on them were shot, varying widely from heavy preload to a large gap. As I backed out the adjusting nuts, the pressure kept going up, until I got to 120 PSI from cylinders that gave me 95 previously (I stopped at that point, it may still go up).
Would bad valves be a serious culprit for my weak engine?
Is this a common problem to SBCs or is it an outlier scenario?
Is there any way to get it back, barring a costly valve job?
The engine ran ridiculously rich, and the plugs are pure black. The carb will be cleaned and rebuilt, but is there any similar hope for the heads?
