Reply To: Another new guy question

[fisherman6]

I agree with you that he should have been upfront with the low compression, especially to a person new to the hobby. It is possible that he didn’t ever check it as you stated. I know many people that do not check it other than by feel. Feel will usually tell you if it will run or not, but not always. I tend to check compression on motors I buy on Craigslist, Letgo, or something like that if I’m picking it up myself.

At meets I just go by feel but often I buy motors that are stuck. I buy those at a parts motor price because those are “like a box of chocolates” most of the time. I have had plenty of stuck motors turn out to be runners with some attention and elbow grease. I have also had them turn out to be too much of a mess to save. I have also had motors that felt like they had excellent compression turn out to have scored cylinders and crankcase leaks that made them better suited to be parts donors. That’s all part of the fun and the gamble.

You probably already know to check for water in the gearcase too. I personally like to find old dark lube in them and little or no water. If it has fresh lube in it who’s to say it wasn’t just changed and the leak is just not bad enough for the oil to run / drip out. With parts motors, though, I usually just leave that up to chance. As you become more experienced you will get much better at picking out which motors you really want to buy. You will learn a lot of the basic stuff pretty quickly and we are all here to help each other out.
-Ben

OldJohnnyRude on YouTube