Poor Boy,
I thank you for taking the time to reply.
The initiall problem was that there was only 20 pounds of compression in number #2 piston while the rest had 130. The manifold vacuum was 30 and fluctuating widely. When we took the rocker cover off on Thursday night, we found that the exhaust lifter on #2 was not pumping up and figured that was the cause of the problem. We put in new lifters, push rods and rockers. Mike adjusted the rockers while I cleaned the parts to put back on. Mike is a good mechanic, makes everthing look easy and does things three times as fast as I can. But the engine would not start. Later Mike figured that it had no compression--probably because the rockers were too tight. Mike worked on it again Firday and found the bent push rods. He put it back together and it would hardly run.
Tonight I took the valve cover back off and checked all the push rods for straightness and the lifters for mushiness. All checked out well. Then I readjusted the rocker arms using the old #1 piston up and then #6 up system. I think that it was right this time although I can not figure what I did diferrently than Mike did.
I checked and the rocker arms were both moving equally on #2 and the new lifters are firm but the compression is still 20-30. There was no blow by or backfiring or external signs of a head gasket leak originally. The only problem was that the truck just seemed to miss badly when it was cold but that cleared after it warmed up
Monday I will pull the head. Hopefully, it will be an easily fixed valve problem or an unusual head problem but I fear it will be a bad piston.
I guess you have already figured out that I am not putting this engine in a Cobra
. Nor am I much of a mechanic. Again thank you for prompt reply and interest even though this is not a Cobra or even a Ford problem. I will let you know what I find.
Rick