Ummm - well I am not arguing with anyone - just explaining my situation and why all the info given to me was investigated and eliminated.
I did remove the valve cover and reported on it last night - mainly to appease you. I knew very well that the springs would be fine. The smoothness of the rocker arm operation and smoothness of the engine operation (at 2000 RPM's) confirmed this days ago.
I can also confirm the car has no vacuum leaks and has manual brakes. The only thing I haven't confirmed (yet) is the integrity of the compression rings. The car is running exactly as it did in the fall of 2012. We drove to a steam show about 25 miles away and as soon as I got there and was crawling thru a parking lot, I felt the car 'shake' at the idle speed. I knew right away it was running on 5 cyls. When I revved it beyond 1500, it smoothed out.
As mentioned initially, the cranking compression turned out to be less than 90, and solvent would drain down rapidly into sump.
Only difference today is that I apparently have higher compression in faulty cylinder.
I will leave it at that, thank everyone for their various (and appreciated) ideas and let you get in the last word.
Now back to Allpar.
