So tonight I had a guy come over and scope my engine and do a compression test.
This bike has sat for at least 10 years and I don't think it was running when stored. I bought for $400 so worse case scenario I could part it out. It is complete. I cleaned out the tank and installed a new fuel pump. I didn't reconnect the fuel lines or electric.
I hooked up a battery and everything lit up. I grounded the plugs and pushed the starter.
Cylinder1 had 30lbs, cylinder 2 had 90, 3 and 4 had 120.
Also hear a click every revolution of the crank
The book says it could be rings, valves or head gasket.
Looks like this work is over my head. Does anyone know a good BMW mechanic in Wisconsin? (Not a dealer}
Not sure what to do at this point.

If it has been sitting for years and you tested it dry.....dry bores. Then you get that result. The book doesnt tell you this.

Piston rings get stuck in grooves and low compression results.

Dont get mechanic until you sort this part.

You can squirt oil or WD40 in the plug holes, turn the engine over to get it spread about the bores. I would try to get it running if you have cleaned the fuel system.

Valve clearances are easy to check diy too

92KK 84WW Olaf wrote:Dont get mechanic until you sort this part.
You can squirt oil or WD40 in the plug holes, turn the engine over to get it spread about the bores. I would try to get it running if you have cleaned the fuel system.

Keep the battery at peak charge. There's likely to be a lot of engine cranking in your future as you get this Brick to run.  A weak battery can create additional obstacles to resolve.

Click every revolution of the crank is a bottom end or something driving straight from bottom end?. Am I right in thinking every drive off it is geared?

Of course that could mean hiding a broken or bent valve. Could the click be inside the Hall Sensor cover?

Broken camshaft issues have arisen before but since 3 and 4 are opposite end of the camshaft and have compression that seems totally unlikely. There are also lot sof posts about piston rings sticking after sitting so its not a new one.

Its easy to remove the cam cover, if you do that be very careful retorquing those bolts, they strip mega easy and one of them goes into a camshaft bearing cap! At this stage err on the side of caution.

Pull the spark plug for no 1 and if you could get a little camera in to see whats it like in there to check out the valves. I still think possibly stuck rings and maybe some carb cleaner in the bore for a few days to free up the rings a bit. Then some oil and redo compression test.

I have no idea what could be causing the click when the engine is rotated.  It is possible that there may be a sticky valve that is snapping back to click against the cam lobe, but that is just a wild guess. 

If it were my bike, I would remove the spark plugs, cam and crankshaft covers, and the cam chain cover.  Then with a fully charged battery I would spin the motor while watching and listening for the source of the click. 

Sitting for a long time will cause the rings to stick, causing compression issues.  A shot of penetrating oil like P Blaster in the spark plug hole can help loosen them up and raise the compression if the rings are causing the loss of pressure.  Once the engine is running, a pint of Marvel Mystery Oil in the crankcase and a few ounces in the first couple of tanks of gas will loosen up the rings completely.  I did this with a K100 I had that had sat for 16 years and the compression came back to specification in all the cylinders after a couple hours of running time.

That "click" might instead be the "snap" of a faulty ground connection, plug connection or coil.

I tipped the bike to the right and sprayed a bunch of WD40 in the spark plug holes. I'll wait a few days, then pull the valve cover off and see what happens when I turn it over.
Thanks for all of the advice.
I guess i'm not ready to give up yet.

This is probably "way out there", but if there was a sticky valve the shim may have shifted and is jammed between the cam and the spring preventing the valve from closing fully.  That could cause a low compression reading in that cylinder. 

With the cam cover removed, take a good look at all the valve shims and make sure they are properly seated in the spring.  You might also take a few minutes to check valve clearances, especially on the exhaust valves where a tight clearance may have caused a burnt valve which could also result in low compression.

Thing is, if there is just one sticky valve, it can't click with every crankshaft rotation, only every second rotation.

A bad tooth on a crankshaft sprocket could do it but I have never seen a mention of this ever happing on a K engine.

If you go from the drive end of the crankshaft to main seal and output.......there is a a thread or two about a worn out rivet exiting the output shaft and landing in the sump. But thats also a long way off.

If the 'click' is actually a 'tick', the comment about a could or HT lead is bang on because the coils do fire on every rotation because of wasted spark system [fire on compression and exhaust stroke] and should definitely look into that. The coil nearest the engine is No 1 and 4, the rear coil is 2/3. They would also be high on the list, failed coil, bad HT lead, bobbins missing can all give a tick sound. They wont give low compression though, so bear in mind you could have both but separate issues going on there.

None of these fixes are expensive or complex if the valves are ok and from a financial point of view I would first look at seeing that there is no burnt valve issue due to clearances etc. But to be honest it costs little to oil and get the bores/rings sorted and if you have a burnt valve, doing this won't make it any worse. Camera is a cheap way of getting in there. If clearances are off thats easy to fix with minimal tools, you can swap shims without removing the camshafts. If you eliminate damaged valves first all other likely fixes are simpl enough and easy to diy.

I went out this after noon and touched the starter and the clicking noise has gone away.
I added some more WD 40 in Cylinders 1 and 2 and will recheck tomorrow.
Seems like the lube may be working.

davidaryun wrote:Seems like the lube may be working.

Keep the battery at peak charge. Spray oil in cylinders 3 and 4 also. Run the compression tests with the throttle wide open.

WD40 is not a lube.  It's basically a little fish oil and a bunch of solvents and silicone water dispersants.  You are better off using a good penetrating oil like P Blaster that comes in a spray can with a capillary tube.  Follow that up with Marvel Mystery oil in the crankcase.

Point-Seven-five wrote:WD40 is not a lube.  It's basically a little fish oil . . .

Balderdash! On the other hand, its name doesn't hold a candle to Marvel Mystery Oil.   I've always been partial to Fogging Oil because that name evokes the graveyard scenes in Plan 9 From Outer Space which, of course, led to the inevitable scene of stampeding buffalo.

Yeah, MMO is a relic of early 20th century marketing, back when medicine shows peddled heroin and cocaine elixirs from town to town.  Maybe it is snake oil, but I and a lot of my friends have been using it in a lot of engines for the last 50 years with good results.

Whatever.

So whatever happened to plans one to eight from the outer space guys? You never hear of them. Okay, maybe you'd never have heard of 'Plan One'; that would just have been 'The Plan', but I still don't recollect any mention of Plan Two, or five, or whatever.

We don't talk about those. The government still has them under wraps in case Mars invades.

Suzi Q wrote:So whatever happened to plans one to eight from the outer space guys? You never hear of them.

Dai wrote:We don't talk about those. The government still has them under wraps in case Mars invades.

Clearly, we've veered off track here. These plans were generated by alien cultures to rid the universe of the threat posed by Earthling meddling. To avoid widespread panic, governments have been concealing the potential of this alien intervention.

Researchers seem to agree that the previous eight plans that also failed were:
The prehistoric collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation
The Toba Catastrophe
Black Plague
The eruption of Krakatoa
Spanish Influenza
Nuclear Weapons
Spandex
The Edsel

Yeah, I can see that. Spandex was a close call.
For humanity.