Mechlanical inclanitiies

[AOE]

im fixing my friends car he just bought (a little off subject but i need advice). Its a 1992 toyota tercel equiped with a 4 cylinder and a 5sp tranny.. replacing the head gasket, timing and puttingnew timing belt on. not doing anything else becuase the engine is in good shape.
I have two problems :confused: :mad:

1)when we pulled the head the gasket appeared fine but know we are losing compression someplace and its not the piston rings becuase they create a vacuum when you put your hand over the cylinder and hand crank it. im thinking that whoever opened it up last reused the stretch bolts. do i need to use any sealent or silicone on the head gasket or is that a bad idea?

2) i need to get the pulley that is connected to the front of crankshaft off so i can get to the timing belt. the book says to use a prybar or screwdriver to hold it in place while you twist te nut off. i have tried this and it doesnt work. is there some other way i can do this?

[Tourettes]

im sorry, im half buzzed, and was wondering......

Is it a jeep? if not, i cant help you.]
good luck!

[OBX-AUTOMOTIVE]

IS IT AN OHC...AND ONE OTHER THING!! DID YOU CHECK THE HEAD??? WHY ARE YOU REPLACING THE HEAD GASKET,IN THE FIRST PLACE????.... :confused:

[Crazy_Jeepman]

Well testing piston or rings create a vacuum when you put your hand over the cylinder and hand crank it would not be a a very accurate method at all. A piston with a HOLE in it will pull vacuum. A comression test would have been the only way to determine the the problem. Sealer on a head gaskets is a Bad idea as well. To stop the crank pulley from turning have a helper grab the drive belts as close to the pulley as possible and squeezeing them together, tightly. be sure he has both sides of the belt in the both hands and squeezeing them together as to give a brake effect, or pull the starter and put a prybar into the flywheel teeth and have it bind up.

[Rogue]

ok Toyo certified tech here - I've spent about 4 years working on Toyos, first of all after you found out you had low compression did you do a leak down test? this is an essential step regardless of the type of car!!! toyo very rarely (cept 3.0) had head gasket failures. just cause the compression was low doesn't mean the head gasket is bad - low compression could be caused by valve timing, burnt valves, slow cranking speed just to name a few. since you have the engine tore down already and there is no obvious scoring on cylinder walls or any holes in any pistons (pulling a vacuum on your hand like CJ said doesn't prove nada) i would take the cylinder head to the machine shop to check for straightness, valve seal and checked for cracks. as for the crank pulley i use my 1/2 impact to loosen the bolt, otherwise you need special tool. you can then pry the pulley off with 2 screwdrivers putting equal psi on both sides be careful not to pry on plastic timing cover, for most amatuers i would recommend a puller there are 6 x 1.0 threaded bungs in the pulley itself to secure the puller to. would this be the 1.6 or 1.8 engine? i can get more specific, it will be hard to find the displacement on the engine data tag so the engine code would be fine (4AFE?)

[Rogue]

oh yea about the stretch bolts - technically yes you should replace; i've had good luck not replacing them - why wouldn't i replace? cause they're expensive!