Mark Maras

There shouldn't be any detectable slop in the u-joints in any direction.

Or if it's Lucas, it's a smoke fitting.

I agree. Over the years it always seemed that the lock nuts were tighter than I had tightened them. I found that just giving the wrench a good bump (not enough to hurt) with my hand would secure them.

I believe they're closed cell foam. An easy test would be weigh it, submerge it in fuel for a day or two and reweigh it.

Thanks for the video. Do the other plugs show the same intermittent spark? I'm betting no.

@jalexquijano Have you tried the spark tester recently without a different distributor? Plug the tester into each spark plug and see if there's a poor spark on #4.

Yeah, I've still got that gut feeling that the problem lies between the rotor and the sparkplugs. We know all the components are quality products but the connections are what I'd like to confirm. That cheap inline spark tester in post #152 would be a definitive test.

Google "appliance wheel center caps".

Cereal box gasket saturated with grease or oil.

I'd make one and use a paper punch for the bolt holes.

@jalexquijano A spark tester is an excellent idea and cheap too.

There's something that ZedHead mentioned a while back as a possibility and that's a bad oil ring in #4. We've covered most, if not all, of the easy things. How does one check to see if an oil ring is bad without pulling a piston? The only thing I can think of is a borescope?

So, not enough miles driven to determine oil usage?

What about oil usage? Miles per quart or how often do you top it up?

The numbers look OK. Lets try heading down another path momentarily. Something I don't remember discussing in the past is oil usage. How many miles do you drive before it needs a quart of oil and are there any oil leaks?

I don't like to compression test a hot engine because I don't like to remove spark plugs from a hot engine. However if the plugs come out easily it's better to test the engine when it's warm.

Remove the coil wire, remove the spark plug wires and spark plugs, get comfortable in the seat and turn the engine over (wide open throttle) with the starter until you see oil pressure on the gauge. It shouldn't take long. Then proceed with the test.

That should work just fine. Good luck and I said earlier, build some oil pressure with the starter, plugs out, first.

But first recheck the compression with the throttle wide open.

The only thing I can add is I remove the plugs and turn the engine over until I see oil pressure, then test. When I didn't start with oil pressure #1 would read low the first time and higher on the second test. Good luck.

To each his own, I guess. It reminds me of the Excalibur from the sixties.

Gas pedal? The best one for heel and toeing.

Do you know if he held the throttle wide open during the tests?

@jalexquijano This info may add another piece to the puzzle.

I'd like to see the results from another compression test. I'm beginning to think it may be a bad oil ring as suggested by Zed Head.