Leak down test

[teamdaemon at comcast.net]

>  My shop is not familiar with a "leak down test" Could not find a description 
> in archievs. Losing two quarts per 800 miles.No leaks,no smoke,120,000 mi. 
> Compression good. They guess valve guides. Thank you,Dave

Eeep.  I would be very worried about a shop not familiar with a leakdown test!

For the record, I have been without the 200 for, um, a while now.  :(  I took it 
in to get a lot of little things checked out, but the biggie was a hard start 
condition when the car was cold (sat for more than a few hours, or overnight).

Long story short, bad head gasket.  The compression test did not catch it, all 5 
cylinders came back pretty strong.  But the leakdown showed leakdown into the 
cooling system.  Theory was that as I drove, it would pressurize the cooling 
system.  Shut the car down, the presuized cooling system would now leakdown into 
the cylinders.  Then when i tried to start the car, I was trying to start with 
coolant in the cylinders.  Not very combustable.   :(

The head was warped.  It has since been sent out, "unwarped", planned and a full 
valve job has been done.  Also replaed all lifters.

I will hopefully be getting my car back within the next week.  It's on;y been 
2.5 MONTHS.

Paul
Waltham, MA
paul at clarity dot net