I have a 2000 Camaro V6. The car was smoking from the tailpipes and and so I did a compression test on it. It was low. So I changed the head gaskets. cleaned all the valves. and put all new gasket and seals in the top part of the motor. Fired it back up and the p0300 came back. so i rechecked the compression. It is still low. Anyone have any helpful tips on what it may be. Warped heads, Worn out cam…. Tell me what you think.

 

Low compression is due to having worn piston rings, and/or worn valve guides, or a blown head gasket. Check compression in a cylinder. Then give a few squirt of oil into the plug hole aiming to hit the upper part of the piston so you coat the rings. Check compression again. If the reading goes up to more "normal" specs, your rings are bad. If not, it's the heads that need work.

 

I did the wet check on compression already. It did not change one bit so I assumed my rings and pistons were fine. Would the heads needing work be throwing a p0300 code also?

 

It could if the smoke coming out of your exhaust is blue, meaning you're burning oil and likely to be fouling an O2 sensor.

 

Ok. Ill check the smoke when I get home. Thanks. If I find out anything else I will post it up.

 

Blue smoke from the tailpipe is oil, and will small like burned oil. Continuous white steam (not smoke) after the engine has warmed up is coolant, and will have a sweet smell.

 

A low or flat cam can also cause low compression. Get a dial indicator and check what the lift is at the pushrods and then compare to what it should be. Dead cam will still show low compression with a wet test.

Massey

 

What low value is the low compression reading?

 

lowest compression is sitting at 45. my compression test showed passenger side of motor front to back, 140-60-60. driver side front to back 60-45-140.

 

A "healthy" engine should have no more than a 10% variance between the highest and lowest cylinder. Your readings are not good. It's too late now, but while you had your heads off, you should have taken them into a machine shop to get looked at and reworked if necessary. The one possible drawback of doing that is a nice tight pair of heads on an otherwise worn engine can cause ring blow-by issues since cylinder combustion pressures will seek the path of least resistance. How many miles are on your engine?