Can test the ICM at your parts store. Yet they can read ok and good, yet fail under higher temps. But if yours is bad from the get go, it would fail at the store.

 

You nailed the problem on the compression test. 60 psi is not just not high enough. Does it hold at 60lbs or does it leak down also? It is not gonna run with that compression. You are going to need to go into the motor, pull the heads off and that will tell the rest of the story. When you pull off the heads, look at the pistons to see if the valves have made contact with them. Then take the heads and lay them on their side with the intake ports up and pour a little water in them...is it leaking around the valve seat? -yes...you have a mechanical timing issue that has bent the valves, probably needs new guides and valves and a valve job to seat the valves. If not then check the exhaust valves. If still not leaking I would check the timing and then inspect the head gasket to see if you have a obvious breech. Then you should check to insure that the head is true and does not need to be cut. If all 8 cylinders are low on compression, head gasket is pretty much out of the question and it is going to be the timing issue. When you check the timing, just align the dots on the cam gear and the crank, if they dont align then there you go. Also just so you know the timing didnt need to have failed to bent valves a good valve float will do that also. If the valves floated from over revving the engine for various reasons that would be all it would need to bend them. Other reasons for low compression generally would not cause all the cylinders to read low unless the engine is worn out or the victim of a serious dose of nitrous with lack of fuel. Good luck and pm me if I can be of assistance.

 

Would that happen just all the sudden? Cause it to shut down and not start? Why would it throw the opti spark code? I kinda assumed the low compression could be from cranking on it so much

 

Mine did not die all together i had an exhaust leak on the odd bank manifold. started with top end miss then lost at least one cylinder all together. found one seriously warped valve don't think the intake was not just rite either if your friend was driving with a bad exhaust leak you may have warped valves from that.

 

pull the water pump, pull the opti cap off and have a look see.

 

I will try and pull it today, but the opti was replaced after the break down...

 

oh, ok well then wth. so it wont try to start if you squirt some fuel in the tb

 

No, i think i might try putting oil in the cylinders to see if that will bring the compression up, cause i'm pretty sure the heads are pretty new as well

 

Okay, so i put oil in the cylinders but did not recheck compression yet. But the car did backfire a couple times when trying to crank it, which it hadn't done before

 

recheck compression and make sure there is no chance of leakage that could effect readout.