Over compression?

[Gadgetman]

Yeah, it's me and my 1.4i again...

After the oil-change and sump cleanout, I've only driven Shorter trips to the store and such(Don't like unnecessary driving. It's expensive... )

Anyway, on friday I had to drive to work instead of taking the bus, and this time it heated up to the '3/4' mark and hovered there, With an occasional Climb a mm or so higher. Of course, the heater was running at full blast because of yeah, Winter...

It was also feeling 'not right' With regards to Power in 5th gir, so when I got back home I pulled the plugs and ran a compression test.
This time I used a 'quality' gauge I borrowed from a friend(mine is 'buried' somewhere in my garage.) and instead of hitting around 10Bar, it showed 12Bar compression. 20% higher than it's supposed to be.

So, my 'el cheapo' gauge may be slightly off...
And high compression may explain the 'not right' feeling, I expect With hesitation and lack of grunt.
But can it also explain it running hot?

Today I'll go over the cams and check the clearances.
(I thought I did a decent job of that earlier. There wasn't that much carbon buildup, either, and cleaned it up pretty well when I did the headgasket)

[ron]

Your high comp figure shows the valves are sealing so clearances are within tolerance.2 bars up is OK just shows all is working well. Some engines seem to have better parts match than usual & work better as a result.:thumbsup:

[geoff]

Count your blessings as many with a lesser compression reading would give their coil packs for 12 Bar.

The higher the compression ratio the higher the thermal efficiency of the engine and the greater the " bang per buck " as the saying goes so no it will not account for your running issues.

Head gasket and other works done ... Hmmmm.....now that would be a candidate and worthy of a double check.

I'd check your valve timing just in case it is not correct and also the valve clearances, at least it is cheap and without much to dismantle.