Compression Tests at West Coast Tire and Service

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Compression Tests
In its basic form, a combustion engine is a rather crude way of generating energy. It's essentially a bunch of explosions happening inside a hollowed-out piece of iron or alumunum. But take a closer look and you'll quickly learn how refined an engine really is .For modern engines, a full engine cycle is four strokes, which refers to how many times a piston must travel up and down inside a cylinder during the cycle. The engine draws in precise micro-measured amount of fuel and air through valves, compresses the mixcture, combusts the mixture and releases them. These four strokes are commonly referred to as suck, squeeze, bang, and blow. The Compression Stroke/Squeeze is when the intake valve closes and the piston travels upward to squeeze the fuel and air mixture. If there is no compression in that cylinder, the expolosion it creates does not match the other clyinders therefor creating a misfire. A compression test is testing the compression in each cylinder making sure the engine is running to its full potential.

Also see:

• check engine lights
• pressure tests
• smoke test