Just bought a 1987 245 in Southern California that seems to have only 125,000 miles. No rust. Engine is clean. Spent several days tidying up 23 years of little to no maintenace. Heat stress seems to be an issue here.
Last timing belt was changed in 1997 at 54,000. Miles on odometer seem to be accurate according to carfax and California smog reports. Replaced timing belt, gear seals, water pump, coil, distributor. New plugs, wires, cap, rotor.
Cleaned out the idle control valve, air mass meter. New temp sensor. Checked the wire harnesses, made repairs, everything looks good.
Some dark residue in the coolant reservoir. Lots of vacuum leak sources repaired.
On start up, water popped out of the reservoir pretty good. Timing marks are in line with the scope. But engine idles incredibly rough --smooths out when foot put on gas. It is like it has no compression, or no gas. Today, car starts for few seconds and shuts down hard. I replaced all gaskets except the head gasket and they were all original, dry, brittle. I pulled the plugs today and they were fouled with oil, sludgy. When I first got the car the new plugs were fouled with gas and I went about first trying to remedy a gas flood condition--create good spark and fix the vacuum leaks. I have a compression gauge and a fuel pressure gauge, but am at a loss to understand what I am looking at here. Any suggestions?
If the head gasket is bad, a compression test will not be accurate, and it idles so rough it is hard to think about running the fuel test. But I am open to any ideas at all.