I've always done mine warm or cold with all plugs removed. If you have a compression tester that you just "jam" into the hole then, unless you have a remote starter switch, it's a two man job or if your's threads into the spark plug hole you can deal with it by yourself yourself. When cranking just make sure you crank the engine over the same number of times on all cylinders or your results won't be valid. Normally you'll be pumped up after 5 revs...

What you are looking for, more than anything, is a fairly consistent reading between cylinders - I think +-10% sticks in my head but the manual should say. If you have two adjacent cylinders that have low and equal compression this might be a head gasket issue. If you have a cylinder that is considerably lower than the rest you can squirt some oil into the sylinder and try again. If the compression increases it usually indicates ring seal and if it stays the same it points to possibly a burnt valve or valve not sealing for some reason.

Have fun,

Justin B.
83 244 Turbo