Ok so i have a friend that drives a 97 cavalier and it died while in operation Wed.  Yesterday i got it bad to our place, live in the same apt complex, and took a look at it.  Checked spark, it looked pretty so thats not the problem.  There is no resistance from the ending at all when you try to start it and it does not start and smoke, fuel rich smoke, backs up through the intake. I pulled the valve cover to take a peak and realized that the POS is not over head cam, so after a bump just to see if everything was operating, it was i put it back together and checked compression with my finger on an empty plug hole, no pressure.  then another with the same outcome. 

So me and another friend have come to the conclusion that there has to be a problem with the rings, esp because with a flashlight at TDC of the cylinders i peeked in you could see crud, wet crud, on top of the pistons furthering my theory of dead rings.

The description of what happened up to the shutoff : "I was driving and it kept getting weaker and weaker until i noticed the steering was stiff [engine died duh] then the brakes didn't work right [engine still dead duh] and I stopped and tried to start it and it wouldn't."

so what so ya think, i am pretty sure its not worth fixing but whats your .02

PS: Its the 2.2L OHV engine

did you check timing belt?

Well the cam is still rotating, the valves open and close, and it has a timing chain.  The problem being it is OHV so the chain isn't visable, i though lifters went out with 90s in 4 cyls.  And with what i was given, there was not noise out of the ordinary, no jerks, banks or anything just got weaker and weaker and stopped running.  Its been burning oil for a while, the valve cover gasket was trash too, it was leaking something terrible on cylinder 4's plug. 

Basically i am not willing to rebuild the engine so i am just trying to anil down whether is worth the shop time or not, i am guessing its not.

Not an issue I've seen before.  I used to rock an 02 cavalier with the same engine (not exactly the same, but in 98 they made minor tweaks to it).  Check out www.j-body.org- I'm sure somebody over there might have an answer.

I see well with knowing that its been burning oil for a long time and #4 is covered with crap i would say its just cheaper to get a lower milage motor and swap over rebuilding the one he has.

Well first it has a timing chain not belt and I worked at the Chevy dealer for 5 year and they have always had probs with the head gaskets on the cavs.
So with no compression I would start there.
BTW head gasket on the cavs are gravy.
You should be able to do it in about 3 hours.

yeah i suspected it might be that but wouldn't there be a coolant loss with a head gasket.  I mean this thing hasn't burnt a drop of coolant except when the water pump has gone bad ... twice.

Only if it is blown at a coolant port.
It may have blown at an oil port or between two cylinders.

Quote from: joshr08 on February 27, 2009, 07:13:43 AM
I see well with knowing that its been burning oil for a long time and #4 is covered with crap i would say its just cheaper to get a lower milage motor and swap over rebuilding the one he has.

Agreed. find the nearest pull-apart

10-4 going to pull the head tomorrow probably.