91 club car, new rebuild, low compression

jimbobh58

Newbie to Cub cars.
I just put new piston, rings, gaskets and seals in a 91 club car 341 side valve engine. Has spark and getting gas but (if my compression gauge is correct) is only got 50 compression. It will fire, but at low throttle. Is it possible just a valve is stuck? Would just like some ideas before I go ahead and pull the engine back out.
Thanks, Jim

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EZ-GOnewild

Hey jimbob, welcome to BGW!

A valve could be stuck, the cam could be flat or out of adustment. I'm sure you used a new head gasket.

jimbobh58

ty for your welcome,
yes I used a new head gasket, base gasket and side cover gasket (clutch side). The only alignment I could see on the cam and crank was the timing alignment marks and am sure I got that right.
I'll take off the valve cover and see if I can find anything there. Thanks for your reply
Jim

jimbobh58

ok, I took the valve cover off, but didn't want to damage the gasket, so I took off the head to take a look from that side, Valves were not stuck.see images below. this much looks pretty normal, but my first time seeing. so not 100% sure.

sonmtn

Did you use new valves? If so did you lapp them?

jimbobh58

I didn't replace the valves. only thing I did was clean the carbon on the cylinder

scottyb

Your thread caught my eye because I am about to attempt the same thing on my cart....Did you use standard size piston and rings?
Did you hone the cylinder?
Are all the rings in the proper locations?

jimbobh58

I used a standard Piston and just slightly honed the cylinder enough to get the shine off. I am pretty sure I got the rings correct, but I could of accidentally reversed the gaps. slotted ring on bottom, unplated iron ring in the middle groove and chrome plated on top. Top and third ring gaps face away from valves, middle ring gap faces toward the valves. I'll tear it down again this weekend and double check. Also there were no marks on the rings to know which way was up and I couldn't really see any taper so it was a 'best guess' which way was up.
Jim

scottyb

Keep us posted on this problem...Good luck!

sonmtn

My low compression problem turned out to be the intake valve. Just put alittle gas, wd40 etc. on the top of the valves and see if it seaps thru. I just used some valve lapping compound and it runs tons better. It only had 30lbs. of compression after rebuilding it so i knew something had to be up.