Thread: what did i do wrong? (long post)

Any idea what I should do with this engine?
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I was told the rough spots while I'm turning the engine by hand are the valves hitting the pistons, is that right?

Very well could be. Really depends what the leak-down tells you. And yes, if the timing is off, a compression test is useless. Still, I'm confused when you say the cams "don't line up" since really there isn't a reference point for them to align to.

What I mean by the cams don't line up, when cyl #1 is at tdc the painted marks on the timing chain do not line up, basically the mechanical timing is off, and by alot

If you're talking about the cam sprocket marks not lining up with the chain marks, thats normal. They rarely do after assembly.

Ok, so finally I got ahold of a leakdown tester, if I'm actually using it correctly my engine is blown, gauge does not move off of 0 the hole time air is applied
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Cylinder #1 @tdc no valves open- air leaks right through into the intake and crankcase
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Cylinder #2 @tdc no valves open- leaks through to cylinder #4 spark plug hole
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Cylinder #3 @tdc no valves open- leaks into the intake and cylinder #2 (probably because intake valve is open)
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Cylinder #4 @tdc no valves open- leaks into cylinder #3 and crankcase
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I have the harbor freight tester and per the instructions it said remove all spark plugs and listen for leaks with throttle body open and oil dipstick removed, but I left the valve cover off so I could make sure the valves were closed at tdc, I verified tdc by putting a zip tie in the spark plug hole and turning crank nut with a wrench and "loading rings"
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So my next question is who will have a sr20ve and a p11 trans for sale in january

Well, if it never moves off 0%, you have a perfectly sealing engine. The percents on the gauge tell you percent of leakage, so long as your below 15% you're good. Also, you'll want to take note of where air is leaking to, whether it be through the intake, exhaust, or past the rings to the crankcase. Some leakage is expected, but if your leaking as you said and the gauge never moved off 0, you did something wrong.

According to the instructions that came with the tester I'm supposed to remove all spark plugs, connect the tester, connect the air supply, turn the regulator till it reads 0, and then read the amount of leakage at the gauge, test the remaining cylinders
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Am I supposed to remove the air supply hose?
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The whole time the air supply is connected to the gauge air flows through the leaks like there is no restriction,
I have my air reguator set to 70psi on my air compressor

no, you keep pressure hooked up. And you'll always have leakage. The question is what percentage the leakage is. Do you have a picture of what you've got?

If you send me your email I can send a pic to you (I'm on my blackberry), otherwise you can look it up on harborfreight.com the cylinder leakage tester that they have

alright, so when you hook it all up to a TDC cylinder, what does the right dial read? I'd bet it's somewhere in the 10-20% range.