Low compression on one cylinder

[Marcozi]

Well going through this little 2.3 on my 96 ranger. I had a slightly rough idle I couldn't seem to get out of it. Well compression on cylinder 1 is 124. The rest are 160-165. My guess is something happened to make that one cylinder low. What would you do with it? Just run it as is? I wonder how long it can operate as is? Swap a used engine... The truck is relatively solid but not in the best shape plenty of dents. And scratches, mostly superficial stuff undercarriage and what not isn't to rusty. Check out the cylinder wall pictures below. Tell me what you think.

Wonder what the other cylinders look like?

 

[wheelman]

Wonder what the other cylinders look like?

They look ok some carbon on pistons but good otherwise.

 

[wheelman]

took the plug out tonight and looked into the cylinder again with my boroscope. I saw this!! I was pretty sure it was coolant but I wanted to be sure. I hooked shop air to the cylinder and then my coolant pressure tester to the radiator. I could make the pressure tester rise by pumping air into the cylinder from my compressor. Ok pretty definitive. So then I unscrew the air from the cylinder and do the pressure test for the cooling system and it held strong for 10 minutes. So then I put it all back together and I did a block test the **** truck passes a block test. It doesn't smoke and there's no coolant in the oil or oil in the coolant. So clearly there is coolant getting into the cylinder I can even see rust and pitting in the cylinder wall from this issue. However no other symptoms except the slightly low compression. I didn't get any leaking from the valves either. Crazy!!! Has anyone ever seen a 2.3 Lima do this? Just seems odd.

 

[ripcord]

Very minor head gasket leak? Possibly does it only when hot?

 

[wheelman]

Very minor head gasket leak? Possibly does it only when hot?

Seems like a minor head gasket leak however I think it stops when it warms up. I think when it cools down it'll leak a little bit. I could be wrong.