Ok, we got much of the prep work done today and stopped just shy of removing
the heads. It's kind of a mess in the engine bay - not super terrible but
I've found several smaller things that show signs of the extreme heat.

Anyhow, we did a compression test first - I've been searching the archives
for what numbers would be considered "normal" but no matter what I search
the archives are returning no results. I also don't have my Bentley right at
the moment (loaned it to a friend) so I'm not even sure what cylinder is
which although I believe it is as follows:

front of van

3.....................2
4.....................1

rear of van

So using that as a model here were the results of the compression test. Test
was obviously done cold - and we checked each one twice - so the first
number is reading one and the second is reading 2.

Cyl 1:  100 / 120
Cyl 2:  100 / 110
Cyl 3:  125 / 143
Cyl 4:  100 / 110

So am I at least in the ball park? Should I be concerned that #3 read so
much higher? Can I assume the numbers would have been a bit higher if I were
able to do the test on a warmed up engine?

That's it for now - nothing more to report really. Thanks again for everyone
who has replied to this thread - it really has helped.

--
Thanks,

Jeff
'90 Carat (Grover)
'86 (We call this one Parts)
'78 Bus (Melissa) Patty's Bus