Changed head gasket.... lost compression... help!

I have a 96 Nissan Sentra and I have been having overheating problems.
From my diagnosis, I determined that it was a blown head gasket.
After changing the head gasket and putting everything back together, I
can't get the car started. I did a compression test and found that
the compression reads below 100 psi for all cylinders. Prior to
changing the gasket, I checked the compression and they read between
130 and 140#.

I should mention that I checked and double checked the timing of the
cam gears and the timing chain. I checked against the shop manual
and it all checks out. What else could I be doing wrong?? Please
help.

Al Kondo

Al Kondo > wrote in message
...
> I have a 96 Nissan Sentra and I have been having overheating problems.
> From my diagnosis, I determined that it was a blown head gasket.
> After changing the head gasket and putting everything back together, I
> can't get the car started. I did a compression test and found that
> the compression reads below 100 psi for all cylinders. Prior to
> changing the gasket, I checked the compression and they read between
> 130 and 140#.
>
> I should mention that I checked and double checked the timing of the
> cam gears and the timing chain. I checked against the shop manual
> and it all checks out. What else could I be doing wrong?? Please
> help.
>
> Al Kondo

Assuming it has hydraulic lifters they'll take a while to settle down after
the head has been off which is possibly why your compression is low. Plus,
if you can't start the engine then you aren't testing the compression hot
which is how it should be done. It probably isn't starting because you've
left a wire or tube off or done something else you'll look back on shortly
and say 'how dumb was that'.