Price out a full rebuild kit, then compare that to the price of a good boneyard engine. You can find a decent used 4.6 for $1000 or so.

If you have NO compression in 2 cylinders, there's more than just a head gasket problem.

 

I'd suspect that the loss of compression was due to the cylinders getting washed down with fuel so often during your testing. Ask him if he squirted oil into those cylinders and then rechecked for compression (wet compression test). That will tell you if it's a "hard" internal failure that requires a rebuild/replacement of the engine or if it's just a transient issue.

Since you never told us anything about the history of the truck, it's not possible to do much more than speculate. You started the conversation with a sole focus on the fuel pressure symptom.

 

Its a 2000 supercab with a 4.6, has about 142,000 miles. I bought it not running for a grand, and the previous owner said that one day he started it, went inside to get something, came out and it had died, not to start again.

I am also wondering what it means if it is flooded, and if that tells me anything like if it broke a timing chain, or the gasket blew.

 

So I got it back home today, and talked to the mechanic a bit. He said that he only actually tested 2 cylinders on the drivers side, and they had no compression, so he stopped right there. He said he would have to tear into it in order to find whats happening, so, (may be a bad idea) I decided I can give it a shot myself, to keep expenses down.

He threw out an idea that maybe the timing chain skipped, I am wondering if there would be a lot of rattling and banging if that were the case when I turn it over?

 

I got the drivers side valve cover off, and lo and behold, 4 of the 8 roller rockers (or whatever theyre called, followers?) were sitting loose in there. One was snapped in half, and the other 3 were cracked and bent. Anybody know what that means?

 

 

Yeah, that would be a problem. I would consider weighing all of the costs associated with fixing it vs replacing it. If you could find a running salvage motor vs a reman you'll save some money. But I defer to some of the more knowledgeable members

 

It might be worth it to rent a borescope and look in all the cylinders. I'm almost betting it hydrolocked and/or the timing chain broke. I'd also start looking in the boneyards for a good used engine.

 

Followers don't just break like that without some kind of other interference

 

Right, so I ordered a bore scope like glc suggested, and if everything checks out piston wise, I will pull the timing cover and take some pictures of any funny business in there. It was also suggested to me that I get it back in time, replace the followers, and do a leakdown test to see if it holds pressure.
My question is if the followers are broken, does that mean bent valves?