Pontiac Repair: 92 Pontiac Grand Am 2.2L bad compression, compression gauge, head gasket

Question
i am about to dig into my sisters car to figure what the problem is. The car doesnt start at all... it died on her a week ago sputtering and not having any power. Now just doesnt start. The shop told her the compression on one cylinder was 70 which is extremely low. Would i be looking at replacing the cylinder head/ head gasket? it has about 93000 miles on it but maintained on a regular basis.
Thanks

Answer
Hi Bob:

well what ever cylinder is low on compression try this first get a compression gauge and see exactly what that cylinder reads ther should not be more than 10% difference from the highest to the lowest cylinder. now that said what ever cylinder is low put a about a teaspoon full of oil in the cylinder and put the gauge back in and see what happens if the pressure increases drastically then you have a piston ring issue a cylinder wall issue. if no change at all then it's a valve issue or a head gasket (not too likely) more like a burnt valve or bad valve seat or a broken valve spring. if it had a valve spring issue you would hear some sort mechanical noise to go along with it.. No matter what your gonna have to take it apart to find out what the issue is.

good luck :)