Pontiac Repair: Grand AM Cylinder pressure reading off ?, blown head gasket, grand am gt

Question
HI,
My 97 Grand AM GT is having some terrible problems. It has no power and is idling ruff and also is blowing out black smoke when I accelerate from a stop light. Basically I am not driving it. The Cylinder pressure reads ( from left to right) 220, 220, 210, 120.  Could this be a blown head gasket? I have 254,000 miles on the car. This problem occurred out of the blue. I would appreciate any imput.
Thanks,
Linda

Answer
Hi Linda:

well that cylinder that is low on compression. put a few drops of engine oil in the spark plug hole and then try a compression test again. if the compression increases the issue is a piston ring issue. If it doesn't increase the issue is either a valve problem or a head gasket. either way it's going to have to come apart. and with that many miles on the car I'd say start looking for another car. It's not going to be worth the expense of fixing it. The car can't we worth what the cost of a repair would be.. Sorry to give you the bad news! Good luck :}