Hi All,
I am currently looking at a '53 chieftain with a Straight 8 that supposedly has 55k original miles. I've had my eye on it for quite awhile and over the course of the past couple of days have gone through it fairly thoroughly. Today I brought an independent mechanic to look over and inspect the car.

The temperature was about 35 degrees in the shop when we arrived this morning to test out the car. After a few minutes under the hood looking at the fluids and whatnot we went to start the car. It was the first start of the day, but after 1.5 seconds of cranking that ol' 8 came right to life! There was no smoke or sputtering and within 30 seconds she was purring beautifully.

We looked over everything, took it for a test drive and came back to do a compression test.

From what I can tell the car has been sitting at the broker's lot since August '11 and who knows how long before that (there is a note in the glove box stating the oil was last changed at 54k miles in.....2004).

The compression test showed that each cylinder was around 65-70psi. This seemed awfully low to everyone and after some Internet researching I believe I have found that a Pontiac's Straight 8 compression PSI should ideally be around 123psi, but I understand this is a 60 year old car and things have worn in certain ways.

Even though the numbers were low my mechanic really didn't seem too concerned since they were all basically the same level and the car ran so well and seemed to have ample power (for a 60 year old original motor) while we were driving it.

I guess my question is, if the compression is about half of what is should be what does this mean if anything? Am I losing power, is the motor dying, or is it because the engine has been sitting for so long that the rings may be a bit stuck? We all agreed to put a little oil down each cylinder and let it soak before running the test again. In a couple of days we will run the test again to see where we are at.

Anyways, just curious if anyone has any input. Other than that the car looks very solid. The interior is a bit thin in parts, and there are some places of chipped paint, but the car looks and feels extremely solid and unmolested.

Thanks for your help! Happy New Year!