It should be a high of 185 and a low of 140
To test cylinder compression on a diesel engine, the glow plugs or injectors should be removed. This allows access to the combustion chamber for the compression test gauge. Removing these components ensures that the engine can turn over freely without interference during the test.
I have a 2005 and compression should be close to 120 psi. Normally a good engine will have compression between 115 and 130 psi but a leak down test should be performed also to know the full condition of a cylinder.
pounds of compression per cylinder
3 - 4 per cylinder.
The ratio is 9.5.1 in the 350 vortec. Doing a compression test you should not have any below 100 psi and all should be similar to each other.
compression test or leak-down test.
Just did compression test on mine and the normal seems to be 160 -180
You will have to do a compression test yourself to know that. A engine that is in good shape should have at least 150 LBS. per cylinder. There can not be more then 20 LBS. difference in any cylinders. It has to have at least 100 LBS. for the cylinder to fire at an Idle.
Cylinder bleed down.
A box compression tester is a machine that measures the size and quality of boxes. It uses a variety of techniques to test the strength, durability, and compression of boxes. The box compression tester can also be used to test the strength and compression of packaging materials. Most manufacturers use this type of machine to test the quality of the boxes they use to ship their products.
Oil burning or loss of compression on any one cylinder. It may also be missing on one cylinder. A compression test will verify this.
The easiest answer is when it fails a compression test. Buy a compression tester (farily cheap), and test each cylinder. If one single cylinder is below 120 psi, or if one cylinder reads 15% less pressure than the cylinder with the highest pressure, your engine should be torn down and checked. The problem might only be in the heads, but it's still time for some serious work.