05 lost compression problem

2005 escape limited 3.0 v6

Quick scenerio: 2 days ago my wife came home at 6:30 pm. At 8 pm i washed the car and rinsed the dust off of the engine. the next morning at 8 am we got in the car and started driving, and i noticed it ran a little rough, but just thought it would dry out soon, well within 5 minutes it was sputtering really bad and lost all power and died several times. Today we had it towed to a ford dealer and they looked at it and called me and immediately said it has lost compression in 3 cylinders and needs a new motor. ( the 3 cylinders closest to the front of the car) So i went to the dealer and the tech showed me that it only had 40 psi in the first cylinder and the other 2 were just the same. So I said, * what about the head gasket? what about a stuck valve? what about slipped timing chain?* so now they are going to dig a little deeper,

Does anyone have any thoughts on what could have happened??

My guess is that i got something wet , it shorted out, and caused a backfire through the intake , which blew the head gasket in 2 spots.. I just thought it was bad that they recommended a motor right from the start, and said it would be around 6000 to fix it..


Any ideas just to help me learn a little more would be awesome!!!

I would buy a compression gauge (about $30 or so) or borrow one from AutoZone (etc) and do the compression test your self. You will have to lift the intake manifold to get to the rear plugs ... not a big deal ... get a Haynes manual if you don't already have one. Be careful not to drop something down the intake holes .... I use big wads of paper shop towels to plug dangerous holes.

I suspect your compression is OK. I suspect you've gotten moisture down the spark plug wells and they need a bit of compressed air to dry out.

Be cautious of folks with their palms showing...