I have a 90 NA with a bad ECU, bad OMP, clogged cat, clogged muffler, and an engine that is reading 7 on one rotor and a little over 6 on the other with the Mazda compression tester. My question is this: should I replace the ECU, OMP, and exhaust with a Bonez superflo and catback and keep running the engine the way it is for a few months until I save the money for a rebuild, or should I just let the whole thing sit until I can afford to do it all at once?

 

i tested my 89 n/a with a mazda compression tester i got 7ish on 1 rotor and 6ish on the other just like you. that was back in last june. it still runs strong. i got rid of the cats and stock cat-back and i run premix (a lil extra to help that bad apex seal. i also advance the timing a lil (about 900rpm) at idle and its running fine. also i drive it hard. sometimes i redline and most of the time i take it to 5000-6000 rpm. just dont go putting an intake. i would keep that stock until you get the new engine and then do a a true cold air intake.

she runs good except for the oil leak at the rear main seal

 

Thanks for the reply. So did you advance the timing to get it to idle without stalling? Mine stalls if I hit the brakes or turn on the a/c, but I don't know how much of that is related to low compression and how much is related to the other problems.

 

mine didnt stall. just had the typical bad idle when one rotor is bad. engine use to shake the whole car. so i bumped it up to 900rpm at idle. took care of that problem. yours might be stalling for another reason. check all your vacuum lines.

actually now that i think about it, she use to stall when i 1st got her by turning on the a/c. but it was cause of bad spark plugs. i changed em out and it was fine.

 

I think he meant advance the idle speed, not the spark timing.

The readings should be in sets of three.
EG: front 7-7-7 rear 6-6-6 (bars)
With 6's you should still have many good miles left.