1987 535i starting issue. Low compression?

[sel]

Hey everybody, I recently got a 1987 535i and was hoping someone could point me in the right direction with troubleshooting.

When I got the car it wouldn't run, just slowly turn over. I rotated the fuses and it was still slow turning but eventually fired up and idled. I've only run the engine for maybe 30 minutes total. I changed the spark plugs and not much changed, but I let it idle for 10 or so minutes and I was watching the temperature which never got above operating temperature. Then it suddenly died and won't start again. Nothing particularly unusual.

The strange thing to me is that it now turns over alarmingly fast when cranking, which indicates low compression to me and makes it hard for me to decide where to start.

Any idea what's going on here?

[shogun]

welcome to the forum, I will move the thread to the E28 forum, where you will get help.

[sel]

welcome to the forum, I will move the thread to the E28 forum, where you will get help.

Thanks!

[jclausen]

You could only verify low compression by doing the test