Issue 1

2002 AP1 Compression numbers: took an average of multiple tries. 247, 262, 249, 203.
Cylinder #4 is low. I don't have any problems with the car, seems to run fine, strong. Vtec all the way to 9, no grinds or weird knocking or ticking noises. It's at 97k miles and as far as I know never had a valve adjustment. I'm not the first owner.
No check engine light, drive it every day no problem. Replaced all the spark plugs with NGKs while I was at it doing the compression test. Engine was warmed up.
I thought maybe cylinder 4 was lower because the engine was cooling down so I re-did cylinder #2 right after the last run and it was still hitting around 260.

Questions:
1) Is there a problem here? Or is this in the realm of "fine"? I am reading that low compression on one cylinder could be due to bent or burnt valves? but I am not sure.. valves or anything engine related including heads are out of my experience. The farthest I could probably get on my own at this point is probably a valve adjustment and maybe replacing the retainers but even that would take me more time than I want to spend.


Issue 2
I also took an entire day off and pulled the valve cover off and checked all the retainers for cracks, no sunken keepers. Everything is perfect retainers wise.
I also resealed the gasket, gasket looked new and I wiped off all the dust and put it back and the slight leak that was there for the valve cover gasket is gone.
However, ever since I pulled the valve cover off and put it back (yesterday), there is a oil burning smell from the engine bay. It's not strong but I can get a whiff of it if I put my face up close. I am unsure if it's residual oil that dropped onto the manifold or somewhere hot and it's smelling or what.

Questions:
1) Is there ANYTHING that could have caused an issue while pulling the valve cover to cause this smell? Or am I overreacting?

Issue 3
Replaced the spark plugs today after the compression test. Cylinder #2 and #3 had oil in the spark plug hole. It didn't have any in the tip obviously but it was on the head of the plug and in the tube. When i pulled the plug out my spark plug socket was somewhat wet with oil. #1 and #4 was dry. #3 was tiny bit, #2 had the most oil.
Looks like it could be leaking from the top of the hole where it meets the valve cover. Not sure about this, perhaps this is the burning smell.

Any thoughts here?

 

Would do valve lash asap,may be pulling oil in the combustion chamber down the stems into it.
10% is the usual aloud for variations between cylinder compression test.


ASAP

 

Leak down test?