54 Ford jubilee naa

After 30 years of working on the old tractors I've never thought I'd say I'd give up but I think I've come to the point we're about ready To take the whole thing down to the pond and give it a fish habitat . A friend wanted me to get this thing running and I said OK may be a big mistake. Well you wanna see all the spiders dropping out of this thing as I'm working on it
Going on two weeks of checking compression yes the compression is not good on two cylinders maybe 50 other two showing about 120 . I've rolled the number one over to compression stroke lines up with the timing mark and the rotor going to number one. I've got a bright blue snappy spark whether I have the spark plugs in or not. What's really got me at my wits end is I can't even get this thing to fire make any kind of tempted start or nothing even on starting fluid. It must have some kind of compression blowing out the exhaust because after rolling it over I looked down on the barn floor and what's that sock laying there wait a minute that's not a sock that's a mouse nest that blew out the exhaust pipe lol.
At wits end any help thanks you guys have helped me out on another project that I had thanks.

I have a D-17 A/C that when i got it a couple of the cylinder had what looked like a mouse nest in them. I had to fill the cylinder with ATF a few time and let it soak then spin it over to blow the nest junk out. Took over a week of doing that about every other day but after getting it cleaned out it run well. You may also have a blown head gasket and that can cause funny/odd problems

Yeah I've got a WD 45 runs good and understand your comment but not to get even a hint of something even on starting fluid got me beside myself

Take your exhaust pipe off the manifold.

I had a Ford that absolutely would not fire and it drove me crazy for days. In desperation I took the manifold off to see of there was a rag or some other kind of obstruction stuffed in the intake ports (there wasnt). I put it back on without hooking up the exhaust and it fired right up. I shut it off and re-attached the exhaust pipe and absolutely nothing again!

Took the pipe off, fired it up and drove it outside, then fished a pipe snake down the exhaust system and found it clogged with an impressive mouse nest.


The engine couldnt breathe so it wouldnt even fire, it was like the key was off.

THEN you can replace that head gasket....

If it has junk in the cylinder it will not fire due to the junk in them

mud daubbers #1 enemy

Did you put some oil in the cylinders? Did it raise the compression?

If you didn't oil the cylinders, the compression will come up due to dry rings.

If the low compression is on 2 adjoining cylinders, the head gasket may be blown between them.

But it still should have enough compression to start as it is.

Do take the exhaust loose just to prove that's not the problem.

A simple test for a start worthy engine, remove and ground the coil wire, hold your hand tightly over the carb inlet. Have an assistant spin the engine over (the plugs need to be in).

You should feel a strong steady vacuum and have wet gas on your hand.

Weak or intermittent vacuum is leaking or stuck open valves, vacuum without gas is an empty carb bowl or clogged main passage.

Hand over carb intake , rolling engine over it sure appears to have got suction, oil bath filter was in place so Im somewhat confident nothing crawled up into the carburetor.