Hello, newbie here.



I have a 59 edsel with a 292 i pulled it from an untimely grave in a retired lumberyard just shy of a year ago. I have recently been chasing down a low compression issue in the #2 cylinder. the exact specs were 30 psi in #2 and 90 psi in the rest. bleed down test confirmed that it was losing pressure into the crankcase.



i stripped the head off, pulled the piston and found nothing. the piston was sound the rings looked ok and the cylinder was smooth as glass.



so i'm running with a couple different theories that all have the same fix.



1) a stuck ring that popped loose when I pulled it free of the block.



2) a over heated ring that lost tension ( i heard this could happen with a head gasket installed upside down, though the gasket appears to have been installed correctly...)



3) a half-assed rebuild in which the cylinder was not honed/ cross hatched. ( evidence for which include smooth cylinder wall and flawless rod bearings. not to mention the broken bolt that held the rockers that was never fixed till I bought it.. )



That being said I'm looking at re-ringing it. shopping around I've found that my local carquest can put me together a kit for 240 excluding rod bearings and i'm not sure of the brands used. however eBay has a kit that includes hastings rings, rol gaskets and king rod bearings for roughly 125 shipped...



so my question to the guru's is 2 part,

Am I barking up the wrong tree with my diagnosis? could i have missed something?

are the kits a case of you get what you pay for or are the brands mentioned up to snuff for a stock Saturday night cruiser? (even though its not fel-pro)



and for the hat trick. i ordered the Y block book looking for torque specs, ect, that i need to get this back together. but i also know there are a few errors in the book is there anything i need to know?