[DeTomaso] NPC Trouble Shooting and Compression Test Question

[Tom Borcich]

A couple of teenagers in the neighborhood are trying to fix their off road jeep that is pouring 
white smoke out of the exhaust...the jeep has almost 197k miles according to the odometer. The 
heads have a fresh rebuild (new valves, seats, guides, seals, milled) done by a local machine 
shop. It looks like the short block had a rebuild recently (they bought it like this) because there's 
no ridge in the cylinders and there's almost no carbon build up on the pistons or sludge build up in 
the lifter valley which I would expect for a motor with this many miles on it.  

They pulled the heads off before doing a compression check because someone thought they blew a head gasket.  
But there are no signs of a blown head gasket...so I suggested throwing the heads back on just to 
do a quick compression check to see if there are any glaring problems. 

HERE'S MY QUESTION: Will the motor still give an accurate read if the valve train isn't fully put back 
together or should they put the push rods back in also and adjust the lifters? Hydraulic cam and most 
oil's probably drained out of the lifters.  I'm thinking without the valves opening properly they 
won't get correct compression test? 

Thanks for the help. 
Best Regards, Tom