I've encountered problems with low compression that was caused by miss matched parts. customer bought a 454 chevy froma "race shop" that never at the level it should have.He did a compression check after water got into the motor 90psi there was miss match of parts could have been, crank, rods or pistions as the pistons didn't come to the top of the cylinder, I replaced the rods that worked with the crank stroke and pistons to get the proper deck height. the other was a 1947 Harley knucklehead el 61ci that a rebuilt was done and someone switch the cylinders with newer 74ci units, the 74 has a longer stroke resulting with pistons too low in cylinders had to have custom pistons made with a different compression height ( the distance from the top to the center of wrist pin,by JE