Air leaking past pistons....oil pan off

My oil pan is off and as I rotate the crank, air is leaking from the pistons. Thats what it sounds like. How badly am I screwed?

Doesn't sound completely abnormal to me. There are gaps and the ends of the piston rings so compression air can leak a bit thru them when you turn the engine over. It isn't normal to take the pan off to listen

You didn't give any context for why the pan is off. What problem are you working on?

How did run before and why you pulling the pan off.

if your turning it by hand thats normal if your concerned about it get a leak down tester it will tell you a percentage of loss

A simple compression check would tell you if everything is ok, but i think your over reacting. What was wrong with the motor in the first place?

Some air will escape past the pistons when turning it over by hand. More air will escape when you let off the ratchet to get another turn. What happens there is the piston will back down a bit and/or relieve pressure on the rings. The air will the escape between the piston and rings. This is not a natural motion of the piston so there is nothing to be concerned about.

xcm said:

A simple compression check would tell you if everything is ok, but i think your over reacting. What was wrong with the motor in the first place?

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Actually, he does need to do a leak down check as well. The compression test will tell him the cranking compression but it will not point out how fast each cylinder is losing the compression.

But he should do a cranking comperssion test also running it both dry and wet to isolate where the leakage is coming from. If the compression does not come up during the wet test, the valves are the likely culprit. If the compression rises, dramatically, during the wet test, the rings are the culprit.

Pulled pan to do the rear main seal and look for an engine knock. I just picked the jeep up last week.
Update, The top half the seal was not even installed. PO must have not been able to get it in. Something was not right. I had to trim the new seal to get it to fit. Still leaks bad.

Sold it this morning. lol.

Now I need another XJ!