Cold compression numbers

Any ideas on what compression numbers on a '96 4.0 should be cold. I can crank it but starting it and warming it up is not an option.

Should be close to hot. 120-160psi.

So any suggestions on how hard to crank on it before I get the numbers? I know best case would be with it warm but I'm trying to find out if the engine I'm after is bad or not.

i think but im not to sure is you crank it for about 7 cranks and you should see the first like 2 cranks be a little low but then it should be up to about 120-160 like winterbeater said. if it goes up slowly then it mite have a bad head gasket or something. If it doesn't go up then you'll probably have more problems then a bad head gasket. Im not totally 100% sure on this but hey it mite be better then nothing

I'd crank at least 10 revolutions. Then for reference, also do it with 2 tablespoons of oil in the cylinder. If it goes way up, supposedly the rings are what is bad.

You beat me to it. 7-10 is fine. Watch first cyl to see how long it keeps increasing.

Thanks for the info. My situation is thus: I have a '94 with 140k on it but the three bolts that hold the right side mount up are broke. One has two extractors broke in it, the other wouldn't come out, so I attempted a bailing wire fix and put a single bolt in the remaining one to limp it home. That bolt shattered the housing on the block, so my only alternative is to use a '96 with 200k on it. I've thought about buying the bombproof mounts and using them, but I'm not cash flush right now. That leaves the high miles '96 donor engine. I just want to check compression before I spend all the time and energy to swap them. If the compression's bad, I'll just wait till I have the cash and try to fix it with the "alternative" mounts.