I have a 1987 firebird with a 2.8L v6. I was running lean and ended up puttng a hole in a piston. i took that engine out and was looking for a 350 but im still going to college and i dont have the time or money right now to change motor mounts, tranny, rear end, and change over to carburated. so i picked up another 2.8L off ebay just so i can get it back on the road and guy said it ran when he took it out only has 20K miles on it. but i got it home and started moving stuff. Thats when I noticed i can pretty much crank it over by hand.

So I guess my question would be is that normal? i know how to do a compression test on a motor that is in the car cuz you just turn the key and let it crank a few times but have no idea how to do it on an engine that is by itself. Any ideas or info would be great thanks!!

Moving this to the tech section where it'll get more views.

...should've tried to find a 3.1.... maybe... anyway....

well , if you can turn it by hand, you could do a decent compression test without putting it in, right?

It woud be far easier to do the compression test while at least the starter is attached that way you can crank the engine over at a higher speed. The biggest thing is that you're going to have to have the engine on a stand and have a remove stater button to trigger the starter. You can do a compression test with the engine out of the car, in fact its easier then because you don't have to worry about disabling the fuel system or anything like that. Another thing to remember is that all the cylinders need to be close together in compression values. If you have any cylinders not performing up to snuff, then you'll probably have to tear into it.