I'm finally going to go buy a compression gauge tomorrow. Before i even put another cent into this car.. I want to run a compression test and see if my rings are shot or if i got a messed up gasket. Problem is.. I dont know what to do.

What would be the proper way of doing this? I got all the plugs out so far. What PSI is considered good? Tell me all i need to know about this.

 

There is no magical psi number that you are looking to achieve. Technically they're all supposed to be within 10% of each other.
With that said, i've seen an engine with 120 psi (what I consider low) run fine and burn nothing.

Do the test with a fully charged battery
Throttle blocked wide open
Ignition coil completely disconnected (ask me how I know)
and obviously with the tester screwed into a port.

Ideally the engine is supposed to be warm.

Start cranking. If needed, have another person watch the gauge for the initial compression spike. Higher is better. Crank till it rises no more. Record the number. Move on.
If you have some low ones pour some engine oil into the spark plug hole and re-test that cylinder. If it goes up...rings. If it stays about the same...valves or hg.
Compression tests are useful but a leakdown tester is the best.

 

If you have a card for the cam, you can use a calculation to figure out what psi it should read. It just all depends on compression, cam profile, bore, stroke, rod length, and altitude. Here's a calc. if you like: http://www.rbracing-rsr.com/comprAdvHD.htm Has always worked for me; says I should be 91psi, and I get that as an average.

 

You'll have tons of fun screwing that tester into the rear plug holes too!

 

I know i got my work cut out for me. Lol. I got pretty big hands.. so getting there trying to unscrew the plugs was enough work.. Also cut my hand a few times too