No compression in cylinder
 

So it seems that 1 of my cylinders has died on my 97 s10. Its the cylinder closest to the firewall to the drivers side.
Car drives well on 5 and the techs looking at it says its to expensive to rebuild..

What are the main causes of this ****?

Valve problems, blown head gasket, bad rings, etc...

could there be a quick fix, like replacing someonething small? not having to do a full remake of the engine... Should i take it to another mechanic?

Depends on the source of the problem and how bad the compression was on that cylinder. A second opinion wouldn't hurt.

ok now another mechanic has looked at it

apparently i have compression about 8kg in the one cylinder thats not working.
compression was abit uneven in the rest of the cylinders,
3 with 11kg and 1 with 6 and 2 with 8.

he thinks changing the ignition parts will make it work :)
he said it looked like stuff has been growing in there for years... hehe

hope to get her back early next week, working 100%! :)