the right most cylinder is the #1 on hondas. I'm not sure about why the compression is low, for a cheapy car though just make sure it always has oil in it and don't drive the crap out of it and it'll run like that forever. My tranny on my 88 4 speed hatch was also very stiff in all the gears. changing the tranny fluid is easy, there is a drain bolt on the tranny, the bottom most bolt, that will drain it. then there is a fill bolt, the next bolt up, when you put the fluid in you stop when it starts to come out of the fill bolt, it means there's enough. You can buy a new washer for the oil pan bolt for cheap and that should do the trick. Hope this helps a little for now.