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Having sorted the climate control out Monday night and got the exhaust on yesterday, I thought I'd give it another whirl and try and get the coolant system all bled-in.
Started it up again, ran like a champ for about 2 minutes then started getting white smoke out the exhaust. Not shit loads, but enough to worry me. Shortly afterward it dropped to 3 cylinders Need to diagnose what's gone wrong for it to start running on 3 so do the usual air/fuel/spark and see if it's something obvious. I'm concerned that the head may have been damaged during removal however. I didn't exactly follow the runoff procedure for the head bolts so it's not beyond the realms of possibility that it has warped slightly. May crank it over with the plugs out to see if anything comes out of the cylinders (coolant mostly) but if there isn't anything... well I may just warm it through properly and see whether it clears.
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Well lots has happened since my last update...
The reason it dropped to 3 cylinders was that the engine somehow managed to nuke a guide on cylinder 4 exhaust. Cracked clean in two! I checked the shimming all round and it was within spec so very confused about that. Bought a new shim, put it all back together and it's been fine since. Very bizarre.
I then had a huge oil leak from the tensioner so I opted to buy a new gasket (the most recent ones are two-layer metal gaskets) and a new tensioner as I know the newer design has a bigger chamber where the oil feed is and also the adjustment teeth are not as coarse:
Now no leaks. Almost felt like I was getting somewhere at this point!
After a lot more faffing about, I finally got the thing going again. It was starting up and then stalling shortly afterwards - odd. I had put new plugs in, and had run out of things to look for so decided to chuck the old iridiums back in to see if it would get going and lo and behold - it did. Right through to warm-up with no issues, all the smoke cleared too so I think it's fair to assume that the smoke was from the lubricant for the head studs. No idea what was wrong with the new plugs I bought - gaps were good and they were new... Warrants an investigation at some point.
With the engine woes mostly (probably) behind me, I can start getting on with the wiring. It's on all 4 wheels again right now so I could spin it round on the drive to have better access to the drivers side front arch. I may just drive it down to my dad though and pinch a spot in his garage for a weekend and a spot of electrical assistance.
Looking forward to driving it again. I have a few other things in the pipeline for it depending on what the state of the engine is in the long term - I'm still dubious about the head sealing for a few reasons. It's not going anywhere so I'm in no hurry to get too stuck into anything in the short term.
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I'm having a proper mare with this engine. Wish I hadn't taken the bloody thing out!
Turns out that the guide snapping originally was because I had installed all of the guides on the side of the rocker on the exhaust side. Dumb. They had all broken apart from cylinder 4 (which was the one I originally replaced) so I ordered 3 more. Went to fit those and when torquing up the cam cap bolts two of them sheared!
ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I took the head off this weekend and will be retiring it for spares. When I get some money (or capitulate into my overdraft in a vain attempt to get the damn thing on the road again) I will be buying a spare complete head to slap on. Praying to every god there is or has ever been that nothing else goes wrong!
I had some interesting engine plans in the pipeline following some lucky parts acquisition however I just want to drive the thing and cannot really be bothered to do much else to it. I'll get the electrical stuff sorted and then it's a case of driving it. I hope.
I'm probably misguided in thinking that I'll ever be allowed to drive it again though
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Is it not worth trying to get the sheared bolts out?
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I'm taking it to a shop tomorrow but Nissan don't seem to have a current part number for the short cap bolts. Having a ton of spares would be nice with the luck I've had so far...
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Nice work on the engine! Nice buid! And is nice to see what a clean kouki you have.
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Turns out cam cap bolts are some of the hardest things known to man. Local place had a go with the cutter and it didn't even make the slightest impression on them!
Had to take them somewhere else to get them spark eroded. Should be ready for pick-up tomorrow or Friday.
I can't find a current part number from Nissan for the short cap bolts but there is a place just up the way from me that can apparently make bolts etc up from rolled steel to any specification so I'm going to get in contact with them and hopefully they can turn round some replacements in short order. Debating getting the whole engine set replaced... That will depend on cost however.
Tantalizingly close to being able to drive it in reality. In the intermediate term I've been dreaming of ways to make it a little less... well early 90s inside. Classy more than flashy with a bit of luck...!
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Good to hear this is close to being back!
I did a few bits to my interior to make it less 90's, made it much much better to live with. Mainly led lights, throughout, footwell lights and timed fade out interior lights. Surprising how much they made a difference. Will be keeping an eye on what you get up to
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
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I need a spare dash and centre console so I can try and work out what I can do.
Got a few ideas in mind but they may be quite involved...
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Last edited by zeppelin101; 07-05-2015 at 10:23.
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Looks beautiful man.
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Thanks Ross, it will look less like a drift car one day though with the wheels!
Updates...
Car keeps breaking. Stupid shit mostly, but none the less...
Broke down last week. The clip that holds the fuel feed onto the pressure regulator has apparently disintegrated. I have no idea how. The hose popped off while on the motorway. I ended up getting the car recovered as I didn't notice it in the dark and had little to no patience to be chasing round the bay at the time. At least it was an easy fix.
However when checking that everything was ok yesterday, I lost all boost pressure. There was a bang, and then no boost. The engine still functions just fine, although it is slow as shit as you can probably imagine. I haven't investigated in any great detail as I'm having a hard time processing how this car can keep breaking things at the rate it is currently doing so. I suspect the actuator arm or something more serious.
In the mean time I messed about with the Nexus, installed a few bits and bobs on it and arsed about with an interface in Photoshop for a couple of days. This is the result...
Using something called Desktop Visualizer I've managed to make it so that the "buttons" that are actually the background behave as actual buttons so I can link to spotify, navigation, EQ, settings, netflix and SDR touch (for FM radio through USB) through the icons. I'm pretty happy with it so far, just working out the best way of integrating it into the dash. I figure with the ROM and kernel I'm running I can probably daisy chain a few things through a powered USB hub so that it can charge, get FM signal and have a USB slot for additional memory (read: playing external files). The only thing it's missing is mobile data, however that isn't necessarily the end of the world and can be easily. Obviously this makes Netflix slightly redundant as things stand (I download playlists from Spotify anyway) but it was just to fill the screen up for a first pass!
Last edited by zeppelin101; 30-03-2015 at 11:30.
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Lovely car mate. Fair play for your persistence
What was the bang - no boost issue in the end?
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Good job on keeping the project going despite the tough times Zep, well done! My brother and I almost got our S14 out of the workshop yard yesterday before spotting an issue... We last updated our project thread in 2011 I think, so you're streets ahead of us!
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The car look's mint I imagine it'll pass MOT. Good luck anyway.
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