Day 4
Monday May 14, 2007
Today was my first day of work on the company dime. So I made it count. I started off by setting cylinder 1 to TDC, taking off the valve cover and taking the cams out. I was surprised to see the cams showed little wear and the rockers looked good too.
Then I organized the bearing caps, bolts, rockers and shims so I wouldn’t put anything back in in the wrong place. Next I set the cams aside and got out the biggest breaker bar we have to break the head bolts loose. I loosened them by turning each one a 1/4 turn then another 1/4 turn until they were all loose, man that is a scary task.
The pistons looked a little dirty, but there weren’t any signs of detonation and the quench chambers looked good.
Just a little carbon buildup, nothing a little wire brush won’t fix. Another good note is the head gasket didn’t show any signs of blowing through.
Next, I checked the headbolts to make sure they were within factory spec. The FSM says the must be less then 6.23 inches and I measured all of them around 6.2 inches, so I’m good, although maybe I should do head studs.
Then I took the head down to our favorite engine builder to have the head “freshened up” so it will burn as clean as possible. They said the head looked pretty good and were going to check to see if it needs to be decked. Then were going to clean the ports and valves, then check for seal. A leaky valve makes a dirty engine.
After lunch I turned to engine over to see a bad sight. Turns out when we put the front clip on the piano dollies, one of them was under the oil pan and squashed it up pretty good. (My bad) I already had another oil pan because the one that came on the clip had a hole in in from a forklift.
That didn’t bother me, but now that it was smashed down its time for another pick-up.
So to check the bottom end to make sure everything is in order I took off the steel oil pan and baffle to see a not so happy oil pickup that had left its mark on the inside of the steel oil pan:
Next was the aluminum pan, which Nissan made easier to remove by including two threaded holes to put bolts in and push it away from the block.
I don’t really know what I’m looking for, but the bottom end looked pretty good, no play or metal shavings and only a tiny bit of sludge.
And look, kangaroo cast block! (whatever that means)
Last on my list vas a venture into fairly undocumented and dangerous territory, the elusive front cover. First the pulley had to come off, then the bolts holding it on. A few gentle taps from a rubber hammer and pry bar, and that thing was off!
So, I cleaned all the gasket material off with a putty knife and everything looks pretty good.
Everything looked pretty good, but while we had the engine apart we decided to order some preventative maintenance parts. So we ordered a complete gasket set, new front cover, oil pickup, water pump, thermostat and timing chain. Those parts should be here thursday.