blown headgasket?

[JDMClifford]

so i have a s13 with a redtop sr20det. just a FMIC, FPR, and a MBC runing 10 PSI. on a stock sr. i was racing and came to a stop light and noticed that my idle turned into shit. so i pull over check crap out, pull my oil cap off and tons of air is shooting out of it. no oil in my coolent, and no water in my oil. blown headgasket?

[TAMTANIUM]

niceee!! street racing and then blew the engine! Sweet life

[ledzeppelin240]

^^Pointless post.

That is what you call blow by, it can be caused by the top compression ring no longer sealing. A bad PCV valve, cause there should be vacuum in the crank case if the PCV valve is operation correctly. That is all I can think of for now.

[JDMClifford]

Originally Posted by TAMTANIUM

niceee!! street racing and then blew the engine! Sweet life

flaming on my post when you could be helping. sweet life!

i was also think it was the rings because a friend of mine sr idles like my car does. and hes a blown ring. i checked out the pvc valve. dont se how it could stop working randomely, i maintain my car very well. i just went out and bought a piston ring set and rod barings for like 60 bucks. we will see how it goes when i pull the motor.

Originally Posted by ledzeppelin240

^^Pointless post.

That is what you call blow by, it can be caused by the top compression ring no longer sealing. A bad PCV valve, cause there should be vacuum in the crank case if the PCV valve is operation correctly. That is all I can think of for now.

[johngriff]

ok.

You are going to pull the engine?

Did you check the PCV? Alot of engines have blow by, some worse than others.
Did you do a compresion test?
Change the oil to a heavier weight to see what is going on, that might seal up the top ring. ***FOR NOW***

And, dont run 10psi w/o fuel correction, where will the extra fuel come from?

Where will the extra fuel come from?

Where?

[JDMClifford]

im just going to pull the motor and rebuild it this week. i figure if its something simple it was still worth it because whoever swaped it didnt do a very good job. thare was a bunch of smog stuff and extra electrical plugs that dont need to be luying around. maby i will repaint the car with some high heat paint so it wont melt off agan.

[lazierhobo]

dude you have gotta do a compression test before you pull an engine.

to check a pcv valve you should be able to blow through it in one direction and not in the other.

[JDMClifford]

ok i will try to see if its the pvc valve. and i will try to do the compression. i really dont want to buy the tool. i will see if i can rent one.

[ledzeppelin240]

To correctly test the pcv valve, plug it off while the engine is running and the idle should drop slightly. Do a leakdown test rather than a compression test...

[johngriff]

Leakdown requires more equipment, and can be done incorectly if you dont keep your eye on the PSI.

A compression tester is $13 at Kragen. BUY ONE.

[ledzeppelin240]

All you need is gauge that can be made for about $10. So I don't know what you are talking about. A compression test will just tell you what cylinder has a problem. a leakdown test will pinpoint the problem even more.

[JDMClifford]

well i tested the valde, works fine. i figured out why my idle was crap. i blew a hole in my cupler. so it only took 4 hours to pull the engine. now were im jsut gona wait till ym friend brings his air compressor over so we can take the flywheel off and will post more. maby pics on a diff thread showing how to rebuild the motor or something.

[ladiesman8527]

wtf? u still pulled the engine?

[JDMClifford]

Ya. I need to rebuild it. pluss it takes less time to pull the motor than just drop the tanny without a lift. I could probably pull the motor in 2 hours if i wouldn't stop to smoke, get smokes, play videogames, go pee, get lunch. Stuff like that. Also it gives me an opportunity to remove all the unwanted brackets, tuck the whirring, repaint the engine bay, clean the engine, and clean up the holes from installing my fmic.

So i bought rings, rod barrings, and plastigage, and assembly lube. Anything i should buy? Got oil and stuff.

[steve shadows]

Originally Posted by JDMClifford

Ya. I need to rebuild it. pluss it takes less time to pull the motor than just drop the tanny without a lift. I could probably pull the motor in 2 hours if i wouldn't stop to smoke, get smokes, play videogames, go pee, get lunch. Stuff like that. Also it gives me an opportunity to remove all the unwanted brackets, tuck the whirring, repaint the engine bay, clean the engine, and clean up the holes from installing my fmic.

So i bought rings, rod barrings, and plastigage, and assembly lube. Anything i should buy? Got oil and stuff.

So wait let me get this straight...

1. No compression test done
2. No idea if the motor is bad or not
3. You just pulled the Engine out of the car? for no reason?

ok...

well

You should have really done a dam compression test before you go ripping
stuff apart.

who knows whats wrong with it now, maybe you can put the tranny up to it and use a battery and and the starter on the bell housing to do a comp test with it out of the car- if that even makes remote sense to you.

sorry to hear you didnt diagnose first.

i would have just put my diagnosis on a bad thermostat...now your rebuilding your engine- have fun!

[S14DB]

what you should have bought:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=92697

Need to have your bores honed. Decks checked. Crank Journals checked for diameter and round. Check the Main bores and the Rod ends for diameter and round.

Kind of a waste to buy rings and bearings before you know what clearances you are dealing with.

[JDMClifford]

ya my friend gona check all that he knows what he is doing. we just need to buy a hone. he has been trained to do all that crap.

[S14DB]

Buy a hone? Please tell me for your Sunnen and not your Makita.

[cmcdougle]

you can hone an engine yourself? How do you do it?

[yfz460]

They make honing tools for standard drills.... we use them on lawnmower engines in our school class. They work good for those things, but I wouldnt trust them on something so valuable and precise as an automotive engine. (Especially and engine that goes for more than some of the cars they're getting swaped into sell for!)

[johngriff]

Yeah, there is quite a bit of machine shop prep work that should be done by a machine shop.

[JDMClifford]

why not for an automotive engine, drill press+hone= honed.... whats the big deal about that? i have red hundreds on builds whare people do it them self.

here is an example of a write up on how they work.

Any time you install new piston rings you need to hone the cylinder walls to break the glaze in order to allow the new rings to wear in and seat properly to minimize oil consumption. The hone has a flexible drive shaft and is typically driven with a 3/8" electric hand drill at speed under 1000 rpm. A pro shop might use a hone in a drill press to run it as straight as possible and to have better control over axial motion to produce a cross hatch pattern on the cylinder wall.


If the cylinder is fairly clean and not significantly scratched you could use a flex hone (often called a ball hone) to break the glaze and remove minimal material. These are quick and easy to use but need to have a fairly close match to the bore size. If it's smaller than the bore it won't work. If it's much larger than the bore it will be difficult to keep the balls inside the cylinder with close approach to the ends of the bore. If you have more than one bore size to work with you need multiple tools. If the cylinder wall is slightly scratched, and you need to remove a little more material to get it to clean up, then the flex hone is not the best tool. It can remove material more in the middle of the bore and less at the ends, therefore causing the bore to be less straight.



The articulated three stone hone is a more universal cylinder tool. This may have a much greater working range to work with small bore and large bore engines, so you only need one hone. It should also help to keep a more constant bore size (straighter cylinder) when removing a little more material to clean up a slightly scratched cylinder. An abrasive hone is subject to wear as it is used, so the abrasive may need to be replaced occasionally (maybe every 30 to 50 cylinders or so). The straight stones are cheaper to replace than buying a new flex hone. If you like to use various grit grades, the straight stones are also fairly easy to change, as opposed to buying multiple flex hones.


With any honing process some of the abrasive grit wears off of the tool at the same time that fine metal powder is bring removed from the cylinder bore. This stuff is VERY bad for an engine if it is left inside. So it is best to do this honing on a completely disassembled and bare engine block, and clean it thoroughly before assembly. It is possible to hone cylinders with an engine still in the car and partially assembled. If you do this, pay special attention to keeping the grit off of the camshaft and crankshaft as well as possible, and do your best to clean everything thoroughly before reassembly. It would also be a good idea to install a magnetic oil drain plug, and to drain and change the engine oil soon after initial run in.

These tools may cost $20 to $40, might be found at J.C.Whitney or discount tool supply stores or at any auto parts store. Being prone to a certain amount of wear, they may be less likely to be available through a tool lending program, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

[S14DB]

You hear about the build 6 months later? When I was shopping for a machine shop last year I spent a day at a shop watching him rebuild someone else's mistake. amazing how much abuse that SR took and still ran.

[sblack13]

so your rebuilding your engine because you blew your intercooler coupler??

[JDMClifford]

no because i can, wan to, if im gona abuse it on the track i want to know it can handle it, i dont know how many miles it has on the motor, want to make sure everything is not worn or loose, had some extra money and time, have all the tools, got a great deal on the parts, measured the pistons and the rods to see it we could make them fit into a f23 to make a honda/nissan motor, whitch they might with a little creativity, and to learn how to do it for when i build it up to hold a gt2871r.

[kensreliableb18b]

Originally Posted by JDMClifford

no because i can, wan to, if im gona abuse it on the track i want to know it can handle it, i dont know how many miles it has on the motor, want to make sure everything is not worn or loose, had some extra money and time, have all the tools, got a great deal on the parts, measured the pistons and the rods to see it we could make them fit into a f23 to make a honda/nissan motor, whitch they might with a little creativity, and to learn how to do it for when i build it up to hold a gt2871r.

boy...you're just throwing away money on the rebuild, and you're not even taking the right approach. well, good luck to you. all you really needed to do was a leakdown and change out the valvetrain components and cams for the 2871.

[projectRDM]

He did learn one thing though, he's building this one so he can run it at the track, not on the street.

What a fucking clown, rebuilding an engine "because I can". Do you also stick your penis into gay men because you can?

[Markovich]

i guess some people never learn o well at least we tryed to tell him to do a comp test its out of our hands now. i just think its funny he asked us (zilvia) to help him but does listen to what we say hahaha

peace

[bensaccord]

Originally Posted by Markovich

i guess some people never learn o well at least we tryed to tell him to do a comp test its out of our hands now. i just think its funny he asked us (zilvia) to help him but does listen to what we say hahaha

peace

Actually he did read what you said, everyone here actually found this thread quite amusing. Some helpful people, some post whores, but mostly a bunch of dicks. He not only figured out what the problem was (post #12), but he got experience pulling his motor, rebuilding it, cleaned up his engine bay, painted it, and did a nice little wire tuck while he was at it. Removed a bunch of unnecessary crap, learned a lot about his own car, and had the satisfaction of knowing he didn't have to pay someone to do the work on his own car.
I'm sure if it was his daily driver or the feeling of working on his own car made his pussy ache he might have paid someone way too much money to tell him what he eventually figured out for free. But he didn't, because he is an enthusiast. He likes doing this stuff. It occupies his free time,makes him happy. Isn't that what being an automotive enthusiast and shade tree mechanic is all about????

[jdmsoles]

^^ dude thats extacly what i was thinking, also it so pointless to just pull the engine, when you dont know what the problem is compression test it first the test only take about 10- 20 mins or so ya know better to be safe then to go all out and do bunch of nonesense.. right.