2eighTZ4me

New wastegate installed. Made a couple pulls at around 18psi last night. Pulled in the garage and opened the hood and smoke is spewing out my valve cover vent, and my catch tank vent off the side of the block (while idling). No visible smoke out the exhaust though. Checked oil - no water. Head gasket appears to be intact. The "mule" motor in the car now is a stock 80 ZX F54/P79 with 130K on it. I'm guessing now that I've applied boost, the rings are crapping out. That's the only thing I can think of. Just replaced valve stem seals. Ideas??

Tony - you ALWAYS digress! Funny - but your insight and information is priceless. I'm stuck with a Garrett T04 .60 trim turbo. I want 400rwhp with the ability to have a little leeway in case I wanted to up the boost to drag race some idiot ricer in a Honda at the strip. Mostly wanting to buy insurance with the setup. I have a 130K "mule" motor in the car now that's starting to smoke. I've been to one tuning session, and much to my chagrin, I could only make 4psi max. Well - found the boost leak and am going back next week to have it tuned by one of the best tuners in the Southeast - Ed Senf. I am getting my hands on a diesel Maxima motor this week and will be putting together a stroker with a set of stock 240 con rods (9mm) with ARP bolts. I "do" want to get the power with as little boost as possible though - that leaves leeway to up the power if I ever needed to. I just want to make sure the engine will hold it. I know I've heard 400rwhp is do-able on a stock bottom end, but damn, I'm chicken! I have spoken with Delta cams and have a stock Japan cam that I'm sending their way this week. $72 for a regrind - not bad! I have a P90 head that will be going to the machine shop soon as well. I'd like to do porting, but I think I can achieve my goal with boost/fuel, rather than shelling out big buxx for a Rusch, Sunbelt, or similar port job. I have the Lonewolf intake and 3" intercooler/piping, so I think my induction is up to snuff. Also running an Aeromotive A1000 fuel pump (the aluminum brick), with -8AN lines, and AZC 440cc injectors, so I think I'll have the fuel piece down. I guess I'll have to wait and see what it does at the dyno next week (makes power - or sh**'s the bed) before making any hard fast decisions.

Thanks John - it never dawned on me. I'm good friends with Jeff their machinist. I never thought to ask him. Blonde moment. I'll call him today. Thanks again!

Hey TimZ - where did you get those pistons? You say Diamond makes them? Any contact info? Also - where did you get the coating done? Looks jam up man! Thanks!

I would run it through several heat cycles. I would NOT retorque if it's not leaking. Leave it alone. You run the risk of squeezing the gasket out if you overtighten - and then you're right back where you started. If you do feel the need to retorque, I would wait until the engine has been through a few heat-ups and cool downs. I would also do the retorque with the engine cold. Hot parts become more malleable and prone to distortion - especially oil pan gaskets (of the cork variety).

I think that sounds like a plan. You've tried just about everything else it seems! Not sure if I'd let the glue setup overnight though - I've been under the notion that you just want it to sit long enough so it will skin over and harden slightly, then install the pan and hand tighten. THEN let it sit overnight and torque the next day. Just want to eliminate ANY possibility that there is any chance the glue could harden completely, and then there's a small little pinhole b/t the pan and gasket that didn't seal properly without having any pressure on it to at least squeeze out any air pockets and seal entirely. That'd be my only worry. Got my fingers, toes, and eyes crossed for ya man!

Well - again, I don't know what Nissan uses "exactly" per-se, but when I pulled an original valve cover - it sure did look like weatherstrip adhesive. I understand your hesitancy to use an unproven adhesive, being that you've done this a number of times and don't want to do it again (can't blame ya there) - so take it with a grain of salt. I'm just advising on what I've seen. I can tell you're extremely gun-shy about doing this (again) - so only you can make the decision. I'll do a little voodoo dance over here to make that sucker seal!!

That's why you take to the pan surface with a ball peen hammer to "make" it more consistent. Not sure about oil pan gaskets (but I would assume the same holds true) - but the factory actually uses a type of weatherstripping adhesive to glue the valve cover gasket on. 3M weatherstripping adhesive is some pretty good stuff. Get the black stuff though - the gorilla snot isn't the best.

On the early slave cyl's - it is exactly like the pedal. There's a locknut on the slave rod too. My guess is once you pull the boot on the slave cyl. back, you'll see fluid oozing out of there. You have heard correctly - they are notorious for leaking, and often! I'd check for leakage at the slave and master first before you enlist a helper. I'm pretty sure you'll find your problem rather quickly.

Nor can you do corner balancing without an adjustable coilover setup. (johnc - correct me if I'm wrong)

No - the nut IS the locknut. Loosen it, and then spin the actual shaft of the master cyl. for you adjustment. May need a pair of small pliers to do so. From what it sounds like, you have a "classic" bad slave cyl. or master cyl. Get up under the car and pull a corner of the rubber boot on the slave and see if any fluid leaks out. Also - whilst you're up under the driver compartment fiddling with the pedal adjustment, have a look at where the clutch master rod goes in to the cyl. itself (through a rubber boot) and see if you see any leakage. One or both are gone if you're losing fluid. That's supposed to be a sealed system and never lose fluid if working properly. If it grinds going in to reverse, you either have 1) bad pedal adjustment, or 2) air in the system that got in past a bad seal. If you find one component leaking - chances are, the other one is not far behind. Replace BOTH and save yourself the labor.

I too, tried the 46/38 route on a MN47 head. If you slide one of each of the valves down in the guides - they're practically touching. You'd have to somehow machine the seats so they'd actually merge together at the center of the CC. That doesn't leave much meat in the seat for a good seal. Other than that - you'd have to somehow space the guides apart further - and then you're looking at totally re-engineering the head - that won't work. I know the MN47 has a smaller combustion chamber - but from what I can tell by this post, you've experienced the same thing I had on your N42 head.

Well - I'm surprised that noone chimed in with this little tidbit. If you look at the mating surface of the pan where the bolts go through - 9 times out of 10 (and usually 9 bolts out of 10) you will see where the pan lip is bent upward from the bolts pulling tight. With the pan on a flat surface, and a piece of 2x4 on the backside of the pan lip for creating a flat surface, take the ball end of a ball peen hammer and hammer the middle of the bolt holes on the pan so that they are concave instead of convex. This will allow your gasket to a) seat better with any RTV you may use, and when you torque up the pan, it's going to (eventually) pull back towards its' original shape - hopefully it will be flat(er) than it was with the bolt holes all stretched. If you run your hand across the topside of the pan lip - I bet you'll feel at each bolt hole, there is a "rise" - smack that rise down so that the pan is flat, or better yet, a bit concave, so when you run your hand across the lip of the pan - you'll feel a little "dip" where the bolt holes are. Does this make sense? I can provide a pic later if need be. Works "almost" every time. (I won't say "every" because Tony D might come down on me!)

I realize it's not the "best" ignition-wise for this setup, unfortunately, it's what I've been dealt and I must work around it. I'm getting it tuned Tues. of next week by one of the best tuners in the Southeast, I'm sure we'll be able to make something work without any destruction.

Are you going back with a Nissan gasket, or an aftermarket? I use two gaskets if they're aftermarket, and I coat them with anti-seize to keep them stuck together and sealed well. Haven't had one leak yet on about 5 installs.

Thanks Pete - wow - our posts were 3 min. apart. You're pretty good at this "assumption" thing I take it - as all your assumptions were 100% dead on the money. Going to see how it does this evening. I'm a little hesitant to hit more than 15psi until I have it properly tuned next Tuesday, but my mix is fairly rich, so I'm not hurting anything. We'll see how she does tonight!

I spoke to Matt at DIY Autotune. He had me measure the impedance of my injectors to make sure one of them wasn't fried. All 6 measured out right between 2 and 3 ohms. All good there. He then stated that these injectors would draw about 7 amps a piece when opening, so he recommended going to a 20A fuse for both Inj1 and Inj2. He also stated that I needed to go into TS and set the PWM Current Limit(%) to 30%. Mine was set at 75%. He thinks that is why I was popping fuses. I have made the changes but won't be able to test until tonight. Just an update.....

OK, so there is "some" salvation. It appears with the HPV-1, I can set initial timing at idle, then "all-in" timing at 3000. Then - from 3000 to 8000, I can either add 10 degrees advance, OR retard 7 degrees. http://www.directignition.com/pdf_files/hpv1.pdf See the top of page 15 of the above document for a graph. That being said, I can run say 12 degrees initial, 27 degrees at 3000, and then retard the 7 degrees back down to 20. I guess that's the route I'll have to go for now until I can figure out a way to control the advance curve from the MS unit. Sound about right?

Bah!!! Here it comes... let the spending ensue yet again..... Thanks Sid!

So, I'm basically screwed with the HPV-1 as far as timing is concerned? I won't be able to go above 14psi until I can back down timing at certain RPM ranges? My goal is 400rwhp, and it's going to require more boost than 14psi to get me there. Rats!!!

Thanks all. I do have a bit of a dilemma. The HPV-1 has an "initial" timing set, and an "all in" timing set. I guess it plots its' own curve accordingly. To my knowledge, there's no way to adjust timing when boost comes on. So, with that kind of boost, would you think that 10 initial and 20 total would at least cover the largest area? My MS has been setup to drive 3 dual coils. I wonder if there is a way to control the HPV-1 from the MS unit......

I've been told by a "turbo" friend of mine that I should run almost 0 degrees ignition timing on my turbo setup. Says the boost will "handle everything else". Well - I took the car to the exhaust shop last week with the timing set at 0 initial, and 6 degrees total at 3K. The turbo blanket was smoking like a chimney when I got there. My AFR's were still down in the 10's and 11's, but I suspect the severely retarded timing caused a lot of heat. I have the Electromotive HPV-1 crank fire ignition/coil setup. I have since bumped it up to about 4 degrees inital, and 10 total. Car runs "better" - but really would like to have it set properly for the turbo setup. As much as possible without detonation. Garrett T04 .60 trim AZC Intercooler w/3" piping MS 1 (fuel and boost - no spark) Lonewolf intake AZC 440cc injectors 240SX TB Bone stock 80ZX "mule" motor w/130K on it. I looked at Cygnus' spark table. Looks like he starts around 9 initial and goes up through 36 "all in". His setup is similar to mine. I don't want to "assume" anything with a turbo setup though. This is my first - and hopefully my last! So - timing #'s capable of withstanding 18+psi and holding the stock motor together......???? Anyone??? Bueller????

OK - reran the numbers and required fuel came out to 6.0. I was running 8.3. At 6.0, the second I got off idle, it shot AFR straight to 18+. Reset it to 6.5, and still lean. Went up to 7.5 and while it's still a little rich, I was able to get some decent pulls. The bucking has subsided a bit, and I got up to 12psi of boost comfortably. There's still a few "dead spots" upon abrupt throttle transitions, but either I'm learning how to drive around it, or something is indeed getting better. I have not popped the 10A fuse. All appears to be well - and no burnt wires or anything. I'm trying to attach a log file, but the forum says I'm not permitted to upload this kind of file. I changed it from .msl to .log and still no joy. Any ideas? I can put it out on my website for download, but don't want to make it a pain in the butt to get at.

Injectors are of the 440cc Arizona Z-Car variety. Bone stock ZX NA (dished piston) motor (with 130K on it). MS1 - fuel only. Spark controlled by Electromotive HPV-1. Lonewolf intake, AZC FMIC w/3" pipe. Garrett T04 .60 trim. 3" mandrel exhaust to Borla XR-1 muffler. I did calculate the required fuel - maybe I did it wrong? Will recheck today. If I'm going lean, it sure doesn't show on the wideband. Perhaps it's such a sudden spike that the wideband isn't picking up. I went up to a 10A fuse, but haven't had a chance to get in the boost yet to see if it will blow. In boost, it's around 10.5 - plenty rich - but then the fuse goes.....damn. Thank you for your insight. I will triple check everything today.

I got a "decent" VE table from Cygnus X1 that has a very similar setup to mine. A little rich - but still fairly close. Whenever I get in to boost, I go a little richer (10.0ish) and then poof - nothing. I pop the Inj2 fuse. If I get in to the throttle gradually, it is smooth. When I "get on it", the car bucks like a bronco - like there is a dead spot in the TPS, but that can't be since a smooth gradual acceleration yields good results. The car fires up and idles great (still a little rich). I am running 7.5A fuses for the Inj1 and Inj2 slots. It only pops the Inj2 fuse. Should I go up to a 10A fuse? I can't really do data logging without blowing a fuse. Even at 100% duty cycle, I still shouldn't be popping fuses should I? So - based on the above, are there any "glaring" entries that would cause the car to buck/die under abrupt throttle changes? Also - if I want to go leaner, do I up the numbers, or drop them? I tried dropping them and the car went even a little richer. Will try the opposite today. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I need boost and I need it now!