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Everything posted by Boog
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Also, I have decided my final plan of attack and ordered parts. I bought all my reassembly gaskets, as well as valve seals (from the mustang was it? I can't remember, i got the right ones though). Planning on just pulling the oil pan, if everything looks good I'll leave it as is. Pistons will get a cleaning, as well as the block mating surface. Oil pan gets its return bung welded on. Then the head gets cleaned with ATF and soapy water, with a very light pressure washing/hosing to get the gunk out. Valve seals will be done as well during cleaning. I got new plugs, fuel hose, injector pigtails (to go on my freshly cleaned turbo injectors). Also a new high flow fuel pump is going in the rear. Hopefully my rebuilt turbo (professionally) won't burn oil, so I know if it is still spewing when I get it back together it should be piston rings. Further updates will come as I get my parts and get to dive in on the project. If someone has another suggestion of something I should do, do differently, or not at all, please let me know. I will definitely be checking this thread.
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Definitely considered, thanks for the input! Were you trying to say that my oil cloud was a normal amount from driving consumption? Because in that case, it definitely is different from just normal burning. No burning unless its under WOT or back-pressure.
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Oh it burns about that much, but it absolutely spews oil when I'm engine braking or WOT. Its more than a little smelling.
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Sounds like a plan. I'll get on that as soon as i can. Thank you for your help in diagnosing the problem. Here's my plan as of now: 1. Pull oil pan. 2. Inspect crank, maybe pull a piston (if its a good idea? would the ring just break off?) 3. clean everything, do some measurements and make sure everything checks out. 4. Do the valve seals, clean head. 5. Reassemble with new HG, and turbo parts. 6. Check if smoking still, if so, then do a compression test again with the oil method and truly diagnose my rings. Really hoping I'm not going to have to do the rings after reassembling, but I'm guessing if I check measurements and such and make sure everything looks good from a numbers perspective, I will have a low chance of having to do that.
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I did not add oil, so unfortunately I do not have results of a leakdown test. I do know though that the readings were within 10% of each other. Is there any reason not to do a re-ring and hone? As for oil pressure, I'm pretty sure my sending unit is messed up, every time I start it the readings are fine, but once I start driving and have one decent pull to 4k, when I get off the gas and let it idle the needle goes negative. It seems to me like I have some gunk in the sending unit.
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I did a compression test after driving, and i wrote down the numbers but I lost the sheet. I remember all of them were under 120, maybe down towards 110? Definitely no higher than 120, and i remember thinking "wow, these are pretty low".
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Actually the head is off, so that test is doable. I will give it a shot as soon as I can. My main question is, given the condition of my cylinders as seen above, is it worth doing the rings and honing? I feel like the valve seals have a higher chance of being bad than the pistons, given the many accounts of these bottom ends doing 300k miles no rebuild (i'm at 165k).
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Ok, so I felt for ring ridge. On cylinders 3-5, there was nothing. on cylinder 2, there was the slightest hint of a ridge, barely barely barely. 1 and 6 were TDC so no testing. As for the head test, you want me to just put the valve cover on, pour in half a quart of oil into the filler hole, and see if it drops down into the valves? Sorry if I am not grasping what the guides and such are, I'm not very educated on head parts yet. Since I am pulling the oil pan to get a oil return line bung welded on, I think I'll go ahead and do piston rings and lightly hone the cylinders, if there isn't a problem with doing that.....is there a reason not to while the pan is off and I have access?
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*Sorry about the picture size, I posted these in a rush, I can edit my post later tonight to make them smaller. Until then, please zoom out, haha.* Alright, here are the pictures. First are of the springs and rockers, as well as a couple looks at the cam. Next is the intake ports, as well as one good look at a valve. You can see the porting scratches. Last is an exhaust port.
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I've put about 4000 miles on the new head. The oil burning on engine braking has gotten worse and worse over the past year. It also burns oil under hard acceleration, per a friends account of the smell when he followed me up an onramp. I bought the head through my mechanic, so I have very little knowledge of what has been done to it. I'm sure this info oisnt very helpful for figuring out head condition, so I'll go take some good pictures of the head and post back here within the hour.
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Sorry, can you explain a little more on what the ring ridge would be? Are you saying just visually inspect the top ring? Its been so cold here lately my latest startups it blows more condensation whitish winter startup smoke than anything blue. It is the Nissan bottom end, nothing has been touched. ~180k miles on it. When I had my head installed years ago, I remember the mechanic saying something about how the bottom end was a little dirty, but in good shape.
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I also just looked up valve stem seal symptoms, and I found a guy with a 77 that burned oil on deceleration, which is my problem, and fixed it with valve stem seals.....definitely should have done the compression test with the teaspoon of oil. Is it more likely to be seals or rings?
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Well I bought the stage 3 head from my mechanic, I have no idea what was done to it at the time, I truly was car clueless. I didn't do a leakdown test, but I did do a compression test and if I remember correctly, I did it with a hot engine, and the best reading I got was 115 or 110. I'll have to find the paper where I wrote it down, but it was very low.
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Hello fellow members, My current setup (stock) has been burning oil, but only on backpressure. I'll be going down a hill, engine braking, and my car will spew blue smoke. From the blue and the smell, I definitely know it's oil. I also had a "Stage 3" head put on a year or so ago, before I started doing my own work, and I know there is no problem from that. I am thinking that it is piston rings due to my symptoms sounding like blow by. With that in mind, and knowing that a turbo setup on an engine burning oil would be bad, I decided to tear down today. The cam lobes were a little iffy, but i would think within specs and it wouldn't make me burn oil if it was bad. When I got the head off, I found this (after some sad wiping of the pistons with a rag): Looks a little dirty, but overall not too bad, right? My concern is that the cylinder walls were glossy. This was (I am guessing) because of the large amount of oil on the cylinder walls (from cranking the engine to TDC without firing? idk). My first thought was, where the heck is the cross hatching? I've seen pictures of a few engines with very visible hatching. So I went hunting for it! After a good wipe with a rag, I managed to get the bore dry and got to this point: Now this is obviously hatching, but my flash from my camera is giving them too much credit. They are definitely not that visible to the eye. Here's a couple more for reference. So after that long story, I ask for your opinion. Do you guys think my problem was crappy rings? or do I need to hone it, and ring it? Are my cylinders ok? Thanks in advance, I always appreciate the help from you guys.
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I plan on wiring in relays this weekend, I'll test the resistance of a stock bulb and go from there. Thanks for the suggestion.
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Bleh, I'll just find a way to put the fronts back in somewhere more hidden.
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Hey everyone, I deleted my front 280z turn signals for a cleaner look, I put in a 240 grille. My turn signal function has stopped working, and I'm pretty sure it's because my turn signals aren't plugged in obviously. How should I fix this, should I bypass the plug somehow, or wire in a resistor? Thanks everyone!
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Oh well safety is always the top priority. I am running some generic slip-ons from Canada, I can't remember the brand right now but they were CHEAP. They work well though, and didn't require welding. I would recommend the ground control kit, it allows for better travel, ride, and height adjustment, and they are only $430 plus shipping from their website. I am not a good welder at all, but if you are then those are the way to go.
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Awesome progress man! I've enjoyed following it and I can't wait to actually meet up with you to see it. I personally would recommend putting your budget towards coilovers next, they really make these cars come alive in the twisties. Nothing like taking the 520 E on-ramp out of Kirkland before the 405 turnoff and not feeling like the whole car is going to lose control, I feel perfectly fine taking it at 60!
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Hey everyone, I wanted to give an update on the turbo setup. I plan on pretty much following a method messaged to me by Dexter72 (thanks again!) until I can get a standalone setup ready to swap in. The method will be stock ECU, stock AFM, just drop the manifold, turbo, oil lines, and injectors on the car and go for it with locked mechanical advance. So far I have had the turbo professionally rebuilt, the exhaust manifold has been pressure washed, degreased, and wrapped as much as I could given its shape. I also kept my eye out for one of those intake pipes you mentioned and managed to snag one, it is sitting in some soapy water as I type. I also have all my turbo injectors, but they are still in the manifold they came with. I have some research bookmarked on locking the distributor, I am still deciding on which method seems more reliable. I also have a shopping cart ready to order all my gaskets and o rings. I am planning on pulling the pan and taking it to a shop to get the return line bung welded on. My plan is AN fittings for the return line as I figure that will be most upgradable in the future. I have a cone intake I plan on using, even though the stock intake would work. I'm actually still debating using it as I type as well, haha. I bought a turbo downpipe from MSA and it should work well. Exhaust shop is picked out and I have a quote. Everything seems almost ready for December, when I am doing the swap. Oh, I also have a Warlboro 255(?) to throw on there, I figured it wouldn't hurt, got it from a friend for helping him move garages. Is there anything else I am missing? I have my feed line as well.....Thanks for all you guys help over this build, this community has been a terrific resource.
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Can anyone second the need for the turbo oil pickup line?
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Hey thanks for that Tony, seems like a cheap, safe way to get that pan off!
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Thanks for the info on the oil pans. I figured my ported head will be better than stock due to the flow, I was mostly concerned about the compression. I am really debating on what to do. I don't think my turbo will be back rebuilt by the time I have to head off to school 4 hours away, and I really can't keep this turbo z in my garage until winter......I would love to just pull all the parts I need off it for the turbo conversion, part out the good stuff to the forum, then sell whats left to the junkyard. My problem is I am afraid I am going to miss a piece. I know its really useful to have the donor car right there when you do it, so you can just pull parts you need as you go, but that really is not an option. I'm kind of screwed on garage space right now..... As for the oil pan situation, I think I'll just grab a buddy and get it out from the zx, I don't want to try and mod my current one when I can stick with the stock setup. Right now I'm wishing there was a list of every little piece needed for the turbo conversion, but I suppose nobody has the same plan and needed parts.....
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Thanks for the reply. Both heads have square ports, according to this http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php?topic=6012.0 I would love to swap the pans, but I am worried because I have read pulling the zx pan is so much harder than the standard z one.
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Hello everyone, I posted a little while back about having recently buying a turbo donor car. It is pretty beat, rusted through and through from the rear forward, and is a terrific candidate. However, the turbo was seized on it and it was finicky when revved up, obviously haha. I have since shipped the turbo off to G Pop Shop for a rebuild, and since then have bolted up a T-bird T3 turbo to make sure the engine works. The engine is still a little off, but definitely better than with the original turbo. My questions for you guys are as follows: 1. The car i'm doing the swap in to, a 76 280z, has a very strong motor. It has a stage 3 ported head (N42), new head gasket, no smoke, no oil burning, etc. It is a very strong motor. I would love to use the current block/head for my turbo setup. I realize the compression is 8.3:1, up a bit from the turbo compression with the p90A head. I read that with stock boost this should not be an issue, even up to 9-10 lbs. I obviously favor the N42 because of the work that has been done to it professionally, in addition to the long term reliability over the hydraulic lifters, should something go wrong. Will I be ok with an N42 head? 2. The second reason as to why I want to go this route is that I do not have an engine hoist, nor the time currently to go with a full engine transplant. Could I simply take the turbo exhaust manifold, turbo, ecu, injectors, coil, wiring, afm, dizzy, etc and plop it on my current engine? I know some people look down upon this route as being a "backyard turbo creation", but I feel that given the currently questionable state of my turbo motor, this is a viable and smart route for creating the strongest engine combination. 3. My last question is regarding the oil pan. Obviously my current engine does not have a return location for the turbo. Would it be better to remove the current oil pan and tap it with a new drain, or swap it from the turbo block? I have heard and read that removing the pan from a s30 is doable without lifting the engine, whereas the s130 pan removal is near impossible, even sometimes with unbolting the engine and jacking it into the tranny tunnel. Sorry for the book I just wrote, I'm honestly just a little in over my head on something I am sure I will look back on as being relatively simple. As always, thanks to you all for your ever present help!