Guest bastaad525 Posted September 4, 2003 Share Posted September 4, 2003 Bit the bullet today, grabbed a friend and the haynes manual, borrowed some tools and decided to get the head off meself. It actually ended up being a lot easier and faster than I expected it to be, took about 2 hours and we didn't hit any snags at all, which is odd for my luck it really went as smooth as butter. The #6 intake valve is definately stuck open, even with the cam lobe point straight up, the valve was open about 1mm, it didn't look bent though, just like something was holding it open, as supsected originally. There was lots of carbon build up in all the chambers (#6 didn't look at worse though...). The pistons looked good though (no holes from 10psi non intercooled, yet!), there actually wasn't much carbon built up on them at all, and cylinder walls looked great. The 'deck' of the block (that's what it's called right?) is good, head gasket looked relatively new and in good shape. Some of the head bolts looked new, some were covered in rust and crust, most likely will go with ARP's to put it back on. The head itself is a tossup, the cam and rockers are definately worn pretty bad, funny considering the guy that sold the engine to my mechanic swears the head was rebuilt... grrrrrrrrr. So even w/o a bent valve, I think the rebuild will still be a good, needed investment. And I do have access to a spare if it's warped or beyond saving, and it has a good cam and rockers on it and I know the valves to be good too, so replacements wont be a problem. Took the head to the machine shop today... these guys are really good and work fast, I should be able to pick the head up tommorow afternoon, and get the car all buttoned up Saturday morning (big woohoo here... I've done so good at keeping my mind off of it and so now it seems like no time at all before I will be driving my baby again). I'm definately going to swap to an early 280z intake manifold and eliminate all the excess crap from the turbo manifold. Now I am just hoping against hope that it was the head that was causing the problems I was having before (missing and stumbling, funky ignition timing), though I know it's still much more likely that it's electrical issues, either a bad distributor, or something wiring related. Letting the car sit has alerted me to another wiring problem... the car has only sat for about a week, and the battery is less than a year old, but when I went to move the car today before we started, the battery was COMPLETELY dead, wouldn't even pretend it was making an effort to crank, and not even glimmer when I turned the headlights on, nor any sound from the fuel pump when the key was turned to the on position. So... there is definately some wiring problem that is letting something drain the juice when the car is off. Can you guys suggest some things to me to check on this? I wonder if this problem may be tied in to my other electrical problems? I WISH I couled get ahold of the guy who wired this thing so he could at least clue me in on some of this stuff!!! All I know is I sure am glad to have found this out now hopefully the battery is okay and a jump will get it up and running. I did disconnect it so it couldn't drain any more. So... a couple more days now if all goes according to plan... you guys have any tips for me for putting the head back on, stuff the haynes doesn't mention? I'm assuming it will be harder and more work to put it on than it was to take it off... isn't it always? Ah well, a good learning experience for me and cool that I can now say I've removed and replaced a head I LOVE L6 engines.... soooooooo easy to work on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cody 82 ZXT Posted September 4, 2003 Share Posted September 4, 2003 Make sure to have that battery fully charged before you go to try and start it up. You'll be glad you did if you have any proublems and have to make adjustments and try again. My biggest suggestion is to read and reread how to put the head on and get the cam lined up correctly. Take your time and it should go well for you. Let us know if need help during the install. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bastaad525 Posted September 5, 2003 Share Posted September 5, 2003 I was thinking about that... I dont have a battery charger, thinking of swapping it into my g/f's car to charge it. I've been really careful and marked everything the way I was supposed to, as far as the cam lined up to the gear and lined up with the dizzy at TDC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cody 82 ZXT Posted September 5, 2003 Share Posted September 5, 2003 Putting a dead battery on a car will kill the alternator on it. An alternator is designed to maintain a battery not fully charge it. I would take the battery to almost any auto parts store and ask them to test it. For the testing procedure to be done right the battery will have to be charged first. Ofcourse you could just ask them to charge it. They'll proubly do without any proublems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim240z Posted September 5, 2003 Share Posted September 5, 2003 Did you put a block of wood on the timing chain to keep the tensioner from popping out? I hope so. Last time I swapped out heads, I put in a block of wood, but it still popped out when I was trying to get the chain and gear back on the cam!! It took me 4 hours of maddening frustration to pop the tensioner back in without pulling the front cover!! Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
240hoke Posted September 5, 2003 Share Posted September 5, 2003 on the timing chain thing. i would suggest a Nissan chain tensioner tool. Sure its expensive (for a piece of plastic) but it fits in there exactly and is easy to get in and out. One part that is definitly worht it. -Austin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bastaad525 Posted September 5, 2003 Share Posted September 5, 2003 Yeah that is definately one thing I'm aware of, though I've never pulled a head before, I have heard many a story about that chain falling in the block. Plus I had the Haynes with me and it definately stresses that step. I wedged a screwdriver in there... very very tight fit, there's no way it can pop off. Cody that is a great idea, I had forgotten that places like autozone will do that for you. I think they charge them in like an hour or so for free. I'll drop it off tommorow. No one with any ideas on why the battery got so completely drained so quickly? I'm starting to think I need to find a wiring harness that *I* know to be good and swap it in there my damn self, so I at least know what goes where and what's going on, and know that it's been done right... of course I would need to learn the right way to do it first but I bet I'd end up with a perfect running car that doesn't drain the battery! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QWKDTSN Posted September 5, 2003 Share Posted September 5, 2003 It may sound dumb but be sure your glove box is closed all the way and the light inside is off Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Want aZ Posted September 5, 2003 Share Posted September 5, 2003 Baast, Sounds like there is a short to ground somewhere, Not enough to cause you electrical problems, though that is a possibility,but enough to drain your battery. They can be hard to detect and hard to find. As far as wiring goes, there are 2 ways to go, Do it yourself, as some have done here, or go Painless Wiring harness. they are well marked for individula circuits and would be relatively easy to replace. Not sure on cost though, Might be a little steep, maybe on the high side of $500 Just some thoughts, and good luck Damon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobythevan Posted September 5, 2003 Share Posted September 5, 2003 Measure the current draw at the battery if you have an ammeter. This may give you an idea what could be the problem by the amount of current draw. Otherwise you have to go to connectors and see if current is flowing at each one to really track it down, doesn't sound like much fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted September 5, 2003 Share Posted September 5, 2003 You can measure the current draw with a voltmeter (on milliamps) as Moby said, then pull fuses one at a time. When you pull a fuse and the draw goes away, then you know which circuit is causing the draw. Then you just figure out what is on that circuit and where the problem is. FWIW, I hate trying to track stuff like that down. NEVER A FUN JOB I'm no electrical whiz either though... Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SleeperZ Posted September 5, 2003 Share Posted September 5, 2003 You can measure the current draw with a voltmeter (on milliamps) as Moby said' date=' then pull fuses one at a time. When you pull a fuse and the draw goes away, then you know which circuit is causing the draw. Then you just figure out what is on that circuit and where the problem is. FWIW, I hate trying to track stuff like that down. NEVER A FUN JOB I'm no electrical whiz either though... Jon[/quote'] Never fun, but that's the way to track it down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bastaad525 Posted September 6, 2003 Share Posted September 6, 2003 ugh... nothing on this car has been any fun, I'll tell you! I may just leave this one be for a while, I'll be driving my car pretty much every day and the 'leak' seems to be a slow one. About the glovebox, I actually noticed it was staying on about two months ago and just took the bulb out. Anywho, got the head back on today, ran into a few snags. Mostly with the 'new' intake manifold. The biggest problem is that the pcv valve on this manifold is in a different spot than the turbo one, it sits right on top of where the jpipe goes into the turbo, would have just blocked it off but there isn't even room for a bolt to plug it, so I'll have to get it welded. Also had to get creative with some of the other things that needed to be blocked off. Now, I guess I am not going to mess with the PCV, as far as hooking it up some how, so I can just put a filter on the crankcase breather pipe, and then run a filter on the valve cover breather and block off the air passage between the valve cover and intake, right? Also, there was a vacuum line that ran from the intake manifold (on the turbo manifold) to the bottom of the throttle body, does anyone know what this is for and can I just block it off? There are less vacuum ports on this manifold (it's a '75), only 4, and I need them for: BOV, FPR, boost gauge, and the brake booster hose. And anyways I seriously cannot figure out why the heck there is a hose from the manifold to the TB, it goes in AFTER the butterfly, so it would be exposed to vacuum on both ends?? Weird. Anyways... no place to to get the manifold welded until monday, so I should have it finished then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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