Jersey Posted September 28, 2003 Share Posted September 28, 2003 Glad you found something. Funny - ZR8ED said this about a week and a half ago - which head gasket to you have. Felpro makes one for turbo and one for NA. both look the same.. the turbo one has a few more holes in it to allow oil and coolant to pass from the head to the block Good call ZR8ED. Sounds like you're on your way 525. BTW - what you said here Well now knowing what I know about the head gasket I guess it's not a waste either way, I'm sure that would have caused problems at some point...and you noticed that Some 8-10 holes that transfer oil/coolant from block to head were blocked off I think your "at some point" statement would have been a lot sooner than you would have liked for it to be and i'm glad you found it early without causing mojor damage. Once you put the correct head gasket on there, i'm betting your smoking problems will be gone. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Carrman Posted September 28, 2003 Share Posted September 28, 2003 525, if you can get one, I'd avise picking up the turbo head gasket from Nissan. They are a bit pricey, but the fire rings around each cylinder are joined with each other as they were punched from one piece of metal. Also, they have the correct amount of coolant and oil holes in them. A Nissan parts guru buddy of mine says some holes are blocked off to keep coolant in the head longer, and not have it run quicklyback into the block. Friend of mine would blow a Fel-Pro every 4 to 6 months on his turbo, he has over a year on the genuine Nissan gasket I talked him into. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afshin Posted September 28, 2003 Share Posted September 28, 2003 I also agree with Dave on the head gasket. While many have done well with the fel-pro, a small but significant amount of them seem to have failed. I think the extra money for the Nissan one is money very well spent. Also you may want to consider using some lock-tite on the manifold bolts, I have seen enough of them loosen with time causing leaks, specially from the exhaust manifold. Also you see why I had suggested re-torqing the head, some things are just good/safe habits. I have learned that in the long run double checking everything saves a lot of time. So, in light of the fact that some of the oil passages were blocked, make sure you inspect the head very very closely you could have subtle but still important damage (e.g. came lobes , cam bearings, valve stems... , make sure there are no marks and check that everything moves smoothly without any binding...hopefully not). I'm glad you are making good progress, I'll keep my fingers crossed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bastaad525 Posted September 28, 2003 Share Posted September 28, 2003 Wow... blowing a felpro every few months? What's he doing to his car??? The felpros look pretty heavy duty... I ran a felpro on my N/A engine for 3 years and it looked great when we took the head off... I'll call nissan and check on the price for one of theirs but i"m willing to bet it's out of my 'budget' for right now.... Jersey - yeah ZR8ED did mention that... he's the one who put the idea in my head... wasn't trying to 'steal credit' or anything. Actually after he mentioned it on the thread I asked the guy who did the swap if he knew anything about that, and he got kinda odd which is when I kinda knew that it was probably the wrong one. I am surprised it hadn't caused any major problems already.... but now, things just get weirder.... UPDATE!!!! The pistons are out of the block, and my friend is now almost positive, after inspecting the condition of the rings, pistons, bearings, cylinder walls... everything suggests that this block has recently been rebuilt. The rings in particular look great... no visible wear on them at all. Maybe the guy who sold me the engine didn't lie... maybe there was a miscommunication somewhere? The engine came to me thru a 3rd party... who told me that the original seller claimed that the head and turbo were rebuilt. Maybe it was the BLOCK and the turbo? Oh we both had a look a the turbo and it is in great shape and does seem very likely that it was rebuilt recently also. So the mystery is now even more of a mystery!! All of the culprits that could cause an engine to smoke and burn oil, turbo seal, rings, and valve seals, and the head and block in general have all checked out to be in very very good condition. The only thing out of place was that head gasket but I can't see how on earth that would cause the motor to smoke the way it did. Again, there was absolutely no visual evidence of any kind of leaking past the head gasket or any evidence that it wasn't doing it's job. Could the cracked hose that comes off of the oil pan somehow have been the cause??? Otherwise we are stumped, completely. Jersey I hope you're right about the right head gasket solving the problem... the motor is going back together today, the rings, bearings, and valve seals have all been replaced too... hopefully one of them does the trick! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jersey Posted September 28, 2003 Share Posted September 28, 2003 Fingers crossed for ya 525. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bastaad525 Posted October 1, 2003 Share Posted October 1, 2003 heheh and the weird continues to get weirder! Okay apparently the felpro head gasket is NOT the wrong gasket!! I ordered a new felpro gasket from Napa on friday and picked it up today... compared it to the one that we took off that we thought was the wrong one, sure enough it is exactly the same. The description on the block does specifically say '81-83 turbo though... so I decided okay I'll do as you guys suggest and pick up a Nissan one. Called all the local nissan dealers but no luck. The local Z "experts" around here are the guys at Valencia Nissan... so I took the gasket to them to see what they thought. They crossreferenced the part number to their listing and sure enough they show the same part number for the Felpro. Unfortunately, the wait time for a genuine Nissan one was one week minimum and I really can't wait that long.... the guy at nissan said no worries they sell the felpros pretty regularly and havent had any problems with them, they sell mostly those now as the Nissan ones are getting scarce. Then another friend of mine mentioned that he had an HKS gasket that he hasnt used yet, and I asked him to take a look at the hole configuration on that thing. He said it didn't look like it blocked ANY holes... so I brought my gasket to his place and sure enough, the HKS has WAY more open holes than the Felpro... but that gasket costs a bundle!!! So... I'm kinda assed out either way, so forget it I'm just gonna have him install the felpro... I can't see how it coulda been the cause of the burning oil, as it turns out all the passages it blocks off are coolant passages, and with that same gasket installed the car didn't have any overheating problems so... I'm not gonna stress it. Anyways... Car should be done tommorow night and I'm gonna pick it up on thursday I guess... hot damn I miss that car Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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