How hard to change pistons myself?

[pjo046]

I am going with forged flat tops in my L28ET to raise the compression to about 8.5:1. How hard is this to do myself? Also, I have just installed the timing cover and oil-pan etc with new gaskets. Had gasket cement on the timing cover gasket. I will now of course have to take that of again. But when installing it for the second time, can I just put some more gasket cement on and put it on, or do I need to reclean the surfaces, use a new gasket etc?

 

I only want to swap to forged pistons, don't want to bore or hone the block or anything like that, because that will cost a bit. Can anyone give me a link to somenone who sells good, cheap, forged pistons that will fit in the L28 without boring or things like that? And that will give me a compression of 8.5:1 with the stock headgasket? Is it better with small dishes in the piston than a completely flat one?

 

Will I need to renew some other components when changing the pistons? Like main bearings etc?

[getZ]

As far as I know cheap forged turbo pistons do not exist. The lowest I've seen so far are around 500 dollars US. Speed costs money. How much durable power you make is directly related to how much you are going to spend.

 

You'll get a lot of varying opinions about what minimum cheap rebuild will cost. Just remember; "You get what you pay for." Go cheap and the motor will not last.

 

Did you ever get your book: "How to Rebuild Your Nissan and Datsun?" That book is pretty good with specs, tearing down the engine and going through and measuring bore taper, out of roundness etc.

 

You are going to have to pull the block out to take out the pistons. Stock pistons are press fitted into the rods and cannot be removed without taking the crankshaft out.

[getZ]

by the way. You will have to at least hone the bores if you change rings out or they will never seat right. If they don't seat they can rotate and if the top ring is in phase with the second ring you will get excessive blow by.