Complete Misfire on Three Cylinders

[Captain Obvious]

21 hours ago, Dave WM said:

I can't imagine you letting the wiggle go un measured....

Well you're going to have to accept it because I'm not going to measure it.   

I like the small bore gauge in that video. I don't have one of those, but I should.

[Captain Obvious]

So I've got those Sealed Power valve seals on order, but Rockauto's inventory quantities were screwed up and the order was delayed. Won't be here until next week sometime. No biggie.

So todays questions:

I need to get a new head gasket on order. I won't use Fel-Pro. Anyone have other suggestions they think is the best way to go?

And I think I've already got an intake/exhaust manifold gasket around here somewhere... Have we definitively determined does the metal faced side go against the head, or against the exhaust manifold? I know it's been discussed, but I don't remember if it has been 100% confirmed. Looking for guidance there.

[Dave WM]

23 minutes ago, Captain Obvious said:

Well you're going to have to accept it because I'm not going to measure it.   

I like the small bore gauge in that video. I don't have one of those, but I should.

I think I am going to get one, looks like fun tool to use.

[Dave WM]

I got a couple from this guy. I did local pickup, only concern is how they would survive shipping. They look very OE like.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/McCord-7114M-Head-Gasket-Fits-1970-84-Nissan-2-4L-2-6L-2-8L-6-cyl-engine-280Z/142521324095?fits=Model%3A280Z&hash=item212eeed23f:g:IE4AAOSw4A5Ym8kz:sc:USPSFirstClass!32819!US!-1

McCord gasket seems out of production, so old stock.

What's the problem with Felpro?

 

Edited July 18, 2019 by Dave WM

[Captain Obvious]

Not wanting to start a religious war over gasket brands, I've had two high annoyance gasket failures with Fel-Pro. First was a head gasket on an Acura Integra, and the second was an oil pan gasket failure on a Honda Civic.

I'll use simple paper gaskets from them, but the complicated stuff doesn't seem to work for me. I'm just cutting my losses.

[Captain Obvious]

An update to the project...

I've got all the valves sorted out and cleaned up waiting to be reinstalled.

I cleaned up all the burrs and distorted metal in the holes on the head and cam towers where the alignment dowel rings go. This allowed me to test fit the cam towers and my "new" cam. So far so good!!! Spins easy with two fingers! And that was even without a whole bunch of fiddling with the towers and the bolts.   @jonathanrussell

This. Just. Might. Work!!!!    

Some of the alignment rings for the towers were bent and mangled beyond use, so I need to get some of them on order. That and a head gasket.

Edited July 21, 2019 by Captain Obvious

[Captain Obvious]

Oh, and all the exhaust studs also came out easy-peasy, so I was able to cut down the super long ones and even up the ends on all the rest as well. Most of them had burrs on the first threads on each end from the PO grinding them after using a hacksaw. The studs are all cleaned up now.

Here's the super long ones all out. Thankful for small steps that go well:

[Captain Obvious]

I had mentioned my homebrew valve removal / installation fixture before, but didn't post any pics. Not sure I'll be ridiculed for the contraption, but here's what I made.

Here's all the bits and pieces. Some all--thread that I feed through the holes in the head where the head bolts go. The blue stuff is just masking tape on the threads so they don't cut into the soft aluminum of the head. And the black washers are nylon so I don't take the chance that I'll mar the surface where the head gasket seats:

Feed the all-thread through the head with a nylon washer, metal washer, and nut on each side:

Then I place a Delrin cup (that I made on the lathe) over the valve spring retainer:

And then I use the pieces of steel plate in a configuration like this:

Put on the other place and once everything is in place, I just tighten down the nuts until the spring is compressed enough to remove the retainers:

I used tweezers:

Once the retainers are out, just loosen up the nuts to decompress the spring and everything comes out:

Yes, it's slow, but there's pretty much zero risk of springing a retainer across the shop. It's very low mental stress and I'm happy with that trade off for speed.

Re-assembly will be reverse of dis-assembly.

[240260280]

I don't have lathe envy anymore... but I have milling machine envy.

[Captain Obvious]

LOL. It never stops. You just have to keep the voices at bay.

BTW - I did not use a milling machine to fabricate my valve contraption.  

[dutchzcarguy]

I would use your "contraption" to.. but without the 4 nuts that hold the bolts in the head?  not really necessary ..?  And the ring made on the Lathe can be just a peace of (copper) tubing?

[Captain Obvious]

You could try something like this without nuts on both sides of the head, but I don't think you would like the results. I think it would be unstable and fiddley.  I've called what I did a contraption, but in reality it's an extremely stable, predictable, and reliable system.

I poked a little fun at it because it's a little unusual, but it's actually quite viable.