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Ok, My buddy Dustin has a 1990 300ZXTT with 138K or so on it and when I met him the car was down. Its been down since last march with turbo failure. So he orders rebuilds ($600) and pulls the engine down to the block. HE did this because the engine stopped suddenly when the turbos went out and he suspected that he also blew a head gasket or two. So anyway, he replaces the turbos and puts all the big stuff back together but he needed help with all the vacuum hoses and such because he doesnt have a service manual. (He got the torque specs from a friend) Well, he called Vik for help, who referred him to me. I showed up at his place, first time I had met him. I look it over and show him where everything goes and we proceed to get everything in place. LAter that afternoon we are to the point of starting it. So we double check everything once again and start her up. She fired first time. :) BUT, and this is a big ol booty, there was oil pouring from the driver's side of the engine. Upon closer inspection we realize that he hadnt tightened down the turbo oil line at the small bracket bolted to the side of the engine at the engine mount. No biggie. We tighten it and crank her up again. Here's how it went. "Knock knock knickety knock nickety knock knock".. Sounds like a preschool knock knock joke, but I aint kidding. Both the crank and connecting rods were running in a perfect jackhammer symphony. So we shut it down. I tell him he has two options here. 1) Run the car for another 500 miles before you totally destroy the engine or
2) pull the engine and replace the bearings and get another 100K out of the engine. He opts the smart way and we pull the engine and gather all the bearing grade numbers etc etc.. Well, he decided that it would probably be better to just go the expense and re-ring it while we're in there. Good choice. He's a student and I was offering the cheapest way to get the car running. All the parts come in and he rebuilds the engine over the course of the week. Well, we install the engine saturday and crank her up and check for leaks. We notice a waterhose amount of oil spitting from behind the crank pulley. After pulling everything down to the timing belt, we cranked it up again to inspect where the oil was coming from. Sure enough, he didn't clean the contact surface where the oil pump mates to the block and oil was gushing out from there. The engine was making a knocking noise as well. So he drops the crossmember and the oil pan to get the pump off and cleaned up. HE reassembled the engine over the course of the day and I drove to ORlando and back to drop off that wings west fascia I made a mold from. I get back in town and all that is left is the front end of the engine. We get that together in 30 minutes and she's ready to crank.. We started her up and no leaks anywhere. Whew. Problem is, the engine is knocking worse than it did before I suggested to rebuild it and an occasional rod slap probably from old ass gasoline. So I've been perplexed as to why it is doing this knowing full well the crank, block and rods were in awesome shape. Just the bearings were worn to hell and back probably from neglect from a previous owner. So I do the next best thing; call my local Nissan dealer where we got the parts from and ask what grade number was ordered for the main bearings. 0,0,0,1 - Awwwwww FUCK! The bearings that I asked for were supposed to be 2,2,2,3!! So now the goddamn bearings are two grades too small! Can you f*ing believe this???? You cant do these bearings with the engine in the car, gotta drop tranx, pull engine, flip engine, pull crank and con rods and replace the bearings. a full weekend worth of work all over again.... :-(
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agpowers@bellsouth.net |
