s-cargo engine troubles.

Denied · Post by **Denied** » Mon Sep 30, 2013 4:31 pm

back again, with some more s-cargo related questions

my S-Cargo has developed some strange issues and I'm really chasing a mechanic to have a look at it.

If someone could recommend a decent mechanic in Perth, South of the river that would be great. At the moment I'm looking to go to De Rosa Auto repairs in Myaree/Melville.

Additionally, anyone looking to get rid of an Exa Turbo or ET Turbo with a decent running engine... I'd be interested in that too.

Symptoms... was driving fine, then developed a knocking, no power, push throttle down and knocking gets louder. Can gently idle and maintain around 50kph and that's about it. Will start and idle happily, only knocks under load. Pulled all the plugs, sooty but not offensively so. All cylinders SEEM to be firing but when we disconnected ht/plug 4 while the engine was running there was no noticeable change in pitch/idle... it was only when we pulled the plug on cylinder 1 did the engine bog down. Coolant is clear, and the oil is still oil coloured with no signs of contamination. Didn't pull the rocker cover off but couldn't see much through the inspection/oil filler. I hadn't recently filled the petrol and was on about 1/2 a tank i.e. not pulling from the bottom of the tank. Vacuum lines seemed to still be vacuuming and didn't notice any weird smoke from engine bay. Car has consistently run hot ever since I have had it (replaced radiator about 6 months ago after it blew on a hot down while running down Tonkin Highway with the aircon on)

I'm hazarding a guess going on the workshop manual that I've thrown a bearing somewhere along the line.

Denied · Post by **Denied** » Wed Oct 02, 2013 10:18 am

Well we continued with some more troubleshooting. My mate did a compression test on each of the cylinders. Cylinders 1 & 2 would hold at 120psi, 3 & 4 were around 30psi. So we are guessing it's a knackered head gasket.

(I'm numbering cylinders 1 as the left most as you are facing the car from the front)

Damo · Post by **Damo** » Thu Oct 03, 2013 6:20 am

That's a good bit of detective work! #1 at drivers side.
Yep, you have blown the gasket between #3 and #4. Head will have to come off and change the gasket over, then you will need to sus out why it was detonating to cause the failure. How much hotter is/was the engine running?

Damo

rubixcube101 · Post by **rubixcube101** » Thu Oct 03, 2013 9:42 am

Good mechanic in perth is this guy.... Dr Mark Car Surgeon. I can't promise you that it won't it your pocket though.

He's a great guy and does an amazing job. Made my mums car run like new, cleant it, and paid attention to every bit of detail despite a last minute call for him to service the car a day or two before he was going away.

https://plus.google.com/113750326541813 ... l=au&hl=en

Denied · Post by **Denied** » Fri Oct 04, 2013 12:26 pm

Damo wrote:How much hotter is/was the engine running?

The engine has always seemed to run hot but that said the temperature gauge in the cluster has NEVER gone above halfway, even when it blew the radiator it wasn't looking near the danger levels... I'm starting to doubt the accuracy of it.

rubixcube101 wrote:Good mechanic in perth is this guy.... Dr Mark Car Surgeon. I can't promise you that it won't it your pocket though.

He's a great guy and does an amazing job. Made my mums car run like new, cleant it, and paid attention to every bit of detail despite a last minute call for him to service the car a day or two before he was going away.

https://plus.google.com/113750326541813 ... l=au&hl=en

Awesome, thanks man. If we still continue to have issues after we pull the head and replace gaskets then the derpwagen may make a visit there.

Just checked where he is located... that's just down the road from my place. woo. that is awesome.

Another question. The E15S and E15ET share the same gaskets on the main block for the majority of bits, right? I'm just thinking that when I finally get an ET engine, I'll need to pull the head etc and give it a good going over thus will need another gasket set when I rebuild.

Post by **tassuperkart** » Sat Oct 05, 2013 9:04 pm

All the same.

Oracle

Denied · Post by **Denied** » Sat Oct 05, 2013 10:54 pm

*double post*

Denied · Post by **Denied** » Sat Oct 05, 2013 10:59 pm

thank you sir.

Damo · Post by **Damo** » Sun Oct 06, 2013 8:37 am

Exy manifold gasket is different.

Damo

Post by **tassuperkart** » Mon Oct 07, 2013 12:23 pm

Yes is but usually, most kits contain the different styles on the once card.
Oracle

Post by **tassuperkart** » Mon Oct 07, 2013 12:26 pm

Thats true.
however, Ive not seen a gasket kit not come with both styles of gasket along with both types of inlet manifold gasket which are also different.

Oracle

Damo · Post by **Damo** » Mon Oct 07, 2013 3:28 pm

Good point. The inlet manifold gaskets are the same for the E15/E15T/E16 the oval shape, where the E13 has the round port shape. Again, they will all be in a standard kit.
Also, out of interest Denied, the E15T has 1mm bigger exhaust valves over the NA E15.

Damo

Denied · Post by **Denied** » Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:51 am

just an update. our detective work was correct and once I got the head off I saw a nice big hole in the head gasket between cylinders 3 & 4.

I'm betting that there has always been a problem with it since I bought the car, as that would help explain the serious lack of power (which I just ascribed to it being a Nissan S-Cargo), the sooting from the exhaust and the inability to get a decent tune through the carby.

Had the head pressure tested and refaced as the guys reckoned there was a bit of warpage in it, given the ridiculous amount of kludges I've found so far on this engine I wouldn't be surprised if the previous 'mechanic' had just tightened up the head bolts in a circular manner.

I wrote down everything as to stripping the head, so I am aiming to post that up here too... since the workshop manual has all of 3 or 4 steps which doesn't really cover the nitty gritty. I think I ran to 5 pages of oil-stained notes.

Denied · Post by **Denied** » Mon Nov 25, 2013 5:35 pm

Just reading through the thread in the articles about replacement head studs...

http://forum.n12turbo.com/viewtopic.php?t=6790

Now, at the moment I have head bolts... reading this through makes it sound like this is a conversion to studs and nuts. Am I reading that correctly? Just want to understand what I'm doing before I go order pricey nuts and bolts.

I'm guessing that the head bolts aren't reuseable? Why go for studs over bolts? Bolts strike me as much simpler... please educate me.

Denied · Post by **Denied** » Thu Nov 28, 2013 1:20 pm

As noted by one of the guys on the Facebook group.

Stock head bolts are single use only, make sure you order a set BEFORE you rip apart your head or order the ARP set as noted in the previous thread link.