Hopefully today we fire up my '89 Max SE that I thought had a blown head gasket a few weeks back. A former Nissan mechanic is doing the work, I'm assisting. (and learning a lot) When I told him I thought the head gasket was blown, he said unlikely. Turns out he was right. When we pulled the heads we discovered the right (firewall side) cylinder head was cracked. Further disassembly revealed someone had replaced the thermostat and used crappy sealant. Several large pieces broke free inside the housing and floated through the engine, finally getting stuck in the coolant passages on the right head. Yesterday we got the timing belt and heads back on. Hopefully wrap up in a few hours today and get it fired up. My buddy says the main bearings sounded fine, hope he continues to be correct. Here's what we've installed for this fix:
Remanned cylinder head, Direct Parts.com, $199 (other quote was $230)
Valve grind gasket set, water pump, drive belts, timing belt, thermostat, $361 (with his discount)
Valve-job on left cylinder head, $150
Of course new fluids and spark plugs
A new, raw head from Nissan was $500 and just too expensive to pursue. My buddy hopes the remanned head works. I'll post follow-up notes tomorrow. Wish me luck!