Concerned about that little oil hole - could solvent go in there. They are a bit dirty. How to clean.

 

good question. i guess you could soak them in paint thinner but you would need to ensure you clean it out and re oil the lifters.


hmm, good question.

 

If, intermittently, any of them were noisy before the motor strip-down, when the motor was cold or when its been stationary for a long time, I would definitely clean them - not so much on the outside but the actual inside because that is where the little non-return check-valve sits that can get affected by gunk accumulating inside the lifter body - keep lifters running on the same cam lobe and don't mix them all up

I have one or 2 of that noisy when on cold startup variety currently irritating the heck out of me ................. soon as I can lay my hands on valve cover gaskets I also plan on stripping and cleaning the lot - hoping they will be quiet then

 

wow... you guys talk about cleaning the hydraulic valves as though it's easy to get to
I thought you almost had to almost tear down the heads to get to them? My apologies if I'm wrong.

 

you just remove the valve cover then unbolt the rocker shafts... then the lifters come right out w/ their retainer.

 

oh.. then it is that easy My bad!
are there any risks for someone who has never done this type of stuff before (ie. never getting further than removing the air-plenum)?

 

I do believe he's got his whole engine torn down anyway

 

3 examples of different approaches .............

http://wiki.r31skylineclub.com/index..._and_Replacing

http://twinturbo.net/net/viewmsg.asp...ral&dtSearch=0

http://www.xenonz31.com/Rebuilding%20Lifters.html

 

Oh Oh - guess what LVR. All the inspections are complete and the entire engine is within specifications. It's quite strange but the bores are right in the standard range as if it came from the factory still. There is zero ridge at the top of the bores when I run my finger nail up.

Now i'm completely confused as to what that rattling sound could be. Luckily I gouged the LH camshaft by accident when removing the oil seal, so I'm going to throw that head in the dumpster and replace it with another, so hopefully the sound won't be there when I re-assemble. The crack that I thought was bad, my machinist buddy says it's just a hole in the casting process, not from wear. That crack was on the LH side.

I guess I'll just order up all the standard sizes as you suspected from the beginning it probably would be the result, using all standard.

If anyone has 2 X round tooth camshaft sprockets, I will trade you a cylinder head for them, with all the lifters and valves.

Caped, do you know if the round tooth crankshaft timing belt sprocket will fit nicely onto my crank snout that originally has the square tooth sprocket?

 

it will fit

 

Nice. Thanks. And will the VG30E intake manifold line up with the VG33E heads?

 

hold on why are you using vg33 heads on a vg30?

 

Cuz they are much newer - like 2004 new and I can get them for the same price. I get mixed info though if it'll work. Hesitant to try it though or i'll be stuck with useless heads.

 

except that the head gaskets are somewhat different.........

 

isn't all that basically irrelevant if the head gasket won't work? i just did a visual comparison of the two side by side... the difference is VERY slight, but it is there.

 

I've been doing some research - let me post my up to date findings. I saw what your saying about the head gasket not matching.

Some of my info may be wrong.

 

What's this fellow discussing though. Did he make an error:

http://forums.maxima.org/3rd-generat...fit-vg30e.html

 

i mean it might work. the question is which gasket to use. the vg30 of them has 2 extra tiny holes that the vg33 head gasket doesn't have... i don't know what they are for tho.

 

Man this guy confuses me though - look at the intake manifold gasket for the VG33E, it's WAY different.

Then one could say well, "use the VG33E intake then", but this too is impossible because our plenum wouldn't fit it.

 

The VG30E has the following:
Bore: 87mm (3.43")
Stroke: 83mm (3.27")
CR: 9:1

VG33E
Bore: 91.5mm (3.602")
Stroke: 83mm (3.268")
CR: 8.9:1

My friend said those domes under the cylinder head where the valves are visible, if those domes aren't the same dimensions, I could run into some variance that may not be good.

 

the ONLY intake gasket you need to worry about is the head-to-LIM... which appears to be the same as the maxima one. above that you are using the maxima intake and the maxima gaskets....

i mean OBVIOUSLY the VG33 upper intake gasket(s) is/are different! i'm putting a maxima engine in my 300zx.... but i'm using a 300zx intake and all the 300zx gaskets. the gasket kit i'm using for the intake was actually a universal kit which includes the plenum and intake gasket for the maxima, as well as another gasket that i don't recognize.

 

But also look at the bore size. Wouldn't the head gasket not line up then? Like the ring in the head gasket for the VG30E would mis-aligned to the cylinder right?

 

Me? - I think you looking for unwanted trouble. Have you actually figured what your CR will be with the 33 heads and 30 pistons? If you do use the 33 heads you must obviously use the 30 gasket ........... but is the shape of the 33 head's dome diameter the same as the 30's? - if not then the gasket's edge will not get clamped properly to create a durable edge in the combustion chamber.

Later:

Is there a difference in the center of the camshaft to block surface distance between the 30 and 33? ............. same question about the distance between the actual cam axial centers when installed on the block? ............(both critical for timing the cams vs crank)

Me? - apart from the added uncertainty about IM and EM gaskets/fitting the 30's, I would scrap the idea completely and use 30 heads

 

the piston does not go THROUGH the gasket.... it would be centered over the cylinder tho... aside from that you're on your own

keep in mind that maxpwer uses nistune, so a change in compression is something he can tune for. the stock maxima ECU is set specifically for 9:1

 

I agree LVR, it may actually damage my whole setup and be a huge waste of time and money. I still want to investigate it before I buy the older heads, as it may be worth the effort. We are talking a 6yr difference over the Quest heads here. Worst comes to worse I can go with the Quest ones I guess (1998)...after fully checking of course if they are compatible.

I just kind of want to avoid buying the old 1994 heads at this point...they are getting kind of long in the tooth.

 

Another thing I could do is drive out to the wreckers with my head and new gasket, IM & IM Gasket, EXH Man Gasket & EXH Man and just place it on it before paying them to check if it fits. No fit - no pay.

 

1994 heads may be aged yes, but to the best of my knowledge there is absolutely no design flaw present requiring distrust ito reliability when used - its the absolute simplist and cheapest solution.

 

And caped, what's the total capital cost for the WHOLE nistune package?

 

But LVR didn't we discuss that the heads take the most wear and that they do have a life span? How long can these old heads really last? The block will outlive the heads right.

 

Wear as in cam/lifters/valves possibly yes ................. but if your motor's current cleanliness and measured wear is anything to go by (as most well cared for VGs are), I would say your/any std heads are still good for another 150K miles

 

yea it's not like the aluminum heads decay or anything....... 99% of the time, condition is more important than age.... even with women so unless you have proof that there's something WRONG with a particular set of 1994 heads (or 90... or 87... whatever) then why bother trying to jerry-rig something that might cause problems in the long run? Matt's 87 z31 has original '87 heads which are working just fine.....

come to think of it, i'm somewhat certain that MrGone has the original heads on his Mustang... not 100% certain, but there are a TON of classic car people with original engine components in their cars.

 

Ya, it's becoming a headache - I found out that the wreckers is really for for those 2002 heads and driving that far for something that may not work sounds like a waste.

One thing though caped before I order all my parts, in your opinion, is it worth it to convert the square tooth gears on the VG to round tooth gears...I read somewhere that the round tooth belt can go WAY further than the square tooth belt, and I'm finding it's cheaper too.

 

i remember reading in the Z31.com that the max plenums flow a little better than the Z plenums, what would the dificulty be in altering the the max intake to work. would a VG33 intake fit under the hood?

 

for a z31 intake you would have to reroute some of the coolant lines.. not sure how many. other than that it would bolt straight on. but it might not fit under the hood. dunno about the vg33 one. vg30 pathfinder intake will fit with a little bit of creativity in therms of intake piping.

 

Ya know for some reason i thought it was the other way around...that the Z31 flows better than the maxima plenums. i know for the Z31 guys they gut out the plenums and that gave u some additional power..but that might be for FI guys only.

no no...nevermind...the maxima ones will flow better than a stock Z31. with a gutted Z31 one that's a different story.

 

http://www.redz31.net/pages/plenums.html

it was the old max plenum i was wrong but it is comparable to the pathy intake which has some promising write ups

 

what i heard was that a pathy intake is better than a stock z31 but not by much.. and that a gutted z31 is way better on topend than the pathy intake. i guess having really short runners would promote the topend wouldn't it?

 

i think its more a combo of the large plenum (gutted) size and short runners.