Hello; I have a 1992 SE, manual trans, and finally began the tear down to replace the VTC solenoids as well as the clutch, axles, seals, etc.

Today I dropped the crossmember and removed the oil pan, and found this debris at the bottom of it. The black thing is definitely plastic, the silver I also think is plastic. Could it be one of the discs that hold down the valve covers? I was messing with them about a year ago, maybe dropped one into the engine? FYI the VTC caps are all in place.

 

Dude that is so weird. I just replaced the oil pan gaskets/RTV on my new VE a weekend or two ago, and I had the EXACT same two half moon plastic pieces in my oil pan. There was nothing else in mine though, just the two plastic half moon pieces.

They were just neatly sitting on the bottom of the pan. Not chewed up or damaged at all. When I first saw them I thought it was a magnet but when I touched them I quickly realized that they were plastic.

I just pulled them out of the pan and tossed them. I've never seen them before in any of my VE oil pans previously.

They're definitely not the discs that hold down the valve covers. Not sure what else they would be though. Having just completely rebuilt a VE I can't think of what they could be - I definitely did not have any such half moon plastic pieces like that during my rebuild.

 

James, Not sure if it would be the same on the ve oil pan but on the vg there are 2 half moon rubber gaskets that go on either side of the pan and the rest is the rtv gasket maker. If it is the same those might be the gaskets you found in the pan.

 

No, I'm definitely not talking about the oil pan gaskets. The two black plastic pieces in his picture are IDENTICAL to what I found in mine. Although one of his looks to be chipped on one edge, whereas both of mine were undamaged. They are small, if you "mate" them together it's about the size of a quarter.

The VE uses those same half moon rubber gaskets on both sides of the pan too, and RTV elsewhere on the pan. The difference is that the VG uses two differently sized ones. Whereas both of the VE gaskets are the same size.

Fun fact, the VE gaskets = the larger VG gasket. So if you buy/condense two VG kits you can make one VE specific kit out of it. This comes in extra handy with aftermarket listings because they rarely list VE's

 

I see. Well that is pretty weird. I guess it wouldn't be from the top of the dipstick either being the tube isnt close to the size of a quater but judging from the op's pics. those look to be fair sized chunks of debris.

 

The gold piece in his pictures almost looks like RTV, but hard to tell from the pics. I've found globs of RTV in my engines before - those are no worry of course and to be expected after repair work.

I didn't have any silvery chunk stuff in mine. I don't have any good ideas on that part. All I had were the two black plastic half moon pieces. Mine weren't chipped or anything so they obviously haven't been floating around the engine. I'm not at all worried about them, just trying to figure out what they would have come from. I'm sure it's a fairly mundane explanation.

I've been going back through photos of my turbo engine build trying to figure out what they could be. Looking through everything, it seems this is the only remotely plausible guess:



I think that is still not a likely culprit as I doubt that black "ring" part on the tensioner is two pieces and that it would just fall right off. If I had a tensioner in front of me right now, I could quickly rule it in/out. I'm leaning towards not the culprit regardless.

 

I haven't taken that tensioner off yet, (and I remember you telling me to use a washer with the aftermarket piece). Ill compare the two, however I don't think that is the culprit because the chains guides etc are in really good shape. I'll match them up later today when I remove the chains.

There was tons of RTV in the oil pan, but the gold/silver pieces you are seeing are very hard, maybe metal, but possibly hard plastic. That's why I thought maybe it was a shredded valve cover disc. Whatever the case, its not RTV. I have lots of OEM Nissan fasteners gaskets and small pieces, im trying to match it up to my new parts right now...

 

It wasn't using a washer, it was that I used the aftermarket plastic guide piece on the OEM metal part. This is on the actual long chain guide to the right of my arrow in the pic above. With the aftermarket metal piece, when I tightened down that lower allen head bit, it tended to "lock" the chain guide in place and not be able to rotate freely. I figured the aftermarket piece had a slightly incorrect diameter or something for that allen head bit to go through.

With the OEM piece, the guide rotates freely even when tightened down to spec.

 

ok thanks again, i think I"ll understand better when im actually installing the guide. i printed out your post and i'll have it next to me when im installing.

i realize this is getting a bit off topic, but i'm confused where i go from here. the gearbox is out, oil pan off, engine is dangling from a support beam, and the xmember/mounts are obviously out. I need to install chains/guides/tensioners, also oil pan seals as well as rear main seal. but i'm not comfortable working on the engine when its just dangling by chains. what order do i go in? The FSM isn't all that clear, it kind of breaks each procedure down into a separate job

 

Honestly - if it were me, I'd prefer to pull the whole engine out and get it on a stand. If I remember correctly, you're very limited on space or something like that, or there was some reason you couldn't actually pull the engine though?

Regardless, you will want to do the oil pan LAST. That is because to do the timing chain, you'll need to remove the lower timing cover. And the lower timing cover needs to be on prior to when you seal up the oil pan.

Other than that, doesn't really matter if you do the rear main seal or the timing chain stuff first. You can do the rear main seal with the oil pan on. Although - if you are doing the 'full' rear main seal stuff, including taking off that entire aluminum housing that has the rear main seal to replace the paper gasket between it and the block - you will want to do that before the oil pan obviously.

 

Ok got it...yes, im in limited space and its really cold here, so I can't push the car outside, I would have much rather removed the entire engine. Right now I have all timing covers removed and everything has been sent out for powder coating (silver), so maybe I'll reinstall the crossmember so i can safely replace the chains, and main seal (have the paper gasket and retainer).

 

Any update on your project?

 

Yes, I have the engine supported with the harbor freight support bar. I dropped the crossmemeber, and filled the mounts with 3M window weld. Removed the lower timing chain and gears, and completed your mod-I attached the new plastic guide to the OEM metal piece. I didn't even both to test fit, the plastic piece came off so easily it took less than a minute.

I just ordered OEM head gaskets and new cylinder head bolts from Conicelli. I have the ebay gasket kit, but this job is so hard I think its worth OEM head gaskets. I saw the comparison thread but still, I'm paranoid. The FSM says its OK to reuse head bolts, but again they aren't expensive so I'll keep these as spares and use the new ones (if they don't cancel my order due to everything being discontinued).

The problem I'm having now: How clean is clean, as far as the cylinder block/deck? And what if tiny pieces of gasket/dirt fall into my cylinders or passages? I'm using brakeclean, a razor, and a microfiber towel, I'm just now sure it will ever be clean enough. Same goes for the oil pan. I cleaned it well, but what if there are tiny amounts of debris I simply can't remove? I'll attach some pics...

 

I've also sent the timing covers, valve covers, plenum and lower intake for powder coating. Some sort of silver color..Ill post pics when they are finished.

The shop is asking about the plastic breather pieces below the valve covers, will they melt in the powder coat oven? If so I may just have them painted with engine paint

 

Very cool, making progress! Not to be a buzzkill but I would be shocked if you can get OEM head gaskets. I think back last year or whenever it was that Brad posted that comparison thread, there were only a couple of dealers in the country who had VE head gaskets on hand. Officially they were discontinued from Nissan and those were just the ones who showed to have actual local-dealer stock. I can't remember if I contacted them ALL, but I did call most of them and none of them actually had any (or they were too beat up for them to feel comfortable selling them). IIRC a couple of them didn't seem to care and wouldn't ever actually check physical stock and call me back. That was a common issue last year trying to hunt down parts on my rebuild (and not just for the head gaskets).

Your oil pan certainly looks clean enough to me. I used to try to meticulously scrape off my pans with a razor blade which took FOREVER but the past few years I just take a drill wire wheel to them, then I wipe them down real well with acetone. Always works great for me. Now I DON'T use a wire wheel on the block side. I just clean them off with a razor blade and wipe them with acetone.

About your cylinders, you will inevitably have some smallish debris fall into the cylinders, but try your best to pack the coolant passages and whatnot with shop towels to try to keep crap from getting down into those. The leftover smallish debris in your cylinders can be blown out with some air. But even at all that you still can't be laboratory clean with it, so just do your best and it'll be fine. Your block looks perfectly clean enough to me. Just make sure to wipe it down with acetone or brake cleaner or something to get all grease/grime/dirt off of it immediately before the gasket install. Successful head gasket jobs have been done in much dirtier conditions

Also, if you have the FSM this is listed in there but don't forget the little dabs of RTV between the block and timing cover and below the head gasket:








About the plastic bits possibly melting during powdercoating - I would be shocked if they melted. There have been lots of people over the years who have powder coated their valve covers without issue.

 

Thanks James, yes I have the FSM and an entire tube of the Permatex Ultra Black, which I plan on using for the oil pan as well as the heads/timing cover etc.

Predictably, Conicelli called me today saying the only parts they can source are the head bolts and the grommet which goes inside the plenum near the power valve. Anyway it was worth a try. I wish they didn't advertise parts they can't actually find.

 

So do you have another option ready to go for the head gaskets?

If you saw Brad's thread last year, you might have seen that my Beck/Arnley 035-1947 part number head gasket was actually an OEM unit. If you could find one of those you might luck out and it actually be OEM. The problem is, I think Beck/Arnley sources parts from many different suppliers so the odds are low that every 035-1947 is an actual OEM part. This is bolstered by the fact that Brad's Beck/Arnley 035-1946 for the other side gasket clearly was not an OE unit.

I almost hate to admit it, but the DNJ brand VE head gaskets actually appear to be the best options out there nowadays. Clevite makes a set that is somehow also branded as Victor Reinz (54495 and 54496 part numbers), but they don't have the seal material around the oil galley ports, although Clevite is usually high-quality stuff.

On the other hand check out the DNJ brand stuff, has all the oil galley seals just like OEM:

http://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo....211353&jsn=382

http://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo....211353&jsn=383

I had never heard of Eristic brand previously, but Tony is using that brand on his VE rebuild. He showed me some pictures of the head gaskets and they look pretty good. Rather than one continuous piece of cut-out gasket material, it actually has some copper crush inserts it looks like for some of the ports.





Their part numbers for the head gaskets EG9002L and EG9002R. Not sure where to buy from though. Maybe Tony can chime in.

 

Found the Eristic stuff on eBay. Man that price is cheap. Looks like they even give you a new seal for the oil cap.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/92-94-3-0L-Fits-NISSAN-MAXIMA-DOHC-24V-HEAD-GASKET-SET-VE30DE-/151225387664?fits=Year%3A1992%7CMake%3ANissan%7CModel%3AMaxima&vxp=mtr&hash=item2335bc4a90

 

Yes, I have two complete sets of the Eristic gaskets, that I bought on eBay for about $48.00. Problem is, I don't feel they are all that high in quality. not necessarily bad, but I was able to source the plenum/collector gasket OEM and it seems much better than the paper Eristic one. I haven't even removed the plastic from the Erisic head gasket yet, but it doesn't look quite like the one pictured. I'll try to post a pic later tonight. Since I already have two sets, I'll likely just install these.

Finally, there is no way to determine top and bottom on the Eristic head gaskets, they seem identical on both sides. Again I'll post pics soon.

 

Jeff works at nissan and i believe he bought the last head gasket for ve30de