Alright, I gotten all of the timing and cams off. Now I'm trying to unbolt the heads but the dam bolts won't come loose. I'm using a breaker bar and the sucker just won't give. I do have a compressor and impact but I was told that it may strip the allen heads bolts so I haven't even try that. Any ideas or suggestions of getting them off?

 

Breaker bar with a long pipe as an extension. My 450 lb-ft impact wrench couldn't budge them at all. I ended up using a 4 foot metal pipe on top of my breaker and it still took some effort. I couldn't find a 1/2" drive hex socket locally so i ended up going with a 3/8" drive socket with an impact grade adapter. I wouldn't trust a regular adapter to this. The torque required for loosening and tightening these is excessive.


Why ya taking the heads off?

 

Well I got one side off. Used a 1/2in breaker bar and a extension from my floor jack and a lot of elbow grease. Everything looks good, I will take some pics and post them.

HKS HG and APR head studs

 

Ohhh yeah. I forgot about that. Awesome choices.

 

Now i just gotta get my blown 3.0 from my friends house...

 

Nice selections for your project . But be prepared, if the installing the ARP head studs is ANYTHING like the install of the OEM bolts' sequence.... just go to Wallgreens and buy an IceHot patch for your back from now, its gonna be a while, lol

 

Okay the quality is kinda bad, My sis took my camera on her trip so I had to resort to my phone:

 

Now each individual cylinders have black crusty particles on the pistons... is this normal? also since I'm not redecking the heads or block, any suggestions on cleaning the sucker for a proper seal?

 

I would have run a leakdown test before pulling the heads.

How many miles on that engine?

Looks like you may have an oil-burner there. My piston tops and CCs looked exactly like that when I pulled my heads and I had terrible leakage.

I ended up re-ringing the pistons and lapping the valves. I did another leakdown test after about 10K and all is still good.

 

it was like 25k mile motor, I bought it used a while back. How hard is it to re- ring the pistons? Did you use OEM rings?

 

my impact wasnt able to get the head bolts out either, it was a 3/8th hex bit on a 3/8->1/2 converter on a 3' break bar. I eventually got it off.

I just ordered a 1/2" 10mm hex bit, which I tested fits into the headbolt perfectly! the 3/8ths was just a little too small to get a proper grip.

I had noticed the same thing on my old 3.0 pistons. I cant imagine the flaking being the best thing present. this could be a good time to upgrade pistons if its in your budget.

 

I pulled a 3.5 out of a 04 pathfinder with 60,000KMS and it had complaints of major oil burnage. The tops of the pistons were exactly as you described. Black crusty things on top of the piston, look like big carbon buildups or something.

Im not sure what they are though. All i know was that the pathfinder 3.5 i pulled was going through 1-2liters of oil every 2,000kms.

 

yep, I used a 10mm hex but it was a 3/8 and adapted to a 1/2in breaker with extension.

This oil issue is disturbing, especially since this is going to be boosted. I'm seriously contemplating on some HR pistons but we have not yet gotten confirmation if they will work for sure or not. MY budget can live with some HR pistons and eagle rods but not aftermarket pistons and rods. What do you guys thinks? Any new info on the HR pistons?

 

Not too hard to intall new rings. You just remove the rod bolts and rod bearing caps and push the piston/rod assembly out from the top of the block. Check to see if a ridge has developed at the top of ring travel. If so, you'll need to remove it with a ridge reamer. If not, which is more likely at that mileage, you can skip that step. Get a ring removal/installation tool and remove the rings. Break a piece off of the old rings and use it to clean out the grooves. Install the new ones carefully using the tool and coat the cylinders and piston skirts with oil. Don't forget to refer to the FSM to stagger the ring gaps properly. Coat the top and bottom half of the rod bearings with oil or assembly lube if you have any. You'll need a ring compressor tool at this point. Tighten the tool just enough to compress the rings without grabbing onto the piston too tightly. Then tap on the top of the piston with the rubber end of a hammer and/or mallet. I'd recommend wrapping something soft around the big end of the rods so they don't scratch the cylinder by accident while installing the pistons. Then just reattach the big end of the rod to the crank, put on the cap, use new bolts, and tighten to spec.

 

How should I clean the pistons? or should I leave it be? Should I be using OEM rings?

 

I would definately do 440$ eagle rods and the HR pistons. SR20DEN said you can get them for like 300 a set.

 

just called the dealership: $59.53 for the piston alone. So I will still need rings and wrist pins and locks...

 

Gonna just re ring the sucker. I dont feel like spending any more on the the motor...

 

You can get them for 51 bux each from pinnacle nissan. And it comes with the wrist pins and locks.

 

owell, I shoulda checked with them since I just bought my rings and gasket from them like an hour ago but I think I'll stick with the just getting the new rings. $65> $300+ for pistons & $450+ rods...

 

Now would be a perfect time to install ARP rod bolts. The labor overlaps 100%.

 

Already have them, its more like now I would need to remove and reinstalled them.

 

Damn. Doing big thangs..........

 

Yes, but in the long run since you are going to boost (I would only assume you are throwing your turbo on there) I would DEFINITELY do the pistons and rods. You won't regret it later.

 

decisions decisions...

Already boosted but I am content with 450ish power goals... I think that the stock internals with ARP hardware and good tune should be alright. If my plans were bigger, I would def jump on aftermarket parts...

The thing is, like me and nismology was talking about, its highly recommend to at least do .20 over on the pistons, which leads to machine work>more money by the time its all said and done... you're looking at around $1200+ worth of work and parts. At moment, its hard to swallow that... so its probably best for me to just re-ring the motor and go from there.

 

I hear what you are saying but I seem to remember mardi just getting over the 450 whp mark with 16 pounds of boost but he had his timing retarded by JWT. U will definitely need to have a great tune with J & S safeguard to keep the timing on the edge for maximum power. Good luck with the project...

 

I already have J&S, just waiting on a new adapter from John so the J&S is compatible with EU which is sitting in my room waiting for the swap to be done... I'm gonna tackle one thing at a time, I wanna make sure the swap is running fine before I dive into an EU install and having to trouble more than one thing at a time.

Update: Originally, I ordered some 02 OEM piston ring set from Pinnacle but from the discussion with Nismology, I changed my order and will be putting in some 07 Altima piston rings. They aren't the HR piston rings but do have a different part number than the 02-06 DE rings, I'm gonna try those out. What surprised me was the 07 rings were a lot cheaper than the 02-06 DE rings. DE rings were retailing for $85ish but Pinnacle was priced at $65ish while the 07 rings were priced at $44 at my local dealership and Pinnacle was priced at $32. I'm def hoping this will solve the potential oil burning issue that my motor has but only time will tell.

 

Just to clarify, the ring specifications (side clearance and end gap) are exactly the same between the 02-06 DE and 07 altima VQ. The difference is with the HR oil ring end gap. Sorry for the confusion.

 

Thanks for the clear up, we were talking about various ring options that I got confused.

 

Okay... here goes an update:
I actually had a set of Eagle rods in hand and was about to purchase some HR pistons. However, I decided against the setup due to the fact that it was gonna cost about 1k to 1.2k to completely get the bottom end machined and assembled ($52 ea for pistons, $110 for rings, $300-$400 for machine work, bearings). So instead, I end up purchasing 07 Altima rings, Cosworth main and rod bearings. I took the short block to my friends shop and he put the rings and bearings in for $120, he said everything fit perfectly and within spec. No issues so far... I took some pics with the ARP headstud and HKS HG. I will bolt the heads up sometime tonight or tomorrow.

 

 

Sweet build up, everythings looking good. Can't wait to see the finished product, and all the steps leading up to that point.

What was the failure in your 3.0?

 

I am not sure yet until I pull the motor out of the car, I'm thinking it may be a crack ring land or broken ring since it would still barely run for a short period of time.