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Nissan weekend #6

I'm starting to think that weekend six might be more aptly named the "vanity" weekend. I had a good weekend and even got a lot done ...it just wasn't QUITE in the directions that I thought it would be.

I ran across an interesting problem when I was doing the actual engine rebuilding, and had a few problems with JC Whitney over the engine rebuild kit itself. The kit stated in the web-page that it was supposed to include a timing belt; this was a really minor thing for the most part ...to be honest; I'm fairly certain that my old belt would have been fine since I had changed it not all that long before my disability kicked in. I doubt there were many miles on it at all and it really looked fine. The ad said it was included, but that wasn't really the part that made me scratch my head. Although the ad didn't say that the kit included freeze plugs, I found it hard to imagine an engine kit NOT including freeze plugs. I know from sad personal experience that you can fuck up a new engine in a matter of seconds if you re-use the old ones. I had installed a brand new engine that a plug was rusted out from the back side and the damage wasn't visible from the front; it blew the center out of it while I was driving 70 mph down the freeway and the engine seized before I could even get to the shoulder.

Freeze plugs aren't an expensive item at all, although they are often a bit difficult to match up. When the kit came without freeze plugs OR a timing belt, I called Whitney and was up front that although I didn't see freeze plugs listed in the manifest, surely it must come with them; they apologized and said they would send me both items just to be sure. The parts had still not arrived for the number five weekend, so I largely just worked on the stuff that I was able to; this was most everything except for exterior parts (exhaust, timing assembly, brackets etc). I could have spent a bit more time working on the last trip if I had those plugs and timing belt which was a bit of a bummer.

This wasn't an entirely bad thing I suppose, even from the "I could have done more" standpoint though. I didn't bother with a "5 1/2 weekend" post mostly because I simply forgot to do any "before" pictures. When I had gone back out last time, I saw that the valve covers had started to rust in a few places already; some paint would be required for rust protection. I had put entirely too much work into polishing them to simply paint them a color, so I went with a clear coat. I also learned that 600 grit sandpaper works better than a polishing attachment on my dremel. I did a bit more work on my oil pan with the sandpaper and it looked even better (probably not enough that you could tell a bit of difference by looking at a picture, but certainly a great deal of difference by looking at it in person). I was a bit disappointed with the looks after a single coat of the clear; when I did the second coat, I reversed my initial opinion though. Multiple coats of clear apparently make a LOT of difference!

I brought home the timing covers and sanded and painted those black to match the block and plenum cover. I also learned an interesting lesson about paint that was slightly significant since I have absolutely zero experience doing paint or body work. I used a glossy black high temperature engine enamel to paint the timing covers, and although it gave a nice finish all by itself ...a coat of clear on top of the glossy black made a world of difference in the look (or "shine") of the covers. It suddenly made a LOT more sense why all the websites I have looked at have told me to do only a single basecoat of paint on the car, but a minimum of three coats of clear.

I had forgotten to call Whitney early in the week about what was taking so long to get the parts, but then I received an e-mail from them saying "We regret to inform you that the item you ordered ... will not work with the make and model of your vehicle" therefore my order had been canceled.

well shit!

The timing belts for my Nissan are pretty well a dime a dozen, so I figured about the only trouble they could be having was with the freeze plugs. I called and got a girl who although was trying to be helpful, obviously knew nothing about auto parts. Which is a damned shame when you are answering phones for an auto parts and accessories outfit, but perhaps minimum wage workers are less expensive than someone who might actually have a prayer of offering real customer service. I found myself getting extremely flustered; not because of the situation itself, but because she didn't appear to understand enough terminology about auto parts to know what I was even talking about. The abridged version is that I was attempting to tell her to just send the timing belt and I would take care of the freeze plugs myself. The poor girl just seemed fixated on trying to explain something that I didn't need an explanation for. I had begun the conversation by explaining that I hadn't even "ordered" any parts in the first place ...they had just not shipped the complete order to begin with; since they had said they would send belt (included) and freeze plugs (not listed), I assumed that perhaps the freeze plugs weren't supposed to have been included after all.

I was TRYING to tell her not to worry about it, just send the belt and we'd call it even. She kept trying to make excuses about why the ad doesn't always mean what it says it means or something to that effect(?!). Finally she just offered to simply give me a 20% refund off the original price of the order (which was close to a hundred bucks) rather than comprehend that I was trying to tell her "don't worry about it, just send what you have."

...damned right I said "uhm, okayyyyyy." All twelve plugs were 6 bucks and the timing belt was about $20 at the local parts house (they had one for $16, but I got the "Gates" brand); I came out smelling like a rose, but it's a shame when a company loses money simply because they put people in positions who know nothing about what they're supposed to be doing in the first place.

So anyway. My first project was for the trip was installing the freeze plugs. This was an extremely hated job when I worked in retail; most of the time they are covered by the engine mounts or other brackets, and are almost impossible to reach with anything despite the many specialized tools used to install & remove them while the engine is in the car. Fortunately, when the engine is on an engine stand out of the car, then they are quite easy (all the more reason to replace the damned things whenever the engine is out of the car)! I was able to do 9 out of the 12, and the other three (on the very back of the engine) will have to be put in when the engine is off the stand. No big deal.

Once the plugs I could install were out of the way, I went ahead and installed the water outlets and the intake manifold; the lower (thermostat) outlet has a pipe that runs between the manifold and the block (a very odd design that I would HATE to ever have to replace); I noticed some rust on the (yeah ...sanded & polished) exterior and painted it as well. I also took the opportunity to go ahead and replace the thermostat: a part that really sucks when it DOES go out, but I've seen new ones stick as easily and ones that were 10 years old. I had replaced the water pump in Waco that I had replaced along with the timing belt shortly before I parked the car ...the one I took off still looked like new, but the bearings had gone bad somewhere in the meantime. I had replaced THAT one simply because it's right in the open when you replace the belt; there had been nothing wrong with the old one, yet the new one went bad with less than 5000 miles on it.

I also bolted on the rear timing cover and (cylinder head) camshaft timing gears. I scrubbed the gears nice and clean with a drill and wire wheel attachment until they were almost shiny. I used a smudge of black touch-up paint on the timing marks and then gave them a clear coat. I also gave the crankshaft sprocket a good cleaning as well as sanding off a lot of the pits in the crankshaft so it would slide on and off a bit smoother (I almost never got it off, even with the puller).

I had not installed the rear main bearing seal & housing before for largely the same reason as not doing the rear freeze plugs; it was obscured by the engine stand and I couldn't get a wire wheel in to take off the gasket. When it became obvious that it HAD to be re-installed if I were going to install the (purty) oil pan, I went ahead and cleaned the old gasket off the old fashioned way ...using a (*gasp*) gasket-scraper. An interesting bone of contention among mechanics is the use of "permatex" or other brands of "form-a-gasket." Most mechanics I've known swear by the stuff, but one thing I've certainly always been aware of is that the BEST mechanics I've known don't use the stuff at all unless they are simply using it to hold the gasket in place. As long as you have two perfectly smooth and clean mating surfaces, then there should be no reason whatsoever to use silicone because there should be nothing to "fill." Most mechanics still swear by the stuff, but I've just never really seen the need for it personally ...especially in a job like this where I'm polishing practically every surface I can get my hands on anyway. I cleaned the gasket off using a sharpened scraper then used a bit of sandpaper to make it shiny and smooth, reinstalled the housing, new seal and then bolted on the oil pan. I thought it looked quite pretty!

Next step was the rest of the timing assembly; the tensioner and the belt was really all that was left. Timing belt manufacturers started doing the most cool thing a few years before I left the biz ...they started marking the actual belts with lines corresponding to where the timing marks on the sprockets are supposed to be. Getting the timing one tooth off is the bane of all mechanics ...it happens now and again to the best of us and is far too easy to do if you aren't paying attention when you tension the belt. The marks make it almost impossible for you to do that these days: a HUGE improvement over "the old days" to be sure!

Once that was out of the way, of course then came installing the (now very shiny) outer timing covers and the one really huge bone of contention I have with the job so far ...the crankshaft pulley/ harmonic balancer. It was originally on my "things to replace" list since I had a bit of a screw up when I had replaced the timing belt shortly before I parked it. The keyway had gotten slightly off center and it cracked the inner housing when I tightened it down. I never noticed the trouble until much later when I saw it "wobbling" a little bit (I noticed while checking the noise that turned out to be the bad bearing in the brand #*!&!$ new water pump); I only confirmed it in Waco when replacing the water pump. The keyway being off had made it impossible to sit flush on the crankshaft. Since having it all apart, I was able to fix the keyway, everything fits flush ...and although it's cracked, I don't see any reason it should throw off the balance or cause any future problems. It also costs $200 for a new one, so I figure leaving it be may be worth my while. I guess if it were to break, it would make more than enough racket that I'd immediately know ...and shouldn't damage anything else in the process, so it's worth the try. Just to be a bit different, I polished the inner pulleys to the silver, painted the timing mark black and then clear coated over the top of it. The outer (air conditioner) pulley I painted black. I may come to regret that if the timing light glares off the shiny silver when I time it. The crank pulleys always come OEM painted black, and we always had to put a dab of white-out on the pulley mark to see it when checking the timing; this seemed like a cool alternative.

Mostly after this point, the rest of the afternoon became about sheer vanity. I found all the engine brackets and began sanding, painting and then installing them. The red poly engine mounts will likely stand out like a sore thumb against the silver and black when I get ready to drop the engine back in, but they may actually look pretty cool too ...that one splash of color against all the monochromatic look I have going now. I'm sure the underside will look even better with all the red poly on the suspension. The tensioner for the alternator and water pump belt, I got a little bit creative with. I sanded all the black paint off with the wire wheel and then got after it with some fine sandpaper. I painted the pulley itself black, but clear coated the shiny silver on the front, and then painted the backside black again. It will be nothing if not unique.

The original plan had been to spend the first half of the afternoon working on the engine and then the second half on the rear suspension. I ended up not doing anything with the suspension (even after having gone to all the trouble of turning the car around right off the bat), but boy did the engine ever look nice at least. Sunday, I did a bit more "little stuff" on the engine and waffled a LOT on whether I even wanted to get started on the rear at all. I finally caved and took apart one side ...I'm hoping to have the time to get the other side out and all of it back in for the next weekend, which will be the fall festival and car show. Our first year without Dad being there ...or his body at least; he wasn't really "there" last year either.

I dropped the right side suspension and forgot (again ...just like the front) to take a "before" picture; I'll try to remember when I get to the left side. I took the wire wheel after most everything. I had decided that I was not going to attempt to paint any of it, but I think I've changed my mind. Granted that one trip down the dirty road will mess it all up, but one swipe with the pressure washer can fix that, and with all of the pretty (fucking) red prothane, it seems a shame to not give it all as much contrast as possible. I think I should probably change the gasket and fluid in the rear differential as well, seeing as how I'm going to go to town with rebuilding all of the brake calipers as well (which turned out to be an excellent move since removing the rear control arms entails removal of the metal brake lines anyway). I was actually a bit surprised that the rubber seemed fine on the one I already took off though. Rebuilding will be a snap at least; I haven't done it in years though. It's gotten to be a lost art anymore I think ...given that the kits to rebuild are about $15, and the already rebuilt ones are around $150, it's a no-brainer for ME at least. It's also one less thing to worry about later.

The engine is ready to drop back in right now. I need to finish cleaning up the transmission and get IT ready, but I'm almost completely done on that part of things. I'm pretty eager to see how it will all look once it's back in the car, but that's still a LITTLE ways off. Once the rear suspension is out of the way, we'll see how quickly it goes then.

We're moving right along at least! Hopefully I'll have it running by the end of the year at least!

On the rag (or something)

I seem to be having a problem lately.

I really don't know if it's merely a matter of having thin-skin so much as stress is just starting to break out of whatever chinks it can find in my "armor" as it was. We've been told that Dad might not live out the year, and we're still waiting to find out how severe Mom's newly diagnosed condition is; there is a ton of sibling infighting of late, and my overworking myself is taking a huge toll on my own health (and perhaps sanity). I had a severe over-reaction to a blog comment on AFF the other day; actually it was closer to sheer outrage. It didn't HELP that I was hungover as crap from the first time I'd overindulged with alcohol since I quit smoking.

I wrote a blog on the "other place" about meeting the another blogger (mostly merely in response to her own blog about our meeting), and I posted the picture of the two of us together that she had posted as well. One of the women who had been following my blog for ages remarked that:

I see you are one of the guys that uses a much younger picture of yourself as a profile picture. Not that the picture posted is a bad one..............just a bit misleading.

To say that I was outraged by this would be an understatement; later the next day I pulled all of my pictures down and changed my profile. The picture wasn't even THAT old ...my birthday in '06 isn't exactly "much younger" by any stretch of the imagination. I had even given myself most of a day to think about it before I took the action ...I even asked a couple of the people I had met. Both told me that she was full of shit, and not to sweat it ...but I was still PISSED and just couldn't let it go (which is SO "not me"). The one whom the blog was about said she didn't see anything "off" about me ...the picture I took that day was in direct sunlight; of COURSE the grey was going to be more pronounced than in an indoor picture.

I finally started to settle down ...another friend threw a bucket of cold water in my face about the whole thing on a different level that finally jarred me back into "reality" a little bit at least. The new profile was extremely self-depreciating ...I don't think it quite rated as "bitter and cynical" but it was dangerously close. I went ahead and changed up the profile; I had already concluded from the crap the censors were giving me that I needed to try something else with my pictures. I had decided that NO pictures were better than "misleading" ones, but I was also finally noticing that I was having a pretty severe case of overkill. After they wouldn't go for the "this is my thumbprint over me at the Grand Canyon" etc, I wanted to superimpose an emoticon over my face, but the resolution just wouldn't work. I finally just made my own "emoticon" and superimposed it (and avoided any nasty copyright issues); I posted a bunch of the same pictures back, only with the "emoti-me" over my face. I was kinda pissed that they wouldn't let me post one of Zeke and I with an emoti-Zeke over HIS face too.

At least I could turn it into a joke. Cause that's what we do do in my family ..never let them see you hurt. Try to make it look like it was something other than it truly was if we can. The woman who had posted the original remark backpedaled ...I didn't buy the whole "I was just trying to be humorous" that she tried first, then the second "I had somebody else do "this" to me once" (we've all been there if we've been on the net any amount of time). What she did was rude as shit, but I don't think it was meant to be as malicious as I took it; she just spoke without thinking ...and since I'm kinda "the king" on that sort of thing myself, I'm trying to just let it go.

I'm posting no blog in explanation, and I'm certainly not retaliating. If the emoti-me doesn't catch on, then I'll go back to the old pictures; I'm kinda liking the emoti-me so far though (even if it does feel like I'm kinda ripping off "Jack in the Box" here).

Nissan weekend #5

The fifth weekend has come and gone, and I largely got everything done that I had intended to get done with the second day on my last trip. I'm not bitching, it was a very productive couple of (well ...half) days! I had gotten the cylinder heads back from the machine shop, and "machine shop dude" was quite nice to me on the pricing. I picked up a nice new cylinder hone that hopefully I'll never need to use again. The only thing that didn't come was the freeze plugs and timing belt ...which could be good or bad depending on how you want to look at it.

Bad: I wasn't able to put on the intake manifold because there are three plugs under it, nor install the timing components.

Good: Now I can super clean the intake manifold and timing components and covers before putting the last of it back together.

I discovered in the three week hiatus that the valve covers and (I'm assuming) the oil pan are made of iron. After all the rain they had, there were some small spots of rust beginning to show up on my super pretty valve covers. All this really meant is that I should have listened closer when more than one person told me that I needed to put a coat of clear coat paint on them. I've already picked up a can of high heat clear coat, so I'll be doing that back here in Dallas ...as well as the cleaning of the other parts.

This trip was a bit different than the last few in that we left near lunchtime on Friday, and came back Saturday afternoon rather than early Sunday. My BIL had been unable to come along for this trip due to some problems with his work, but they were unable to put off the trip completely due to some severe flooding the weekend before and needed to make sure there was no damage to the property. Since Mom was having a CAT scan late Friday, and I remembered how bad of a reaction I had to the contrast on my CAT scan ...we thought it would be best if Zeke-ums came along for the ride with us this time just in case.

The property was unhurt, although there were some really deep furrows cut in the soil from the heavily running water. We arrived ...Sis pulled the big tractor out to give me room to work, and she took the garden tractor to do the mowing. I've never brought Zeke along with us because he has such a bad habit of going exploring and not coming when he's called. If somebody had TOLD me that "awww ...he won't wander; he may check on your sister while she's mowing now and then, but he'll probably just stay in the shop with you most of the time"

...I'd have been saying "you DO realize we're talking about ZEKE, right?!" He was a good little doggy though ...every now and then he would go out and follow Debbie for a bit on the garden tractor (probably wanted to go for a ride); although he might have wandered around a little bit, he always ended right back up in the shop with me ...generally just laying down and napping in a shady corner.

As for ME ...the first thing I did was took the engine outside and got after it with the drill and wire wheel and took off all the paint, rust and old gasket material (it might have been concrete, but I'm fairly sure it was just gasket material). Then I masked it off and painted it with that glossy black high temp engine enamel.
This actually took a bit longer than I would have thought, and I didn't even do nearly as good of a job as I COULD have ...I've been noticing an OCD streak of perfectionism on this project of late that's been a bit scary. While the paint was drying, I unpacked my tools and organized the workspace to the best of my ability; I also hauled out my transmission with the intention of getting busy on cleaning it up a bit ...it was a bit scarier than my initial thoughts (we HAD pressure washed the shit out of it after all).

The paint finally dried enough that I figured it was good enough to get busy on, so I hauled the stand back into the shop and rolled the engine over to get busy on the crankshaft. I hadn't really expected much difficulty in this stage of things ...taking apart is easy, it's always the cleaning up and putting back in that tends to eat your time up in a hurry. Ripping it up wasn't any better or worse than I had thought it would be; this is never a bad thing.

I had honestly kind of assumed that the engine rebuild segment was going to go very quickly. As many years as I spent in the business, even my family was a bit surprised to hear that this was my first time to do a full rebuild all by my lonesome. Of course I know all about the theory of it ...I had never bothered to actually certify myself in rebuilding because I never worked in a shop where we DID rebuilds, but I'd at least watched it being done a few times (and usually at a distance). I guess that you don't spend two decades working on the silly things without at least knowing the theory and operation of nearly all of it; the engine itself hasn't really changed THAT much since it was powered by steam rather than gasoline. I had the crankshaft laying on the floor within minutes ...it was then time to get busy on the actual pistons.

Of course getting the pistons out was pretty easy; what took me by surprise was that re-ringing them was a much more time-consuming endeavor than I had thought it would be. It wasn't more difficult ...simply a lot more tedious than I had anticipated; I was VERY happy that the new rings came with installation instructions. Although each piston has three rings, the oil ring is actually three separate rings in a single groove and I'm really not sure how long it would have taken me to have figured out how to get them all in correctly without TFSOP. As with every aspect of this entire project ...I spent more time cleaning than I did actually working on the stuff; in the picture to the right, only the lower right piston has been cleaned at all. I worked about a half hour longer for the evening than I had intended just getting all the pistons re-ringed and back in the block, but it all went okay for the most part; it was only about 2+ hours longer to actually do it than I had figured that it would take. Live and learn.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit dejected about how long it took to get the re-ringing finished; it certainly made me rethink the amount of time the job was probably going to take. This fatalistic feeling generally works to my advantage in the long run, but I was still a bit bummed that night. The next morning when I got back on it, it mostly just sailed ...the bearings and such were relatively simple compared to the rings. When you feel a bit fatalistic and it all proves to be easy ...that somehow makes you feel that much better. I meticulously cleaned every surface and probably went a bit overboard with the engine rebuild grease (there is a special grease used on all surfaces that "move" when you rebuild); I don't think there is such of a thing as "too much" ...especially when it might be sitting for a month or more before it actually gets started. Every bolt torqued precisely to the correct tightness.

I rolled the engine back over and got busy on the cylinder heads. I was totally shocked at how little head torque they took ...half of any other cylinder head I've ever done, and a really bizarre sequence. Two stage tightening of all 13 bolts in perfect order, but then breaking them all loose then doing it over again; I'm guessing it was to "seat" the gaskets so there would be no chance of anything backing off in the future. The only thing I didn't use the torque wrench on was the camshaft centering bolts; I couldn't gain enough purchase on the other side. I was fine with simply using the impact on those as it was a fairly high amount of torque, although I may double check them once all of the timing assembly is in place.

I had the sucker completely back together before one. I did some busy work ...more cleaning; I went ahead and re-installed the oil pump and pick-up tube. If you scroll back up and look at my second picture, yes, these are the exact same parts! This whole OCD kick about making it all look so pretty will likely come back and bite me in the ass later on, but what can I say? ...I was struck by sheer vanity. Pretty black engine block with a nice and cleaned up lower half ...pretty silver freshly re-done cylinder heads, and those nice and polished valve covers and oil pan laying right over there.

Ahhhhhh ...but now the "family gene" for taking a lot of pictures kicked in. I took pictures of it without the covers, and then with the covers ...then I went ahead and simply set the intake and the plenum on it and took more pictures. I was simply thinking WOW the whole time ...this is going to be one PRETTY engine! This was around the time that the sister came out ...then she joined me in just staring at it for a while. It'll be a bit more interesting once the (black) timing assembly is on it since it looks a bit overpowered by the silver at the moment, but it's still NICE looking!

Since I had finished up so early and was at a decent stopping point, Sis asked about maybe just heading back to Dallas early, and I was okay with that. She wasn't in any huge rush ...I had sort of wanted to pull off the front clip (front bumper cover assembly), and she volunteered to take the wire wheel after my transmission while I worked on the clip. I piddled with the clip for a while and even removed the headlamp servo motor that wasn't working; turns out it was so packed with leaves it wouldn't move ...I'll probably only need to disassemble the (electric) motor to clean and lubricate it. The clip had those 2 HFB's (hidden fucking bolts), and I really wasn't in a mood to start pulling the wheel-well skirts so I could get at them, so I called "close enough" with Sis ...we showered, packed up, and were on our way back at just a bit after three. What a time though; difficult to believe those are the exact same engines! ...in fact, there isn't a single NEW part that is even visible to the naked eye; what you see below is pure elbow grease.

All in all, I was pleased with the progress for the "#5" weekend; I'm reasonably sure I'll probably have the engine dropped back in next time unless I simply decide to do a bit more "under the hood" work before dropping it, or if the transmission holds me up (that IS a possibility). Wiring and actually starting it will definitely be a weekend #7 endeavor any way I slice it though. I'm most likely looking at one to two more weekends on the engine stuff, one for the rear suspension ...and heaven only knows on all the body and interior work. THAT part might get a little bit scary, although the hardest and most expensive part is on the downhill run at least.

The saga shall continue!