Been some time since I posted here, yikes. Getting close to the end of this thread as the car will be sold soon, for reals this time, as it will be funding part of my wedding coming up here soon.
Worked on the car a lot over the weekend. The car had previously been running awesome for a long time on the stock turbo setup. I actually put the car up for sale and was ready to let it go and even went to the mitsu cookout last year to put it on display for a bit. Here is the car then:
Well on the way back up to Fargo from the cookout I figured I would stop at DB and get compression/leakdown done as a few people asked and I thought it would be worth it as why not as it was just going to show me the motor was great as the car felt perfect. Here is what we found:
Cylinder 1 Compression:
Cylinder 2 Compression:
Cylinder 3 Compression:
Cylinder 4 Compression:
Cylinder 1 Leakdown:
Cylinder 2 Leakdown:
Cylinder 3 Leakdown:
Cylinder 4 Leakdown:
So after all of this I was pretty surprised to be honest. The car was running great it seemed and didn't seem to miss a beat. We used a stethoscope and could hear air leaking out the exhaust and that was it. So our thoughts were bent exhaust valve or burnt valve seal or something like that. Well I was mad but I refuse to sell a car that isn't as advertised and so I drove the car home and onto murlo stands it went.
I decided to tackle it all myself this time (at least the disassembly) and bought a few more tools and ended up with a big air compressor and air tools as I needed that and a shit load of air to get the crank bolt off, that thing was a bitch. Got the head off though and finally got it to MAP a few weeks ago. They looked it over and sure enough had some bent exhaust valves. They did a stage 1 prep/valve job to repair it and I switched the supertech dual springs out to the GSC beehives as those are considerably more street friendly. The engine builder at MAP said it thought those springs probably just took their toll over the life of the head and slightly bent them as they are so stiff. That and I am sure a few misshifts in there by me didn't help lol.
But this weekend we got the new headgasket on, new oil pan, oil pump and valve cover too. The valve cover had to be replaced as a baffle somehow broke off in there which I have zero explanation for as it can't come into contact with anything.
Here is part of the way through the process yesterday:
I wanted the car assembled correctly so my buddy who is an Infiniti tech came to help me put the car back together. We got the motor sealed up and timed, and also all of the pulley system and motor mount back on so good progress for a day of work. Spent a ton of the day just scraping RTV off surfaces and doing surface prep, so time consuming. I'll be back to finish soon and get it running tip top and then it's back on the for sale block!
I wish I would've worked on my car from the beginning, so much more rewarding and nice getting to learn all of this.
After the wedding I am probably going to end up with a Camaro SS or ZL1 if finances make it possibly. Time will tell!