I appreciate your inputs. It seems that the machinist agrees with ianh, as the condition of the block did not bother him. However, seeing as how this is my first rebuild, I am unsure, careful, and sensitive.
Some time ago I remember reading about how cylinder wear occurs in an egg shape, the center being more worn than the top or the bottom, and that this egg-shaped wear (if not straightened by boring) is the number one cause of premature failure in new rings. I don't know whether it is true or not, but it has stuck with me. Anyways, I believe I can't go wrong by following specifications, so when I found out about the taper being out of spec, I decided to have the cylinders bored 0.020" over. What's done is done.
Although the machinist was fine with me opting out of a valve job, he recommended that I check my valve clearances. After cleaning the intake and exhaust passageways, lapping the valves, and installing the springs, I set out to do exactly that.
This was a fun and interesting part of the project. I put the lifters and cams in place, torqued the cam caps to spec, and wedged feeler gauges between the bottom of the camshaft and top of the lifter. This could only be done on the cams that were facing up and not putting pressure on the lifters, so only two valves could be measured at one time. The cam then had to be rotated a third of a turn to measure the next set of valves. Just rotate the cam until you feel pressure build, and keep rotating until that pressure is relieved. When the pressure is relieved, look for the set of lifters that are not being pressed down upon.
The specs for the exhaust valve clearance is 11-15 thousandths, for the intake valves it is 10-13. I measured the exhaust valves on my left head first, and to my surprise only one valve was out of spec, slightly tight at 0.010" (or ten thousandths). However, when I measured the intake valves, to my dismay four out of six were out of spec! Would I have to order slightly shorter lifters? At $25 per lifter the prospect made me uneasy. But I recalled reading in my Haynes manual that you can often times move lifters and/or shims around to get things in spec. I examined the lifters closely and was pleased to find the size printed on the underside of each lifter. The numbers were very faint, and the lifter had to be held at just the right angle under a lamp in order to be seen. After examining each one, I was delighted to find that many of them were different sizes, giving me the opportunity to move them around.
On the exhaust side I had 820R, three 822Rs, 824R, and 826R. On the intake side I had 808U, 812U, 816U, 818U, and two 820Us. I assume that this is the distance between the outside top part of the lifter (which makes contact with the cam) and the bottom of the nipple on the inside of the lifter (which makes contact with the top of the valve stem). When I look up Nissan lifters available for sale, I see them listed from T=7.88 to T=8.36. I am not sure what unit of measure this is - maybe you can help me figure it out.
By this point I had already written out the clearance for each valve. After finding out the size of each lifter, I transferred these numbers to each valve on my chart, giving me a quick view of my options. Here I'll show you my process of figuring out how to move the lifters around.
In the image below, on the seventh line from the top, you can see the following:
2IF, 2IR, 4IF, 4IR, 6IF, 6IR
This is my way of remember which valve I am working with. The first is the
Front
Intake valve on cylinder number
2, the second is the
Rear
Intake valve on cylinder number
2, and so on. To the right, in another column, you can see the size of the lifter in each position.
Just above that, on line four, you can see the following:
new: 10, 10, 9, 8, 9, 10.
By the time I wrote this out, I had already moved some lifters around; these were my
new clearance readings:
10 thousandths (in spec),
10 thousandths (in spec),
9 thousandths (out of spec),
8 thousandths (out of spec),
9 thousandths (out of spec),
10 thousandths (in spec).
Finally, at the top, you can see that I chose to swap lifters
2IF with 6IF, and lifters
4IR with 6IR.
Below that, you can see I repeated the process three times. Each subsequent swap had resulted in fewer valves in spec than the first, so the lifters were returned to their original place, the attempt was "X'ed out, and the process was started over. After my first swap I had three valves out of spec. Three unsuccessful swaps later I still had three valves out of spec. On my fourth try I discovered a swap that reduced that number to two. Finally, the fifth swap resulted in just one valve deeply out of spec, and completed the process.
At this point I have three options:
1. I can order a new lifter.
2. I can take the valve that is deeply out of spec back to the machinist and have him grind it down 5 or 6 thou.
3. I can wait and see what the clearances look like on the other head, as more opportunities for lifter swaps may arise.
If you have been following along, you may remember my warranty theory - that warranty length can be used to determine quality. I put this into action when ordering a motor mount, and chose the cheapest mount with a one-year warranty. What happened? The mount arrived with damaged threads. I immediately sent it back and ordered the most expensive aftermarket mount, also with a one-year warranty. So much for that.
All of the engine parts are back at the house. Most of the new parts have arrived. The heads are finally clean. I feel like I have made it over the hump, like the project is less frightening and intimidating, more fun and exciting again. I look forward to laying the crank in the new bearings and playing with the plastigauge. I hope you all are still enjoying this and following along.