Dead Q

[kirbyQ45]

History: nothing known except for what i did. New oil and filter 3 days ago, gas tank full of seafoam/prem. gas got rid of mid range ping. no engine trouble at all. I know the pan had 6 quarts in it, less than 3/8th's of a quart low. read on dipstick 90% full.

Symptoms: Engine knocking on the way home. NO prior warning, drove fine all night for about 30 miles. Knocking got louder and engine lost power. I jumped out and added about 1/3 a quart of MMO. Restarted, engine still knocked, drove about one mile till engine shut down.

Just asked the wise old neighbor and he said the oil definetly has coolant in it. I checked the Rad. cap and there is no fluid in sight. The oil is not clear but creamy and halfway up the dipstick so it makes sence that i blew some gasket and filled her up with Antifreeze. Or i cracked the block? I really dont think the engine was overheated, but we'll see if any sensors are melted when i gut the engine.

I've never taken anything like this apart before so im a little scared and excited. Im only 20 and have no formal mechanic experiance. took the front cover off my 85 Bronco 2 but it only ran for another 2 weeks before i burned up the engine. Im not the type to make car payments though, so i'll keep everyone posted on how it works out.

No loud bangs, no gushing oil, have not tried to restart it. Wow i did not see this coming. haha, Lady Lucky is not being much of a "Lady"

[chinaonnitrous]

Good luck man, gonna be a tough job.

[Rex]

First, let me say sorry to hear .

By now it's been asked and suggested, but did you know if the timing guides had been changed? The plastic backed guides on the 90-(late)93 are a known issue. Replacing them is a must.

[elwesso]

That sounds like the guides, IMO...

I wouldnt bother taking it apart, just get a new engine.

[kirbyQ45]

Or I buy a newer Q, and use this one for parts?Any testing worth it, such as compression to see how extensive the damge? If so, any suggestions?

[Rex]

I'd suggest pulling the front cover as one woul to check if the guides were changed. That should allow you to see.

[elwesso]

Yeah that would be a start too..... However, id start thinking about pulling the enigne since your going to do something regardless.....

You could proabbly make 2000 on the car by parting it out.

[Q451990]

If you have coolant in your oil - it's not going to be pretty. Just for info - it's worth pulling the cover - but head gasket failures are very rare on these cars - so I'm going to bet you punched a hole through the heads somewhere.

Sad news though... Good luck with it!

Heath

[ardvarkus]

Jerry Tucker still around down in San Diego?

Might be a good 'expert opinion'.

I was going to comment on the guides with your first excited posts, but I assumed- based on how you were dealing with the other issues- that there'd be no way in he11 that you'd tear apart the engine tio fix something that wasn't preventing the car from moving.

Sad story here... repeated time and again.

These are expensive cars to fix- and fix right, and even more expensive to fix wrong. Unless you know what you are doing, opening up the engine to fix it has a low probability of success.

A

[kirbyQ45]

Damn ardvakus, way to "keep it real," i appreciate it. I was really just closing my eyes on the guides issue. My best rationalization was that the last owner had recovered the dash with wood grain, cleaned the outside of the engine, and every fluid was perfect color, so they must have known and changed the guides. Looking back i think that will be a good joke to tell at parties.

I do believe Jerry Tucker is still up and running, i have had his number in my wallet for a week now waiting for a good time to bring in the Q.

If i drain oil and refill with cheap oil, and then try to crank what will happen if...

...the t-chain jumped? or...the Head Gasket is blown? or...the block is cracked/broken? orany other reason it would have knocked then flooded w/coolant the way it did.

I'll be drinkin this one away for a month...

[Q451990]

If i drain oil and refill with cheap oil, and then try to crank what will happen if...

...the t-chain jumped? or...the Head Gasket is blown? or...the block is cracked/broken? orany other reason it would have knocked then flooded w/coolant the way it did.

I don't think refilling and restarting will do anything for you... there's no reason that coolant would be in the oil except for serious engine damage. The flip side is you probably won't cause any more damage... the engine is screwed either way. Typically guide failure is an instant engine shut down, or in my case it felt like four injectors went down at once. The engine shook and backfired, but still ran. I think I was lucky in that I only bent one valve slightly.

My guess is that your problem is rod bearings - and something went through a cylinder wall (all of that knocking) to allow the oil and coolant to mix. I would call JT to see what sort of engine swap options you have there... he's great - and being on the West Coast makes JDM engines even more available to you...

Good luck!

Heath

[Q45denver]

LMK if you just need a head-I have some extras.

[BlackBirdVQ]

Oil mixed with coolant, and you spun a rod bearing. I bought a 93 G20 with a rod knock that got louder and louder to the point where the car didn't wanna run no more as the ECU was retarding the timing sooo badly. I was 100 miles from home, ended up going home- getting a dolly from U-Haul, friends Navigator and got it back home where she got a fresh SR20DET transplant a week later.

As for the head gasket issue no happening too often, I bought my 94 Q45 off Ebay (just like my G20) with blown head gaskets also. Previous owner said the radiator blew and he failed to catch the low coolant in time.... Since I am an mechanic by trade, I tore the engine apart 3 weeks after owning the car and discovered the heads where warped beyond repair. BUT since I deal with alot of head gaskets being blown at work (Acura Legend anyone ?)- Acura tech, I got this killer head shop who is able to fix any aluminum head. Basically they bolt the head down to a fixture and put it in a large oven for XXX amount of time. They repeat the process 2 times and then remove the heads to check them, they where within specs afterwards and just needed a small .001 shave on the head matting surface to get them to be .000 warped. I got the heads back in awesome shape and currently I am slowly slapping it back togheter. Since the Q is more less my toy car and 3rd car, I am not in any rush to have it runing- especially for the winter.

Head gasket repair is VERY time consuming and somewhat difficult to do IN the car. Nissan says you need to pull the engine out to do it, according to the factory service manual- but I opted to take a challenge and not remove it. It is NOT something I would recomend to even the most HARDCORE DIY person, it took me approx 5 hours to pull the heads off and I have NEVER even worked on a VH45DE before.

Trust me on this one, your timing chain guides might have broken- but the noise you are hearing is most likely spun rod AND possibly crank main bearings which cause the engine to loose power. I've been there and done that on SR20s, VG30- Quest motor, due to improperly machined crank/rods.At this point I would recomend just buying a new engine as repairing yours will cost ya a small fortune- I spend over 3500 bux now on all necessary parts I wanted to repleace "while in there". Q45 is deff not a cheap car to maintain, but with the proper knowledge and passion for the car you can do anything your heart desires and checkbook allows for

[elwesso]

/\ /\ /\

Listen to that guy...... hes torn down a VH45 more than most people have... Im sure even he would tell you that if he had known how much it was going to cost, he woudl have just swapped in a new engine. maybe not but hes crazy and likes to do goofy jobs like this.