Got it started, worried a bit...

[Nathan]

So, I got her started, runs on all 4 cylinders, idles just fine, compression check came back with 180psi across the board, despite being cold and not broken in yet. However, when I just drained my oil, I found quite a few shiney flecks, which doesn't suprise me all that much but what DID suprise me was that some of the flecks appeared to be aluminum which I wouldn't think is too normal. I'm kinda worried it could be bearing material because I DID have to crank the hell out of it before I got it to start, turns out the distributor was off a tooth. Then, the plug wires were bad and it was only running on 2 cylinders. I figure I probably cranked it for about 2 or 3 minutes at first, and yes, it did build oil pressure while I cranked. Then I figure it ran on two cylinders for about 2 or 3 minutes as well. I'm probably being paranoid but I even cut open the oil filter and swabbed it down to see what I found, more small metal flakes. The largest ones came out of the oil pan. Does anyone have any input on this? Oh, for those of you that dont know, this is a freshly rebuilt block, forged rods and pistons, new bearings, the works built be a supposedly very competent machine shop.

[TrunkMonkey]

of course, check your bearings, and find out what the machine shop use to lube the bearings during assembly. i've never had that much metal in any of the engines i've rebuilt.

-demetrius

[Nathan]

Hmmm, sounds like lucky me gets to pull an oil pan today...woohoo!

[TrunkMonkey]

i know it's old, but update?

-demetrius

[Nathan]

Damn, I intended to update this...its running MUCH better, the only thing wrong now is an overheating problem. After about 20 minutes of city driving, it needs a break as temps start cresting 200. I'm going to look at ways to get more fresh air to the radiator, and might also be trying out SCC's 3 dollar cooling solution partly for fun, but also to try solving the problem. As for the smoking, it was just the oil rings not seated yet and has since gone away except when I'm on boost. I suspect it'll be a good 1000 miles before they are totally seated and it doesn't smoke at all. As for those metal filings, I never did figure out what they are...but after 50 miles and some accidental roughness with it (it's seen 7000rpms twice now and lived to tell about it; you can blame it on the boost catching me by suprise and tearing through first gear in about 1/2 a second), it has absolutely NO noise from the bottom end and revs freely. I think the bearings are just fine, my oil pressure couldn't be more perfect imo. Its 30psi when cold and just a shade under 20psi when hot. Thats with 20W-50 so I suspect it'd be even lower if I used a lighterweight oil...but I dont plan on it.

Cliff notes: Minor overheating problem, wont be a problem for long.Filings are still undetermined, I'll know more after an oil change again but I'm not worried as despite some accidental beatings, it purrs like a kitten.Rings are seating in and the smoking problem has gone away.

[klattr1]

whats the deal with the overheating?Is it happening only while sitting still or is it occurring after boostin it?

[Nathan]

Its not really overheating per se but rather just gradually warms up. If I'm sitting still and the fans or running, I know it can go at least 10 minutes without getting over about 170 degrees but as soon as I start driving around a bit it'll get up to 180 within a few minutes. Then, it seems to stay mostly between 180 and 200, it takes it about 20 minutes of solid city driving (good bit of stop and go, never over 50) for it to get up to 200. I feel that 200 is getting higher than I want it to be, so thats when I gave it a break until it went back down to 180, then I drove it more and within 8 minutes it was back up to 200 but I was home and gave it another break. Right now I just have a pulsar dual electric fan setup running any time the key is in the on position. I took out the mechanical fan because it annoys me and well...annoys me. I might put it back in though if I cant find another solution. I'm going to try out water sprayers on my radiator since its cheap, easy, and amusing. If that doesn't significantly help things, then I'm going to look at ways to get more cool air to the FRONT of the radiator. I think the problem right now is just the fact that it has an intercooler and an a/c core in front of it and between those things, it doesn't get a whole lot of fresh cool air. I'm looking at ducting air in front of the a/c core as well so it can be drawn through and used by the radiator to cool a bit better. If I could figure out how to bump the voltage up a bit on these fans and overdrive them slightly, that'd be kinda cool as well but requires more electrical knowledge than I have Oh, one last thing I'm going to do is re-do my upper radiator hose, its ghetto fab'd and cant be helping matters any. I have a thick *** 260z radiator now and I'm determined to make it work, preferably without the mech fan since I cant shroud the damn thing anyway with this radiator and upper coolant line.

[NateDogg]

Glad you finally got your KA-T up and running, Nathan.

About the metal flakes, most likely from the rings seating.

You might want to look into Redline Water Wetter or DEI coolant products which can help with cooling significantly. You might also want to try some detergent in there (do a search on google or on theoldone.com.)

I don't think water sprayer is a very good answer, more like a patch. If it's a daily driver, best 'set it and forget it'.

Party on! :ylsuper

[C-Kwik]

Are you sure the metal flakes are aluminum? Small metal flakes of different material can look very similar.

As far as the overheating problem, is this occuring under normal driving? If so, find the problem. Do not use a band-aid solution. Especially if you expect the car to see any track time. It would be someowhat normal to see your car heat up under extended heavy loads on a stock cooling system. But with everyday driving, it should not be a problem at all. Any problems you have now will become exponentially worse on a track. Keep in mind, my temp gauge needle didn't even move with a day out on the track at 6.5 psi. That's with a FMIC and A/C condensor blocking the radiator and with a stock radiator and mechanical fan. And that was on a fairly hot day.

Make sure your new motor isn't the problem. Perhaps air in the block? Also, looking at how your car started out from teh pics on your car domain page, it's possible the cooling system was neglected by the previous owner as well. Could just be a clogged radiator.

[j-z]

bleed the coolant system. thats the easiest thing to do.

[Naro182]

maybe you should invest in one of those panels for the radiators

s14 cooling panel

[Def]

I've seen bolts on BMW cam gears that weren't spaced with washers grind the head a little and produce exactly the same scenario you're describing. Eventually the bolt will grind itself out a little path in the head and you're good to go, but it's an easy thing to forget.

Not sure if Nissan uses washers on the cam gear bolts, but it is an easy check.

Other than that, maybe if you have a new oil pump or installed new/different cams than the head is "used to" then you could see some aluminum in the pan. Sounds like no damage was done though.

[Nathan]

Yeah, I've decided that the flakes were really too small for me to verify their composition and that the little ones the magnet did NOT pick up (I used a magnet to test them) were just being stuck to my oil draining pan by oil and weren't big enough for the magnet to grab. I've stopped worrying about that now. I'm a little suprised about the temperature problem too as the radiator is a 260z radiator that is a 3 core design, about 2 1/2 inches thick. However, I figured it was because I pulled the mechanical fan and shrouds. I'm also fairly certain I bled the coolant system properly, but perhaps not. I'll dig out the fsm and give it another shot using the specific instructions in there. I'm also building some ducts to move fresh air from the little side grills in the bumper up to the front of the a/c core. I dont know how well it'll work, but its currently amusing me enough to keep at it. Also, I tried finding water spray nozzles and tubing like SCC did because well, that amuses me as well. However, neither Lowes nor Home Depot had them

[Def]

I think I remember seeing the water sprayer type stuff at my local ghetto Ace Hardware if that helps.

[Nathan]

I think I remember seeing the water sprayer type stuff at my local ghetto Ace Hardware if that helps.

Good call, that was going to be my next place to check

[Nathan]

Dammit, well after 26 miles of driving, I decided to drain the oil and see what was up. Found more metal flakes, and verified that most of them were metallic. However, several were not and the ones that weren't were the largest flakes. I also now hear a bit of a strange intermittent rattling sound from the engine so whatever it is, I'm pulling the pan and checking my bearings out. Megaseth03 is on his way over to help out, I'll report back tonight. Stupid ****ing car, if there's ANYTHING wrong with those bearings I'm dropping the block out the bottom and sending it off to the best damn machine shop money can buy.

[j-z]

i would drive it straight to the machine shop before you do any major work to it.

[Nathan]

Hmmmm, strangely the problem kept getting more intermittent as Seth and I listened to it. It REALLY sounded like something rattling against the valve cover but we pulled the valve cover and found nothing. After more searching, we discovered the power steering pump sounded nasty and sure enough....fluid was practically gone. Went to wally world for some ATF, came back, filled it up, and the car actually seems to run smoother now and things sound much better. No more worries now. Oh, and lets have a hypothetical situation. What do you all think would happen to a KA if it only had 30psi of oil pressure at 6500 rpms, lets say a good hard pull all the way through 3rd gear, shifting around 6500 at each change. Personally, I think it'd eat itself.

[j-z]

30 is really low at those revs...

[Nathan]

I know, thats why this is a hypothetical...just take a guess as to what you think would happen! Do you think it'd live? I dont myself.

[andrave]

depends on how long I guess.

[MikeMurphy]

Did you clean the oilpan out after you tapped the block?

[Nathan]

I never tapped the block and the pan is totally clean inside, I cleaned it myself and know its good. The issue I'm having is that my VDO oil pressure gauge reads 30psi when I start the car, after its warm it reads between 10 and 20, it just depends...seems totally random as to what it settles on between there. Also, when I rev it I've NEVER seen it go over 35psi at the absolute most. However, I'm really thinking its either the sender is fubared, or the gauge is fubared, or I have the wrong sender in there because I dont see how it could get by on only 30psi of oil pressure. I need to get it into a shop that has an accurate mechanical oil pressure gauge, but I'm flat ****ing broke until I sell some books back or my next paycheck. However, I have to drive 30 miles to sell my books back, and dont want to do that if theres a problem. Bah, I'm annoyed.

[j-z]

i got a mechanical oil pressure gauge for my prelude for $2.50 from this place called skycraft. its a store that sells practically anything you can think of. i would throw a mechanical on there just to make sure its not your gauge and not drive the car until you verify what the deal is.

[Nathan]

i got a mechanical oil pressure gauge for my prelude for $2.50 from this place called skycraft. its a store that sells practically anything you can think of. i would throw a mechanical on there just to make sure its not your gauge and not drive the car until you verify what the deal is.

Yeah, thats the plan...find a mechanical to throw on there and verify things. However, with less than 10 bucks in my bank account, thats getting increasingly difficult to do

[Projex240]

its kind of latw now--but i would talk to someone --or try it yourself about shimming the oil pump. Its an old hotrod trick. Uping your oil pressure is something you need to do if you are only getting 35 psi.

[Nathan]

Well, I'm really thinking the sender is bad...I'll figure it out tomorrow. If it IS only 35psi tops, I'll probably just replace the pump totally AND shim it a little bit.