Head Gasket Replacement, What Else Do I Need to Replace?

[pacman88]

I'm getting a 1991 240SX tommorow that needs a head gasket replaement. What else should I replace since the top end is off and the engine more accessible. I'm thinking water pump and upper and lower timing chain (don't know now since its chain and doesn't really wear and because it sounds difficult). What else should I replace since the engine has 169k and I don't know how the owner took care of her.

Also, do I have to get the engine to TDC when taking off the head?

[dreamsOfSkylines]

You need new head bolts and washers (the bolts are torque to yeild). Doing the timing chain is a good idea (get the whole kit with tensioners and guides), and the oild pump and water pump are relativly cheap and easy to replace at that point. One thing to note is that in order to do the lower timing chain and oil pump you will need to remove the front cover, if your oil pan is sealed with liquid gasket then you are going to break the seal between the front cover and the oil pan and therefore you need to redo the whole oil pan gasket. In order to drop the oil pan you need an engine hoist because the cross member is to close. Thats why I opted to pull my engine to do the timing chain (and a full rebuild since the engine was out),

[Big Red]

In order to drop the oil pan you need an engine hoist because the cross member is to close. Thats why I opted to pull my engine to do the timing chain (and a full rebuild since the engine was out),

You can loosen the engine mount's, jack up the engine and loosen the front suspension member to get the oil pick up to clear the pan if you think pulling the whole engine might be too much of a task, but personally I would rather have the engine out of the car if I were doing that much engine work.

[pacman88]

I don't think that the head gasket is whats wrong with it. I let it sit at idle for 20 minutes to warm up so I could do a compression test. The temp. gauge (which was suppose to be broken) read that it was half way up 15 minutes into the idle. I let it sit for the last 5 and it stayed at the half way point. There was also not any white smoke, just the exhaust smell!!! I did the compression test and this is the results:Pistons #1-3 were reading at about 140 PSIPiston #4 was reading at about 135 PSII didn't take off the fuel pump and have the gas pedal all the way down like I was suppose to so that might have changed the test. There was no coolant in the radiator (Didn't know until my step dad put his hand near the radiator and didn't get burned). I'm know think that the thermostat is stuck closed (she didn't take care of the car so this is a good possibliy, i mean the spark plugs have no electrode, its burned off). The head is ticking/clicking but the oil is dirty so that may help.

Now to the smog problem, this is California smog so remember that. Everything passed but the NO PPM (please tell what that is) is way high. They measured at (15 mph at 1696 RPM's) 4460 when the max is 799. Then they measured (25 mph, 2770 RPM's) 4363 and the max is 738. Pleas tell me how to fix this because the car is considered a gross polluter until I fix it!!!Heres the smog slip:-15 mph @1696RPM: CO2(%)=13.73, O2(%)=1.74, HC(PPM)=22, CO(%)=0.01, NOx (PPM)=4460, my car=Gross polluter-25 mph @ 2770RPM: CO2(%)=14.10, O2(%)=1.07, HC(PPM)=18, CO(%)=0.01, NOx (PPM)=4363, my car=Gross polluterIts a 1991 Nissan 240SX SE Coupe, 5-spd., has 168,208 miles (166,451 when test was taken), I'm in El Dorado County (NorCal, next to Sacramento County). PLEASE HELP!!!