HELP Altima KA24DE no/low compression

[gwoods]

Short story,

Altima head will not seal what other trouble shooting ideas does Nico have?


Long story,


I am out of ideas.

I bought this car with a broken timing chain. Replaced chain and every seal on the motor from the valve cover down to the oil pan. I sold it to a buddy that needed a car for what I was into it for. He could not get driving a stick shift down and sold it back to me about the same time I got caught going way to fast in my Jag. After I sold my Jag this Altima became my daily driver. In April the front crank seal started leaking so I replaced it on a weekday night in the dark. I got the belt around the waterpump the wrong way drove it about 3 blocks to Autozone. Got in to drive it home and it got hot instantly. I guessed at thermostat and limped it home by getting up to 40 mph then turning it off and coasting. Starting it driving then coasting. Anyway it really didn't get that hot probably within 1/4 inch of the H. Replaced the t stat still had overheating. Discovered my error fixed the belt routing and no problem.

About 2 weeks later leaving work no power, misfire, white smoke so I had it towed home. I thought this would be a good opportunity to do the exhaust cam swap so I grabbed to 248 cams from the junk yard. I had a lifter that was stuck in the old 99 head so I used a 2001 head that I had laying around. I took the 2001 head to the shop and had it hot tanked and decked. I followed the NICO guide http://www.nicoclub.com/archives/cam-swap-ka24de.html and had no problems on turning the motor over by hand or by turning it over with the starter with the plugs out and the dist disconnected. When I started it up it ran like crap and there was a lot of mechanical noise. Cylinder #1 had zero 0 compression. The other cylinders had 160*-170*. I supposed that I had bent a valve on #1 or the head had a bent valve on #1 to start. I got so frusterated I bought a 2013 Infiniti M37X for a daily driver.

The Altima has sat for a couple months and now I decided I want to sell it. So I went to the yard and pulled a 2001 Altima head that had 150-160 psi in the yard. Put it together using a brand new NISSAN gasket and brand new Fel-pro head bolts. I have 60-30 psi across the head with the bolts torqued according to the Fel-pro guide.

I tried putting a capful of oil down each spark plug hole and no change to PSI. I tried torquing the head down to 70lbs, then 80lbs, then 85lbs. Finally at 85lbs I broke off a head bolt.

I went to the junk yard and disassembled another 99 altima to check the timing marks I am 100% sure that my timing is 100% correct.

What am i missing how can I have zero compression why won't the head seal?

Has anyone tried another type of bolt besides the crappy torque to stretch that is the factory style bolt?

[OriginalWheelman]

Is there any oil blow by? The only thing I can think of is the rings / cylinder walls are completely shot.

*Had another thought. One time, a long time ago, I worked on an Escort that literally had a hole in the piston. No idea wtf happened, but it was there. I imagine you would have spotted that with the head off, but it is another possibility.

[gwoods]

Prior to blowing the head gasket my numbers were pretty good 170's except number four.

I would expect shot rings would come through as higher numbers with the cap full of oil in the combustion chamber.

Thank you for the reply though!

I have put a head gasket on a ka five times now this is the first one that has given me problems!

[OriginalWheelman]

I'm scratching my head on this one too. Since you've been through two heads, one of which was decked and such, I'm inclined to lean towards the block / bottom end as the problem. It's possible the block cracked when it overheated. I've seen that in the past, but the KA block is pretty beefy so I'd be surprised if that was it. Still, even with a cracked block I'd imagine you would have some compression.

[OriginalWheelman]

Is the block sleeved? One of the sleeves could have slid enough to keep the head from sealing?

[gwoods]

I really don't understand how it could just suddenly fail?

its not sleeved, I have heard if the rings are bad putting oil down the spark plug hole will raise the compression and that will help trouble shoot valves vs rings on a otherwise good head/block.

The other more troubling thought I have had is what if I have stretched out the threads in the block?

I hate torque to stretch bolts, I always feel like they are not tight enough. I think I'm going to to go to ACE and buy grade 8 or higher bolts same size as these head bolts and see if I can build compression with them.