HELP! i just swapped an intake and exhaust cam from a 92 s13 into my 95 s14. while the cams were all out, i compared both intake and exhaust cams from each car. i set them aside each other, intake to intake and exhaust to exhaust cam. there was NO visible difference at all on the cams from each other both intake and exhaust . i thought s13 cams had higher duration meaning the lobes should be tilted slighty different from the s14 cams.
but anyway, after getting confused, i put the s13 cams into my car (and yes i didnt get them mixed up!). green intake cam from s13 and orange exhaust cam from s13. when i pulled the cam sprockets off, i wire tied them together to the timing chains while marking them with some paint to make sure i didnt forget how the sprockets lined up at. while taking off the cams, i accidently hit the wire tie and made the sprockets fall off from the chain! well thankfully i marked the sprockets with the paint so i just took the sprockets out and put the cams in, then i put the sprockets back onto the cams and chain.
after putting everything back, cleaning up, i decided to crank my car to see how the cams would run! this is what scared me: the car started for a split second and had a VERY VERY low idle, which was around 500 rpm or so. it started for about 5 seconds then it died . i was confused on why this happened! so i tried to crank the car over again and it would crank but would turn over and start! does anyone know what my problem is??? it was getting real late and too cold and dark to see so i just called it a night and hopefully try again tomorrow!
does anyone think i messed up the timing by not setting the car to TDC correctly or was it because i took out the cam sprockets? i set the car to TDC by putting some tissue into the #1 cyl with the spark plug removed and all the spark plug wires removed from all the others. i cranked the motor till the first cam lobes were pointing away from the center of the engine and the distributor rotor was pointing at the #1 mark. i really need this car for work and this CAM swap project has turned into a disaster for me! HELP PLEASE!!!
HELP!!! S13 CAM SWAP INTO S14 PROBLEMS!!! HELP!!!
Re: (NateDogg)
didnt i set the motor at tdc by cranking the motor till the front cam lobes are pointing away from each other and the dist. rotor is pointing at #1? even if i didnt set it at tdc, what is the worst that could happen if i just swapped the cams? i used the tissue so i kno wen the #1 cyl is firing which would blow the tissue out of the cyl (compression stroke?). HELP PLEASE
Re: (TheOne™)
sorry to be such a nub but, how do i check compression?
Re: (sunnys14)
also, how do i adjust timing? my crankshaft pulley isnt original because i got a unorthodox racing one so the pulley isnt set with the timing marks!
Re: (sunnys14)
I have absolutly no I dea what you did with the tissue...If you marked the cam and sproket with paint and then match that back up I would think that would be fine, but is the cams and crank in time with each other? best way to do that would be set the crank to TDC, then set the cam one TDC, there should be a mark on the cam some were to show you when the cam is on TDC, line the pin on the cam up with the colord link on the chain( one link should be a diff color in pick Ive seen it was a different shade of grey) after getting the chain on turn the engin by hand a few times and stop with the crank at TDC, and check to see if the cams are as well. (Ive never done on nissan engin only on toyota but there was a small notch on the block and on the sproket on the crank, and something similar for the cams), if your pully has no marks and you have no way of establishing TDC for the crank a rough esstimate can be made by putting something (like a dowl or something simmilar) in the spark plug hole so that it rests on the piston top and stick out of the engin so you can see the movement of the piston, watch the stick and when it reaches the top of its travel mark the pully, continue turning and when it begin to go down mark again this marks the beging and end of the piston dwell at TDC, so the crank is straigh up right inbetween the two marks, mark the center point and use this for a rough timing estimate....
Re: (Red coupe)
i dont think i set the car to TDC when i first removed the stock cams. now that i put the new ones in, i set the it to TDC, then installed the cams like how the s13 cam sticky faq shows. i put everything back together, then wen i turn the engine, all i hear is a whirring noise and the exhaust pops for a bit. then it continues whirring, not even trying to start. i am getting spark across all 4 plugs. its just the whirring noise and the car isnt even trying to turn over! will the car not start if both cams were off by 1 notch? if so can someone please tell me? ive been working on this car for 4 days straight and i cant seem to find out what is wrong!!!! please help!!!
Re: (NateDogg)
i did exactly what the jim wolf website says AFTER i messed up. so correcting everything SHOULD make it start again. but now its not starting. i have no idea why its not starting.
Re: (sunnys14)
i just checked my compression last night. took out the spark plugs, put the compression tester in each of the holes and i got 0 psi across all 4 cylinders! does this mean i have bent valves??? i sure hope i dont!
Re: (sunnys14)
did start the engin with the timeing off the first time you had it messed up? if you did it could be bad news...
Re: (Red coupe)
i started the engine the first time and the car had very low idle (around 400 rpm) then it just died. the car atleast cranked when i started it the first time. so i adjusted the cams now the car wont even crank. the chain just spins and it wont crank at all. i reset everything back to TDC #1 and now its still not cranking at all... i dont know what is going on.
Re: (chandler)
yay! even more problems arise! i managed to break the 91 intake cam when trying to adjust it. so now im running a 248 intake cam (rotated 4 teeth) and a 232 exhaust cam. same thing happens! the car wont try to start. 0 compression even when everything is set at TDC. i read that your car wont start if the ground wire (connected to the front O2 sensor by the brake master cyl) isnt pulled into the engine block. is that right? well i hope someone can help me soon because this has turned into a complete disaster for me!
Re: (chandler)
checked compression with gas pedal to the floor. 0 psi across all 4 cylinders. i think the valves arent closing. either cuz i didnt line up the cams correctly after 4564632634 times of trying or theyre bent up. i have no idea
Re: (chandler)
yes i cranked my engine while cranking still nothing
Re: (chandler)
ok, i got my motor checked and it turns out that i bent ALL the valves on my intake side. i blew air into the #1 cyl and it was all leaking through my intake. so i guess i have to pull the head and replace them now.
Re: (NateDogg)
all i know is that theyre noticably not touching the cams anymore. you think that is repairable?
Re: (chandler)
the price of valves and machining them is almost the same as getting a used block with valves... haha