***MISFIRING*** s14 sr20det 1989 240sx

[hungryjoseph]

ok so i sort of nailed my previous over heating problem with some COOLANT! but i still dont know where all the coolant is going... cus it keeps dissapearing and its defainetly not leeking.. but my main problem is the misfiring. i know it's not the spark plugs because i shook the coilpack and it stopped misfiring. so im assuming now that its the coilpacks, but before i go and order that... could it also be the cams? or maybe the valves? any suggestions? the car doesnt misfire at ALL when its cold, but when the weather it above 45 degrees, it starts having problems. theres nothing wrong with the headgasket because the previous owner had the greddy metal headgasket put into the car. PLEASE ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED! i just bought the car and i just want it running normaly...

[hungryjoseph]

anyone? im pretty desperate...

[hungryjoseph]

bump

[180fan]

your coolant issue, check out the intake side between runners 3 and 4. post back if you see coolant there.

your misfire, have you checked out the timing on the bugger? with the s14 sr, your vtc solenoid could be acting up and causing it to act stupid.

[hungryjoseph]

ahhh i wish i got ur message or something before i dropped the car off at the shop... its getting diagnostics right now... and im praying ALOT that its not a piston.. i just got the car and that would really suck

[hungryjoseph]

bump

HELP ME!!! PLEASE!!!!

[hungryjoseph]

bump...

[Acecool]

Sorry to say, but if it happened after the overheating thing... It could be the head gasket...

Try this.. Open up the radiator cap and fill the coolant in there, close it up, let it run and idle for 10 minutes, then, keep it at 2500 for 2 minutes.. let it idle and pop the hood.. Does it smell like coolant?

Check the oil, does it look like coolant is in there?

Check the radiator once cooled down, does it look like oil is in there?

Could be: Hose leak (when it gets hot, it comes out as steam), head gasket, or maybe something I am forgetting

[hungryjoseph]

the shop said i have a bad headgasket... at 75$ an hour, how much u think itll cost to replace it? at the most, wrost case scenario

[hungryjoseph]

and do i have to get everything flushed if what you said happened?

[180fan]

it seems to be hit or miss with the greddy hg's. My old greddy hg never leaked but i've seen them let coolant seep out between 3 and 4. Easy check to see if you need to flush out the coolant out of the oil and vice versa is to see if the oil is coffee + creamer colored.

[hungryjoseph]

my bad! its not a greddy! its an apexi!!! my bad! -.-''

[180fan]

wth? what were you doing to make the apexi go bad? lol. seriously that's like a first. how much to replace the hg? depends on how familiar they are with the engine. I think the fastest I was able to get down that far was about 1-2 hours with pulling the head off with the manifolds still attached with a hoist and a wedge to keep the chain from moving after pulling the tensioner and zip ties on the cam sprockets. so dunno I'd guess about 5 or 6 hours with all the fluids and stuff?

[hungryjoseph]

i drove the car without any radiator fluid... which probably caused the HG to blow... i had jsut bought the car and i had NO idea... i got back from the diagnostics and what happened is that the tip of the spark plug fell into the cylandar because of a bad coilpack... so now i dont know if theres any piston damage or not... and i need to know if there is or not because if there is i'll need a new long block, if there isnt then i can just get new plugs, coilpacks, HG, etc...

[hungryjoseph]

wut do u guys think of forged pistons, new metal HG

[180fan]

well if the tip of the plug fell in, check the cylinder walls for scoring. Pistons are cheap anyway. Unless you're running an uber turbo or have bigger plans down the way, get some oem pistons and call it a day.

[hungryjoseph]

is there a way i can check the cylandar walls without taking the head off? compression on that cylander is EFFED but tehy dont know if its because of the headgasket or the piston

[hungryjoseph]

and i figured... if im going to get a new motor... i could get forged pistons, new metal HG for the same price so why not? but i never thought about damamge on the walls...

[hungryjoseph]

ok heres my plan... im going to have a new s14 sr in stalled, and keep the curent SR at my friend's place, and we'll tear at it for a few months and see what the problem is and see what we can do to fix it, then sell it of for a grand...

i'm going to miss my 300whp that i never got to experiment with fully =/

[180fan]

ok so did they ever pull the head off and see if there was cylinder wall damage? If so, how much damage we talkin about? If push really comes to shove, you can always pick up an empty block pretty cheap. You'll need to use the s14 block if you're planning to keep the vtc, otherwise if you kill that, you can just go ahead and use an s13 block. Either that or you can get it sleeved if you're hell bent on keeping it.

[hungryjoseph]

nah i told them not to pull off the head cus i didnt feel like paying for all that labor... i was thinking about getting the s13 blacktop... but... i'm guessing that the wiring would be a bizzle because i ahve everything set up for the s14 sr... i would need a new wiring harnes and all that. and i already have all the s14's parts, like front mount, etc. or wut i MIGHT try to do is... install a oem headgasket, get a new plug and coilpack, then bring it back to the shop to get a compression test and all that to see if the piston is good or not. i might do that first before i go and do anything crazy like a swap

[hungryjoseph]

i dont understand wut u mean by "sleeved".. something to do with cylandar walls...? sorry i'm noob =/

[180fan]

the cylinder where the piston moves up and down can be replaced with a sleeve. stronger than the stuff the block is made of, if the original walls are damaged, you can replace it with new sleeves, built to take more power or built to replace the old ones that got effed up.

[hungryjoseph]

thanks for the explanation!

so would new pistons + sleeves + coilpack + spark plug + HG solve my problem?

[rotorimp]

After all the machining involved--it HAS to be cheaper just to get another long block even after you put in another HG

[180fan]

first off, check what was damaged. if the cylinder walls are damaged, go find a bare block for the cheapest fix. machining for sleeves and the sleeves gets expensive. why bother with another long block? you've already got everything else you need, just get either a shortblock or get the block. if your pistons have gone toast, get oem replacements. significantly cheaper than aftermarket forged pistons and if you're only shooting for 300-400, they'll do that all day long if they're new and put in properly. coil packs are cheap and can be found used easily. spark plugs, you should put in new ones every so often anyway. headgasket yes.

[hungryjoseph]

i'm dropping my car off at ma-motorsports.com tomorow, in baltimore. i dont have skills/tools to do anything on this car. im going to ask them about the block and see if they can get me one, if not, then i could always sell this motor, might end up being a couple hundred dollars different in the end... thanks for all the help though... it really did help and im going to update on this tomorow after i drop the car off and see what MA says. thanks again guys!