My head gasket keeps blowing

[steuetra000]

i own a 1990 Nissan 240sx s13 hatch with a ka24e and when i bought the car it "just had a blown head gasket" or so i was told, so i put in a new head gasket and it worked well for about a year then it went out again so this time i decided to use some head gasket and block repair, so i poured that through my radiator and then it proceeded to work for about a year once again. when it blew out this time though it was very sudden like over night. also i think that it is very important to tell you that i knew the head gasket to be blown because there was a lot of smoke coming out of the tail pipe, my coolant would shoot out of the radiator if i started the engine cold with the cap off, and the oil was foaming and looking quite light and milky, plus my coolant was very dark and murky. so i replaced the head gasket again and did an oil change and radiator flush and the car still had an over heating issue and it kept dying whenever i pushed in the clutch. so then i decided that there had to be a much bigger issue with the engine so i removed the engine from the car and found that the timing chain guide on the drivers side was sheared off and pieces of it were spread throughout the oil mostly in the pan. I then decided to completely rebuild the engine so i bought a rebuild kit from ebay and it came with pistons,piston rings, connecting rod bearings, main bearings, a water pump, an oil pump, timing chain, timing chain tensioner, cam gear, crank shaft gear, both timing chain guides, all gaskets and seals. i also bought a spare ka24e from a friend which came with a new clutch. during the rebuild i brought the head, block, and the crank shaft (all from the the ka24e that originally came with the car) to a machinist who told me that the head was strong the block had a crack between an oil galley and a water jacket based on a vacuum test of my water jackets and i was also told that the crank shaft was worn down beyond acceptable specs. after that i took my spare block and spare crank shaft in to the same machinist and he said that after testing both they were both good. i then rebuilt the engine put it all back into the car. and of course replaced all fluids. i tested the car for about an hour just letting it sit and idle at first there was still a lot of smoke from the tail pipe but it was idling very nicely so i filled my gas tank and began driving it every day because it was my only vehicle. also i am working in Stanwood and living in Sedro Woolley so that is about a 30 minute commute and most mornings i don't have enough time the let it warm up. the problem that i am now having is that i got my car to 430 miles after the rebuild and then the engine began stuttering while i was driving on the freeway and then got worse really fast i exited the freeway and parked the car and then i couldn't get it to restart. the vehicle never over heated when it "lost compression" this last time that it failed. the engine would fire but never run once i stopped turning the starter. later that day my friend brought a dolly i decided to try starting my car to get it onto the dolly and it strated right up and drove onto the dolly just fine. when i got the vehicle home i revved the engine with the hood open and noticed smoke coming out of the engine within the engine bay every time i revved it and of course there was plenty of smoke from the tail pipe and the engine was shaking violently which is something that it had been doing when i first purchased the vehicle. i have barely started taking the engine back apart since this happened, the real questions that i have are why does the head gasket keep blowing out?, is there an alternative to a composite head gasket out there?, and is it possible that the last head gasket just went out because i wasn't letting the engine warm up and i was driving it so far so often?

[Hijacker]

Did you ever retorque the head after you changed the head gasket? Typically it needs to be done after around 1000 miles (which obviously you havent reached on the new motor). A lot of times, after you've let the motor heat cycle a lot, the gasket needs to be reseated as the metal of the head and block have possibly shifted a bit. The way to retorque is to go in the installation order of the headbolts and break them loose. Work only one bolt at a time, don't break them all loose. Then retighten that bolt back to spec and move to the next one in order. Wash rinse repeat until all of the bolts have been retorqued.

On this most recent build, did you use new head bolts or re-use the old ones? With factory bolts, I tend to recommend getting new ones if they've been reinstalled. Usually, you can get two heads out of a set of bolts in my experience, although some will say you should always replace them (which is a safe call IMO).

Lastly, what was the quality of this rebuild kit from ebay? ebay stuff can tend to be poor quality. Personally, I buy factory internals from either reputable vendors or Nissan.

[steuetra000]

i didn't realize that i needed to retorque the head bolts. i used new head bolts each time and i did get the block and head checked for warping. im not sure on the quality of the rebuild kit though the gaskets and seals were in a yellow box with black lines across it diagonally. should i try reaseating the head gasket first or should i just replace the head gasket