Oh ****. My headgasket?

[AxiOn419]

I have been reading through a whole bunch of archived posts all night in an effort to learn more about my engine. After reading a post someone made I realize I may be in trouble.

Me and my buddy just finished swapping my rb20 that has been sitting in my wrecked car for about a year and a half into my new s13. It starts up and idles good, also revs hard but there seems to be a bit of a misfire. All the coils are getting spark and I put in new spark plugs. While reasearching this I came across something..

I noticed the other day while my radiator cap was off that there was a milkish/white color flowing through the radiator. At that time I thought it was odd but did not give it too much thought, only now after reading some post I realize this is a very bad thing. Am I screwed? Is the assumption either a bad head gasket or a warped head? Tomorrow I will compression test the engine and see how that looks.

If it is the head gasket, then what? I know some stuff but not nearly enough to pull the head off my motor. Would it be advised for this to be a learning experience or is that too risky? I have an uncle who is a top notch mechanic, an engine is an engine or are RBs some monster that only those who are informed about them should work on them?

Please give me some advice here, at this point I am sort of bummed out at the fact that I am not in a good situation after spending countless hours doing this engine swap but such is life. Thanks guys

[Shocker]

Drain your oil and look for a resado, you will notice if its not straight oil...

[driftmyke]

man i feel your pain, that why i got my rb head completly checked and decked and put a new headgasket in b4 i even put the motor cause headhaskets r such bishez!!

yea pretty much milky coolant meand bad HG, but to be sure flush your coolant a couple of times to see if it was just dirty coolant.

but any now with the helpful stuff, its not super hard to change a headgasket but if u dont really no what your doing then have someone else do it.....or you can take a stab at it but remember everything has to be done perfect with heads and whatnot so one litttle mistake can **** your engine. basically an engine is an engine, the rb is the same as any other so your uncle shoudl be able to do it.

my advice team up with your uncle and learn(mostly watch) how to change the headgasket, and when you take your head to get resurfaced also have them vacum and pressure check it so you know the head is in perfect order.

hope this helps

[AxiOn419]

Thank you for the quick replies guys. Tomorrow I will compression test and check the fluids and see. Would a bad head gasket explain a misfire? I am assuming so. Thanks for the info driftmyke, I will probably look into doing that if that is the case. Where should I look to find a head gasket? I have seen gasket kits on eBay for a good price.. or is that something you dont buy off of eBay?

[leesredgt]

just go ahead and buy a metal head gasket.

[AxiOn419]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ZWD1V

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ZWD1V

Either of these worth getting?

[driftmyke]

ive never heard of misfire from a headgasket.

DO NOT USE A NO NAME GASKET. if your gonna replace the headgasket you might as well replace all the gaskets cause your gonna have the engine 70% apart anyway.

order a NISSAN OEM gasket kit from here

http://www.nismoparts.com/catalog/?section=756

this is a real nissan kit, the same gaskets that came on the motor stock, the stock headgasket is good up to 400hp i believe.

if your head bolts have been resused more than once get new ones cause they stretch as they get used and if u dont get new ones then you will blow your headgasket right away.

[Darius]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ZWD1V

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ZWD1V

Either of these worth getting?

DO NOT

I repeat DO NOTTT BUY A COMETIC HEAD GASKET. THEY ARE $HIT. I would rather go with a generic no name organic gasket than a Cometic.

Refer to this thread for my horror story. zerothread?id=171356

And from the sounds of it, Welcome to the NRRBA!

<edit> You can check for the "chocolate milk of death" by opening your oil cap. If it is on your cams, you need to get that stuff off of them or they will rust. I'm sure your compression test will reveal your head gasket problem. Let's just hope it isn't something more serious like a cracked head.
Modified by Darius at 8:39 AM 11/24/2007

[gawdzilla]

cometic, like any other MLS hg needs to be carefully sealed.. i'm running one without problems. blown HG can cause misfire if there is a lot of water getting into the combustion chamber.

drain the coolant and refill a few times with water (cheaper) to see if the water gets dirty. or you can do a compression test

[AxiOn419]

Thanks a lot everyone. Getting ready to get started on all of that now.. Will let you all know what I find.

[Darius]

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying you can be lax when it comes to MHG installation, but even when exact procedure is followed, they still don't seal as well as other gaskets using a different material. I still don't trust mine. I'm just waiting to see if it will hold what I have in store for it next spring.

[AxiOn419]

Alright, good news! Not a blown head gasket. The white "milky" stuff I saw in my radiator was just foam

Compression tested the cylinders:

#1: 135#2: 140 #3: 132 #4: 139#5: 133 #6: 140

I did not have the throttle wide open. Fuel pump was unplugged, and all spark plugs were pulled. The engine was also not fully warmed when this was done.

These numbers seem a bit low, but isnt consistency more important? Also, wont the numbers go up on a fully warmed engine and with a wide open throttle?

Also narrowed down the misfire issue. Cylinder #2 is getting no spark at all. It is not the coil pack, we switch around coil pack #1 and #2, still no spark on 2. It is not the spark plug because I put a new one in. Also, I am getting continuity between the ECU and the ignitor, also getting continuity between the ignitor and the coil pack. So this must leave me with a faulty ignitor? What do you guys think?

Thanks

[driftmyke]

man thats great news for you.

yoour number should go up a little warmed up and wide open throttle, but those are still low numbers, might want to consider rebulid sometime soon.

[Darius]

Those compression numbers look pretty decent. There is one cylinder out about 6% but that's not bad. I'd say your motor is healthy enough to run hard. No need to rebuild it until you actually blow it. I agree with you on your #2 cylinder assessment that it is probably the ignitor. It could also be a glitch in the ECU not firing #2 but change the ignitor out and see what happens first.

So glad to hear it was just bad coolant. These motors sit forever and who knows how bad the corrosion is inside the cooling jacket of the block?Flush that crap out and keep doing it until the coolant clears up.

[craz4240]

Those compression numbers look pretty decent. There is one cylinder out about 6% but that's not bad. I'd say your motor is healthy enough to run hard. No need to rebuild it until you actually blow it. I agree with you on your #2 cylinder assessment that it is probably the ignitor. It could also be a glitch in the ECU not firing #2 but change the ignitor out and see what happens first.

So glad to hear it was just bad coolant. These motors sit forever and who knows how bad the corrosion is inside the cooling jacket of the block?Flush that crap out and keep doing it until the coolant clears up.

I agree,they usually pressure wash these motors for photos and what not.....my motor was in very good shape but there was small amounts of rust in the coolant...I flushed the cooling system till it cleared up.