S13 head teardown progress pictures

[Scooby24]

Bear with me as I just got the car and am learning as I go. If the captions seem odd it's because I'm pulling these pictures from my posts on another board which were spread out over time.

Okay I'll update this thread as more progress takes place.

First off, here's what the engine bay looked as I bought it (after a little cleaning)

Pulled the plugs and found out why it was running like ***.

Then as I was doing a compression test, I managed to cross thread the adapter and break it off in the head. Also snapped the easy out used to try to remove it.

Alright...well ****...guess Ill just have to tear down the head, machine it, replace all gaskets including head gasket, hot tank the head, and get new valve stem seals. Basically make the head brand new again.

First had to take off the exhaust manifold. couple EGR tubes were not coming out of the exhaust and the head smoothed on the nuts so I decided to just cut em and do away with the emissions. It's not a DD so I'm not worried about the environment too much.

Now I had to tackle the intake manifold. What a ****in mess. I've never seen so much useless emissions ****.

Upper half of intake manifold

Lower half...here's where all the useless crap is.

Butterfly valves? Get da **** outta here.

Shot of engine bay with head still on

Because it always looks like you've done more work if you take off the valve cover

So THAT's why the S13 seemed so much louder than my old S14...

And just a random shot of the junk come off so far.

head is off.

Cylinder 1 TDC! You don't wanna know how long it took me to figure out how to get TDC on the compression stroke. :lol2:

Whoops, little antifreeze got in numba two.



Don't worry, the shavings are when the head was off and I drilled a hole through the stripped adapter to help out the machinist a bit.

It feels good to get that bastard off.

Back from the Machinist.

BIG thanks to John's Automotive Machine Shop in Olathe for GREAT service, quick turnaround (3 days), and amazing pricing.









More to come later. I have to borrow a friend's torque wrench to reassemble.

Just got a 98 upper intake manifold, ARP studs, fel-pro head gasket, EGR block off plate, etc.

Any advice from this point forward is always appreciated. Thanks for looking.

[churro]

Nothing like clean shiny fresh parts. What are your plans? A cheap and easy upgrade now that you have to head off, is to use an exhaust cam for the intake. It increases lift or duration, or both. I'm not sure since I run a SOHC.

[Bigvinnie]

Head work looks clean.

[skydragoness]

Valvetrain looks clean inside, what's the mileage on the engine? I tell ya, it's such a big sigh of relief when you get those damn timing chain guides off. My 2nd S13 had chewed up the top one and the side one was pretty worn.

And what's a construction paper-filled Fram filter doing on that motor??

[pr240sx]

DO a polish job on the exhaust..... and gasket match the intake.

Also, I like to sand the coolant intake area, but to make it more rough to increase surface area.But thats is optional

[Bigvinnie]

DO a polish job on the exhaust..... and gasket match the intake.

Also, I like to sand the coolant intake area, but to make it more rough to increase surface area.But thats is optional

I would recomend also port/hone/extrude the manifold as I did. The lower half of the manifold the runners are smaller than the upper manifold runners.

[Scooby24]

well it's pretty much all back together.... I'm waiting on a header and injectors and it'll be done.

So far it's gotten a valve job, head gasket, EGRs removed, ARP head studs, emissions removed, PAIR removed, charcoal canister removed, new header, fuel filter, new plugs, wires, intake manifold ported and polished.... I wonder if it'll run a little differently...

[WWJD]

liken' the color of the valve cover, what kind of valve job did you get? stock valves?

[Florida240sx]

Looks like you've been having some fun

[Soravia]

Did you get new vavle cover gasket and front and rear main seals?While you're at it replace the thermostats. The OEM are cheap and the NISMO ones keep it 10'C cooler.

[ss82480]

Looking good, how much have you spent in parts on that build? I'm considering doing something similiar. Keep us updated, I'd love to hear what difference it makes for you.

[Scooby24]

liken' the color of the valve cover, what kind of valve job did you get? stock valves?

Stock valves just new valve stem seals from the fel-pro kit. "premium" seals

[Scooby24]

Did you get new vavle cover gasket and front and rear main seals?While you're at it replace the thermostats. The OEM are cheap and the NISMO ones keep it 10'C cooler.

Yes new valve cover gasket...haven't messed with the termostats and no on the front and rear main seals...I didn't want to pull the transmission yet. I'll do that when the clutch is gone.

[Scooby24]

Looking good, how much have you spent in parts on that build? I'm considering doing something similiar. Keep us updated, I'd love to hear what difference it makes for you.

Parts list so far...

98 upper intake manifold = 20 shippeddizzy rotor = 12 shippeddizzy cap = 16 shippedplugs = 8wires = 45felpro gasket set = 97 shippedARP headstuds = 92 shippedHeader = 120 shippedValve job = 205Tools needed and misc = 150Injectors = 35 shippedFuel filter = 15

Puts me around 815 bucks. wow..I didn't think I'd spent that much.

[Scooby24]

Almost there! Injectors will be here tomorrow, then distributor rotor should be here any day and it'll be time to fire it back up.

[WWJD]

header....? wait you didn' t tell us about that yet... ? What kind did you end up usen'?looks perrdie

[Scooby24]

header....? wait you didn' t tell us about that yet... ? What kind did you end up usen'?looks perrdie

I just went with a good ol ebay header. I was going to stick with the stocker since the plans are turbo but I couldn't get the PAIR fitting out of the stock downpipe. I just decided to get the cheapest possible aftermarket one to use temporarily.

[WWJD]

ahh I see. looken' good man

[komete]

Can't wait to read about how it drives. Good work and that head looks superb. Looked pretty dang clean when you first took it off also.

[Florida240sx]

I paid to have my head put back on.... End result cams are off, valve cover bolts are striped, and car won't start... All in all I got a $800 paperweight

[Scooby24]

I paid to have my head put back on.... End result cams are off, valve cover bolts are striped, and car won't start... All in all I got a $800 paperweight

Ouch dude...I hope mine isn't that bad. I did strip two of the bolts on the valve cover front but I just went to the local hardware store and found longer bolts that seated all the way into the threads in the block and they bit good and hard. Just painted the bolts with high temp black paint to match and also keep corrosion down.

But that's the main reason I don't take my car to anyone...this way not only am I sure the job is done right, I also learn a ton in the process.

[Scooby24]

It runs!!

Lots of little issues and at least one more minor one to work out.

Idle problem was idle control valve...go figure you remove a bunch of emission ****, you have to adjust the IACV

Smoke...well...not sure but it stopped. Guess that was the start up cleaning it needed. Might have been the month an a half old 87 octane too. Filled it up with 91 and it's happier

Then shortly after it started running on 3 cylinders. Cylinder one's plug was pitch black....gap was too small...I was afraid that by putting the insert in it might have stretched the plug out far enough the cylinder was hitting the plug. Regapped it and it was fine after the next test run. Phew.

Found out the injector o-ring didn't seat right and tore resulting in fuel dumping into one and leaning out the others...

Changed out the o-ring and here we gooooo!

It runs... good. To say the least. It idles super smooth, is quiet, has smooth power delivery and really pulls a lot better up top.



Sorry for the lighting conditions and the muffled sound. Crappy camera video.