Swap '95 KA head onto my '93? Or do I possibly have another problem?

[armaddon]

So this is kind've a 2-part thread.. Basically I need to get my '93 smogged and just this month I started blowing smoke out the exhaust at WOT over 3500rpm. Honestly my roommate and I are having a hard time telling if the smoke looks more grey or blue, and I've personally never smelled smoke from a bad oil burner - but I can tell you I'm definitely having to put a quart in about every other fillup, so it has to be going somewhere >.>

The car has about 240k on it, and I'm the third owner.. I can definitely tell the previous owners used and abused it. But up to this point I haven't had any loss of power. Now, when I punch it going uphill, the car hits about 5k rpm and chokes a bit (feels like a misfire?). It only started doing this within the last week-ish. At idle the car exhaust actually smells rich. I was at stock timing, so I retarded it a lil bit, didn't seem to make much difference.

So, I happen to have a '95 motor (intended to do a KA-T someday) that is in great shape. I compression tested 2 cylinders in my motor at 150psi (then dropped the tester and broke it <.<) so it honestly seems like the rings are doing pretty well, just seems like a head problem (valve guide?). Since I have to get smog done by -this month- and I'm broke poor, I figured I should just swap the heads.

I shopped for some head gasket kits, and found that the part numbers for the kit for each year motor (93 and 95) were different. I was just looking at aftermarket kits from rockauto.com - '93 Head Gasket Kit - HS9820PT, '95 Head Gasket Kit - HS26171PT .. I'm not sure which kit to get? Are the head gaskets really any different? The '95 kit is about $30 cheaper but supposedly comes with the same set of gaskets o.O

So I'm a bit unsure, but I gotta get parts soon if I'm gonna be swapping these heads. I'm assuming the head studs are identical, but I'm not sure about these gaskets.

Or does my problem sound like something else? If it's valve guides, it seems like a better idea to just swap the heads since I'd have to pull it anyway. Haven't really done any work up to this point.. I recently changed oil, plugs, wires, and the plugs I pulled didn't look wet. Looked pretty normal honestly. Any help would be appreciated!

edit: did a little searching and found this thread: zerothread?id=347551does this sound like piston oil ring lands? I really can't afford to rebuild a whole motor just to pass smog ; ;

Any chance I'd be able to pass smog on fresh oil/cap/rotor/wires/plugs/fuel filter/etc? It only smokes at over 50%+ throttle 3500rpm+, never smokes at startup even after sitting cold for a couple days.. I know I need work regardless, but I drive all day for work and this 240sx is all I got :x I gotta get this registration done
Modified by armaddon at 7:36 PM 3/24/2009

[mojoriffic1]

I recently put a 95 head on a 92 block, and to my knowledge, the blocks are the same. The differences in the gasket kits, that I can tell, have to do with the valve cover gasket(bolt hole size and arrangement), the exhaust manifold flange gaskets (two on the S13 block vs one on S14) and various gaskets due to a change in EGR and o-rings between the years. Physically, everything between the motors will bolt up, but keep whatever manifolds that belong to that year car on it. you just have to make sure the valve cover gaskets and such are the same. To my knowledge, there is no difference in the head gasket on any KA24de....but that has to do with visual inspection. If you have a good 95 block, I would highly suggest putting the whole long block in your car, not just swapping the head. That will help rule out a lot of unknown variables that could be causing your current engine to burn oil. besides, IMHO, it would probably take less time to swap a long block than to do a head job b/c you won't have to re-time the engine in the car and so on and so forth.

I hope this was of some use to you. Good luck.

[armaddon]

Thanks for the info and advice - I seafoamed the current motor last night and did an oil change (royal purple 5w-30) cap/rotor/fuel filter, and even changed out 2 injectors that looked like they were running a bit rich (residue on plugs in those cylinders) - drove around for work today and honestly it has almost completely stopped smoking while driving around, even flooring it hard up a freeway onramp.. I can only get it to smoke if I do a high rev pulse sitting still.

I think I'm just gonna go get a pretest done tomorrow morning after some driving around and see what my numbers are. Maybe I'll get lucky and can just throw some stuff in the crankcase and some alchohol in the gas tank, and at least get registered :x Then I will definitely take the time to do a respectable rebuild on the 95 motor.. Get it at least ready for KA-T. Then it'll just be a matter of building myself a kit that I could easily swap back to N/A come smog time (practically EVERY smog hookup I knew of around Stockton CA is getting busted) - thinking maybe a bottom-mount mani, T25 or T28 with a SMIC, stock-looking SR piping, SR injectors, ECU work if necessary. Maybe I could run with my roommate's stock '05 350z then? :P