Valve Cover now what?

[komete]

Hello all, I'm having a ideling problem that I've been struggling with.

Today however I was bored and decided to take my valve cover off and paint it. I was wondering since I have the valve cover off are their any cleaning tips or checks I should make on the engine while the cover is off?

Btw I have a 95 240sx I'm going to have to put a picture up with teh valve cover off it's filthy.

[Big Nate]

i think for the ideling that there is a little screw next to the engine on the left that'll adjust the idle for you. as for the valve cover, i just got mine painted andit looks pretty good. but i wish had sanded it down real good before painting it. and make sure you by the valve cover seal before you put it back on.

[BadMojo]

Today however I was bored and decided to take my valve cover off and paint it. I was wondering since I have the valve cover off are their any cleaning tips or checks I should make on the engine while the cover is off?

If you have the valve cover off, I'd get new valve cover gaskets to start. Also, if you've still got a timing chain guide on the top of the head between the cam sprockets (black metal guide held on by two bolts) you can remove that. It doesn't *do* anything other than lead to timing chain noise and Nissan no longer makes the part.

[komete]

Thanks a lot for that tip bad mojo. It's diffantly comming off. I hate that noise. I'm posting a pic of it and was wondering if what I have hilighted in red is the AIV? I want to clean that as I've heard it can cause bad idle problems. If thats not ti can you give me a local and a description of it?

Big nate it's more than just a bad idle proplem. Whenever I'm driving and the rpms go between 2k to 4k the engine tries to stall. It justs starts sputtering. Bumper to bumper traffic s hell. If I don't give it enough gas it'll try and turn off.

[Chingon]

That's your fuel rail.. let it be.

The aiv should be behind the distributor from that pic.

BTW, that's some real baked oil you got there..

[komete]

That's your fuel rail.. let it be.

The aiv should be behind the distributor from that pic.

BTW, that's some real baked oil you got there..

It is about 1000mi over due for an oil change.. The last time I had it done was at jiffy lube and I don't think they filled it up all the way. A few weeks later I checked it and it was low so I added one quart and it has held it's oil so I know it's not leaking. I added a can of sea foam to it and I'm hoping that is mostly the crap it's disolved but I doubt it. oil change is next thing after I get this stallign problem fixed. She's not being drivin right now.

Is this picture teh AIV?

[nismo521]

That's your MAF, definitely don't screw w/ that. S14's (95 and up) didn't have an AIV, so that's not your problem

[GrilledCheese33]

that's one nasty engine.

[Graphfixz]

out of curiosity how would you clean it?

[lofapoo]

1000 miles over due? Man, don't wait any longer. Change it now, and don't have no stinkin' shop do it. If you don't know how, read up on it, or call a buddy over. Trust me, your car will love you if you change the oil. You will feel it run smoother.

[Chingon]

Really? I do oil changes all the time, and never feel a car run smoother.. 1000 miles overdue is not too much, but I'd definitely change it the 1st time you can. Maybe a synthetic w/a good detergent package.

[Luke]

Whoa!! change your oil NOW. If you added Seafoam, that thins your oil to nothing. People add it to their engine oil for cleaning purposes but you should NOT drive it more than a mile or two like that. No wonder that oil looks like crap.

Has your oil light come on at all yet? (Low oil pressure)

Also, since you sound a little new at this, i want to offer another bit of important advice. When you put the bolts back in for the valve cover, there is a certain sequence you need to tighten them in. Also, do NOT tighten the bolts more than hand tight (only 5-10 ft/lbs of torque needed!) If you tighten too much, they will strip and you will have bigger problems. You'll have to end up retapping the holes!

It is ok to reuse the rubber valve cover gasket as long as it isn't dry-rotted and cracking.
Modified by Luke at 4:05 PM 6/2/2005

[KADreams]

Check out this site for a solution to your oil sludge problem. http://www.rms13.com/

It is kind of expensive, but it works. I have used it on a friend's badly sludged Camry, and it did a better job than I exspected at cleaning it up.

[KADreams]

Could you post some close up pics of your cams? Is that rust on the intake cam? The lobes also look to have some abnormal wear.

[Graphfixz]

Check out this site for a solution to your oil sludge problem. http://www.rms13.com/

It is kind of expensive, but it works. I have used it on a friend's badly sludged Camry, and it did a better job than I exspected at cleaning it up.

are you serious? This thing actually works?

[KADreams]

Don't exspect it to work miracles on a dying engine, but it does do a good job of desludging.

[komete]

No worries the car is Not being drivin. as soon as I can fix the stalling oil change is first thing.

I was so hoping it was the AIV and I'm soo disapointed to know it doesn't have one. I usually do change my oil but the nappa store stop carrying royal purple.

So far I've done:1) cleaned the throttle body2) new plugs and sparkplugs.3)seafoamed my gas.4)sea foamed my engine oil5)changed my gas filter6)changed my air filter7)changed my o2 sensor.8) Seafoamed my brake booster line9) reset my ecu.

I took it to the dealership and they said my car came back with an o2 error and knock sensor. The mechanic said changing my o2 sensor should fix it.

What I don't understand is why the car starts up fine but it messes up once it's warmed up or I goes pass 2000rpms. Black smoke comes out so I know it's getting gas. I'm going to take off my distributer today and have a look at it. ANy suggestions would be appriciated.

I'll try and post a closeup picture of the engine.

Right now I don't have the money to try that system but I could see myself trying it ina few months.

[ILikeMy240sx]

if you wanna see what the internals should look like click on the timing chain guides picture in my sig... lol big big difference

[komete]

After going to that link above I'm deff going to use that system. I know it's bad it scared the crap out of me when I took off the valve cover.

Here's a picture of my distributer I'm thinking this is looking like a deff change.. does it look like it's in bad shape?

[KADreams]

That is not the distributor in your pic, just the distributor cap and rotor. They are standard tune-up replacement items so it would be a good idea to replace them.Do not remove the actual distributor unless you have a timing light.

[komete]

DO they look liek they are in need of replaceing?

[KADreams]

The rotor yes, the cap no.

[komete]

ok going to get one right now. I was a little worried those four worn marks on the caps half circles where bad.

[komete]

Heres a bigger pic of those cams.. I put a plastic bag over it and left it out for one night.. I think that's where the rust came from... I used some seafoam to clean it off.

[KADreams]

Those marks on the distributor cap are normal. Have you considered the coolant temperature sensor being the cause of your stalling problems? Once you have it running again, wiggle the wire harness around the intake manifold and see if it stalls.

[KADreams]

I keep looking at the pic of your cylinder head and it almost looks like sludge formed from long term water contamination. Have you done a compression test lately? Maybe you have a soft leak in the headgasket. Not trying to scare you, just throwing some possibilities out there.

[komete]

no I havn't ever done a compression test. It'll be about 2 weeks before I can afford to do one. I just put on a new dist roter and nothing. same stuff. I don't know what happens past 2k rpm's to make it wanna stall. Funny thing is at about 4000 rpms and above it doesn't want to stall.

When I took the manafold off it was deff under pressure.. There was a noise like an air tight seal being opened.

I have an adobe copy of the service manual I'll try and look up the temp thing like you suggested and give it a wiggle tomorrow..

I've had this car since 96 and 13k miles. They day this started I told myself I would never sell this car. I can't remeber the last time i've been so sad..

[KADreams]

With your engine cool remove your radiator cap. Does it shoot coolant out and have a huge release of pressure? If it does this is an indicator of combustion pressure leaking into the cooling system.

[komete]

well at least that is one good thing no presure when I removethe cap.

[KADreams]

Okay, I wouldn't worry about a compression test then.