# Woah is me



## Guest (Dec 10, 2002)

Man.. I am having NO luck with my Sentra. So I want to tell my long story.  Grab a beer, sit back and read.. 
Ok.. Couple months ago, a co-worker offers me his '85 B11 for $300. Says it just needs a new headgasket. I figure, what the heck. So I bought it. I go to do a compression check on it and pull the plugs. They are utterly demolished. I have never ever in my life seen spark plugs so utterly destroyed. Needless to say the engine didn't have any compression on 2 cylinders, and very little on the other two. I expected to find holes through the pistons. So I yank the head, and find that the pistons look relatively good, couple minor nicks in the tops, but nothing major, the cylinder walls are just fine. But the head was destroyed, it had a huge canal between two of the cylinders running right up to a water passage. 
So I'm like great, just bought myself a beat up looking non running car. I bluebook it and it's worth like $200 if it's running. Joyous, so just for the heck of it I start digging around on ebay to see if maybe I could find a new engine or at least a new head for it. What I end up finding is an '87 B12 about 60 miles from my house, for $50. It had been run without oil and the engine was seized. I couldn't pass that up, I could yank the head and put it on my '85 block, and toss the '85 block into the '87 (which has a nearly mint condition body) and be on my way. So I won the auction, towed it home and started my swap. First thing I found was that the head on the '87 needed to be rebuilt, the valves were caked with carbon and after cleaning it for hours, they just wouldn't seat completely. $200 later I had a rebuilt head from the local machine shop.
So off I go, and re-assemble the engine. Oh, and while I'm installing the new block, I notice that one of the CV boots is torn and has sprayed out it's grease. That'll probably need to be replaced right away. Anyways... So I've got the car all put back together and I'm ready to fire it off. Crank crank crank crank.... Needless to say, it didn't start. 10 headscratching hours later, I decide the computer is toast, and get myself a real distributor. Oh, and in the time I was waiting for the new distributor, I do a compression check.. 
165lbs, 160lbs, 150lbs, 60lbs... Err.. Repeat... DAMNIT! So the idiot that ran the car without water and a head gasket apears to have destroyed the rings on one of the cylinders. Man I wish I could have known that sooner, I would have fixed that while the head was being rebuilt and the engine was out of the car!
So anyways, the new distributor arrived, popped it in, turned on the ignition, pumped the gas, crank.... REV! Purrs like a fork lift.. Turns out the muffler isn't connected, so I just have a catalytic converter muffling the engine. Grrr.. So the engine is running, granted the valve cover is blowing smoke like mad because of the blow by, but the engine is running surprisingly well considering. It doesn't sound like it's missing on any cylinder. So I open up the garage doors and take it for a quick spin around the block. I still hadn't even put the hood on at that point so I had a birds eye view of the smoke pouring out of the engine and such. So off I go, and as I round the corner I notice I can only get to 1st, 3rd, and 5th, so I figure I just need to adjust a linkage or something so I skip from 1st to 3rd, little bit of lugging but not too bad. So as I take off from the stop sign at the end of the block, I notice the engine is really rockin around up there. So I get the car back to the garage and park it for the weekend. Sunday night I figure I'll put the crossbrace under the car, figuring that was why the engine was rocking so bad. Got that bolted up and tried out my shifter to see if that helped at all. No, and I notice now that pulling on my shifter causes the engine to rock back and forth. So I go to investigate.. One of the bolts in the rear motor mount, that goes into the transmission... Well, actually, one of the bosses in the transmission that that bolt goes into, has SNAPPED OFF! At this point I start throwing tools and cussing the car out. I managed to resist the urge to make the car's body look as bad as the car's mechanical state seems to be. 
So after calming down, and sleeping on it, I have come to the conclusion that I will not let this car beat me. I will win. I have that spare transmission from the '85. I just have to pull the engine and tranny back out. While it's out, I can replace that axle with the bad CV joint. While I have the engine out I will pull that bad piston and put new rings on it. Then I will re-assemble it, and it WILL RUN PROPERLY! Then of course there's the exhaust system that I have to have repaired. 
Granted, I will be out about $1,000 by the time this is all said and done. At least I'll have killed my whale.


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## tsi200sx (Nov 8, 2002)

Persistence is one of the most admirable of personality traits. Nothing like a man on a mission, good luck with it. You have an '80 210? Does it run? I love those old Datsuns, I plan on having a collection someday.


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## Guest (Dec 10, 2002)

Yeah, the good old 210 is what gets me to and from work everyday. I beat the hell outta it and it just keeps on purring. It's an amazing car.


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## Crazy-Mart (Jul 14, 2002)

unaclocker  i know EXACTLY how you feel.... ive been exactly throu those same exact step !! ... the 3 bolts on the tranny (well i must say i forgot 1 of them) did crack the housing of the tranny... because of a bad rear engine bracket !!... ps i still got that shit in here somewhere !!... ill take a pix just for you to see my mistake... it had costed me a tranny... and since i was swapping from automatic... i had no spare... so it went out of my pocket and i founded a 93 classic with a good (not that good engine) that blowby liek yours... and installed it ... so the pain is gone now (almost cuz of the engine blowby)  keep up the good work !!... it sure will be paying back later !!


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## LittlebittaContact (Oct 12, 2002)

well i hate it for you, i have a similar story mabye one day ill feel like typing it up...


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## RiceBox (Apr 30, 2002)

hehehe....any trouble my car has givin me is NOTHING compaired to that. I've only done axles (twice), brake caliper, and fixed all the damage I caused to the rear wheel in my accident. I finally got the bearings replaced so the annoying hum is gone.


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## blownb310 (Jun 10, 2002)

> _I will win. I have that spare transmission from the '85. I just have to pull the engine and tranny back out. [/B]_


_ *****Unaclocker, I was interested to read the story, thanks for taking the time to type it up. Sorry to hear about your tribulations. I'm also sorry to tell you that the B11 trans [RS5F30A] isn't an exact bolt-in for the B12's [RS5F31A]. The side cover is a bit different, so the front bracket [for the side trans mount] will not bolt up right. It is close enough where you might be able to finagle something. 
I think the fact that one of the three mounting bosses [on your original trans] snapped off might be due to either not having all three bolts in place [loose and flexing], or perhaps you mixed up the bolts and put one in that was too long, therefore popping the aluminum boss off. Been there. Luckily, I have found that if the other two are still good, and they are tight, it will hold.
BTW, I have owned plenty of "used and abused" B12's, and I almost always, end up rebuilding the E16 in it. I have learned that a high mileage E16 always has a ton of piston skirt wear, from the small bore-long stroke design. You look at the pistons skirts, and the thrust side is all vertlcle scratches. I have also found, that after honing the cylinders, and re-ringing them with the same used pistons, they frequently have a cold pistom slap noise, until they warm up. This is due to excessive piston to wall clearance from the skirt wear. They always use oil in that condition. I built one a couple weeks ago, and for a change, put 4 new Nissan pistons in it. Yes, it's a pain the neck to press the pins on and off the rods, but the result is a quiet, non oil burning E16. Definately the way to go. I just ordered four more pistons and a set of rings for the replacement E16 I am building for my Brother's B12 wagon [that his wife blew up last week]. _


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## sentrastud (May 3, 2002)

wow, its good to be determined! Good luck with the car man! 

-Nick


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## RiceBox (Apr 30, 2002)

*Re: Re: Woah is me*



blownb310 said:


> *I just ordered four more pistons and a set of rings for the replacement E16 I am building for my Brother's B12 wagon [that his wife blew up last week].  *



We need the story to go with that!!


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## Crazy-Mart (Jul 14, 2002)

hey blown ... ok my car blowsby i know this engine had the headgasket failure and probably water went rusting the rings... so now it idles crappy a bit (not that bad) but burns oil like a pack of smoke !... im gonna redo the piston assy next summer... so the best thing would be :
new piston/pin
new rod (in the mean time)
new rings
plus the honning... 

it should do it ?


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## blownb310 (Jun 10, 2002)

*Re: Re: Re: Woah is me*



RiceBox said:


> *We need the story to go with that!! *


 ***** OK, here goes. Like I said, my brother's wife was tooling down the freeway in her '87 B12 wagon, and she said it "got rough" and then went boom, and it was all over. I towed it 200 miles to my house and took it apart. Cyl. #3 rod is hanging out the side of the block. The rod journal is blue in color. Lost oil pressure. I have never seen this before, but I traced it to a broken Jackshaft. That's the shaft in the block that is driven off of the timing belt, and turns the oil, and in this case [E16S] the fuel pump too. It snapped right behind the pulley. So the pump stopped, and then she threw the rods out!  Like I said in an earlier post, putting new pistons in, is the only way to have a quiet engine on a cold start. I used to be cheap, and scothbrite the carbon off of the pistons, and put them back in, but there is usually so much wear and clearance on the skirts, they clatter, and the car sounds like a junker when cold. I won't waste my time putting worn out junk together any more. 
Another lesson that was hard learned. Too many times, when I bought a $200 B12 with a blown head gasket, I replaced the gasket, or head, [or both], and had it run fine when done, but too many times, the thing pumped blue smoke from the tailpipe at idle. I always had to pull it back down, and put rings in it. Usually, it was because of the previous owner not changing the oil enough, and the oil rings were stuck tight to the piston grooves, disabling them from doing their job. 
That's why Unaclockers post hit home with me.The moral of the story: If you buy someone's improperly maintained and/or abused B11/B12 and it needs engine work, expect the worst!


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## blownb310 (Jun 10, 2002)

Crazy-Mart said:


> *hey blown ... ok my car has blowby. I know this engine had a headgasket failure and probably allowed water into the cylinders, to rust the rings a bit... so now it idles a little crappy (not that badly), but burns oil like a pack of smoke !... Im gonna redo the piston assy next summer... so the best thing would be :
> new piston/pin
> new rod (in the mean time)
> new rings
> ...


 Hello Crazy!  Great to hear from you. Yes, that will straighten it out alright, but you don't need new rods, just rod bearings. Hey, I used spell check to clean up your quote. See how nice it looks now!!


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## boost_boy (May 25, 2002)

> that his wife blew up last week


 What's up with wives blowing up and breaking cars? My girl calls me and says she can't get my SHO into gear. Turns out the automatic shifter cable's plastic retainer popped and the nightmare began. It took me 5 hours to change a freakin' cable (Ford Sucks) and that's about how long it takes me to remove and install a engine off my Elantra. We all got dramas! It's just some are more dramatic than others.


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## Guest (Dec 12, 2002)

Ok guys, looks like my big thread here has been hopping while I was working on the car today. Let's take this from the top..
This morning, I got up, checked my email, found the post from blown with all the bad news. So I went to work thinking hard about what I was going to do to solve my new problems. Well, I got the axles out, and pulled that rear motor mount off to take a look at it. Looks like I had the top front small bolt in it, and then the one other bolt that broke the mounting boss. I didn't even know about the bolt above the CV joint, so I hadn't put that in, and the other one, I couldn't get the threads to line up, so I hadn't put it in. (Dumbass me...) (Did I mention I took a sawzall to that metal plate that goes between the engine and tranny to get the old engine out without removing the axle? ;> hahaha)Anyways, last time when I put that mount on, it was still bolted to the body, which was the problem that held me from being able to get those bolts to align. So this time I removed it from the car, bolted it to the engine. Oh, and it turns out, I only snapped off the first 1/2" or so of that boss on the tranny, and the threads go back another inch or more, so I have ALL of the bolts in now. Bolted it all back onto the car, got the crossmember back under the engine/tranny. Hopped in the car, go figure, the shifter functions properly! So needless to say, I solved that big problem. WooHoo.. Anyways, I live about 15 miles away from where I work (been working on this car there during lunch and after hours), so I decided to take my chances and drive it home (take my chances because I live a block from a state forest, which I have to drive through to get to my house). One of my biggest worries was that draincock in the radiator, it seems to be holding, so far. The dealer had to order my new draincock, so I won't have it till the middle of next week. Anyways, my drive home has quite a few twists, turns and hills, so I got to explore all of the gears and do alot of accellerating and decelerating. The mounts are holding the engine just fine, and although I never stepped down on the peddle far enough to open the secondaries, the engine seems to have plenty of pep. I may re-run my compression check when I change the oil at the 300 mile mark. My fuel gauge seems quarky. I will have to fill the tank again when I take it back into town to make sure though. Also, does my temp gauge run off the computer? I'm not getting any temp readings. I may just have the wrong wire hooked to the sender. I'll have to check the wiring diagrams. 
So just to recap. I got the motor mount fixed, and drove the car home. I ignored the bad rings, bad muffler, and the bad axle (actually, it isn't popping yet, so it's not in imminant danger).


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## sentrastud (May 3, 2002)

boost_boy said:


> * It took me 5 hours to change a freakin' cable (Ford Sucks) *


you should see chyrsler, it took me easily that long to change a f**king headlight on a Grand Voyager 3.3 V6. The engine is too big for the van so they used every inch for hoses and stuff. To access the headlight, you have to take apart half the engine! The year after ours they stopped welding the headlight housing to the engine bay so that you could change lights in 5 mins.  

UnaClocker-> "bad muffler, and the bad axle (actually, it isn't popping yet, so it's not in imminant danger)." haha, sounds like my car, the trashed muffler and the pooping axels. gotta love it eh? good luck with your car! 

-Nick


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## Crazy-Mart (Jul 14, 2002)

unaclocker : make sure to put all 4 bolts !!!!!!!.... i wont be saying it enough !!... put ALL 4 BOLTS !!!!.... those bolts, without the direct contact between the tranny and suports, they will eventualy broke !!!.... i know for sure i broke 3 of those before changing the tranny !!... put a spacer there in alu and get it welded to the tranny !!!!!!!!!!!!!.... its your best bang for the buck youll ever get ... i paid 80$ to get the bolt out when it broke... anyway !!... get yourself a spacer and that 4th bolt in there !!


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## Crazy-Mart (Jul 14, 2002)

blown!  im not that bad for a french speaking guy who learned english from STNG  im better talker than writer thats for sure


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## Guest (Dec 12, 2002)

Like I said, the 4th bolt IS back in the tranny, I only snapped off the first 1/2" or so off the boss, there were still a good 1" of threads left in the hole. I did use several washers to fill the gap. Seems to be holding well. I also made sure all the other bolts were the longest ones I could possibly fit into their holes. I'm not too worried about that mount breaking again. I was more concerned about that draincock popping out under pressure and me suddenly overheating in the middle of nowhere. But I stopped several times and checked it, the radiator was pressurizing without any signs of popping. I definately want to get the temp gauge working though.


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## blownb310 (Jun 10, 2002)

Crazy-Mart said:


> *blown!  im not that bad for a french speaking guy who learned english from STNG  im better talker than writer thats for sure  *


 ***** Just having a little fun, CrazyMart!  I can't speak French at all, so being bilingual, you are smarter than me!


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## Guest (Dec 13, 2002)

Ok, so I drove the car back to work today. All was well. And I noted that I do have a bit of a temp gauge, it just doesn't move more than a quarter inch. I'll have to check out the sender unit sometime to see if that's the problem. Anyways, I was driving home and got a block down the road when I had a miss, and the engine started running rough. So I turned right back around and went back to the shop, did a compression check on it. All good, in fact, that one bad cylinder is up to 125lbs now. Nice. I did notice that all of my plugs are very carbon fouled. I don't think I'm going to get away with running that stock carb for long, it's just too rich without the computer. I'm not sure what's causing the missing, it may be the carbon fouling. I have a suspicion it's a clogged cat. I can't get the engine over 4grand without REALLY trying to. (I hooked up a tach today, and no, that's not why it's missing, already made sure.
Oh, and I also swapped plug wires, because the crap ass blue ones I had on there broke when I went to do the compression check. That's the 3rd set of blue plug wires that has done that to me, beware blue plug wires.
So I may take a sawzall and hack off the cat tomorrow, and try to clamp on a glasspack in it's place.


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## Guest (Dec 14, 2002)

I am really beginning to loathe this car. It's becoming the bane of my existance. So today I go to drive it in to work, figure I'll yank the cat and put something that's not clogged in it's place. Well my battery is dead, for no reason, just totally drained. So I jump start it off old reliable, which is real fun when the car getting the jump won't idle. I ended up giving the battery a surface charge, and then roll starting down the driveway. Well last night when I drove the car home, I noticed my alternator was not working all that well. Well today the alternator worked for about 1 mile out of my 15 mile commute, and that was in the middle of the commute. So I had fun trying to see out the windshield in the pouring rain. Anyways, that's an easy enough fix, I have a spare alternator. But when I got to work, the front of the block was dripping oil. WTF? I checked the oil before I left my house, it was exactly where it has been since I got the car running, right in the middle between the full and empty lines. So I check it again now that I'm at work, and it's not even showing up on the stick. I think I have found the mysterious catastropic oil loss problem. But this makes no sense. My radiator hose was fully pressurized, so the head gasket isn't leaking 15psi of coolant. I re-ran my compression check again, all 4 are good, holding 150 on all but one which is close at 125. So why in the HELL is the head gasket leaking oil? What's the oil presurize to, 10lbs, if that... I know it's not the valve cover gasket, or the seal on the cam, the head is still spotless from it's rebuild. Is the block cracked or something? The entire front of the block is soaked in oil, and it does seem to be coming from the head gasket. Ya know, I cleaned the head and the surface of the block with rubbing alcohol just before I put the head gasket and head on. I also smoothed up the top of the block with a sanding block and fine grit sandpaper. (before cleaning it with the alcohol), I also blew out the head gasket threads with compressed air so no oil or water would come squirting out of them when I put the bolts in (that's happend to me in the past). I even went so far as to torque the head bolts an extra 20lbs or so, just to be DAMNED sure it wouldn't blow. Why does this car keep breaking on me?!?!?!
Oh, and the farkin cat wasn't clogged, I can see right through it perfectly, but I did break a bolt when removing it, so I can't re-install the damn thing.
Woah is me.  (it was my birthday today, this car is the bain of my existance)


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## boost_boy (May 25, 2002)

UnaClocker,

You seem like a really die-hard tinkerer that's not afraid of a challenge nor of defeat. I'm not saying you've been defeated, but merely that the car just doesn't want to do right. I would love to see you exert some of that energy on building you a nice B12 with maybe a CA18DE/DET or an SR20DE/DET or maybe even an E15T. Waaay too much time and good efforts exhausted to be spinning around in a circle on a vehicle that I stilll think you paid too much for. Your friend made a killing when he sold you that vehicle and now that posessed car is killing you. You deserve better. Build you something that you can look at and say "It was well and worth it". Talent and determination as well as time like you are hard to come by and I just hate to see it all wasted on a has been bucket that's was someone else's woahs and now have become your burden as well.

Dee


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## blownb310 (Jun 10, 2002)

Unaclocker, I feel your pain. Lets break some of this down, one by one. You have profuse oil leaks. A lot of times, this can be traced to excessive crankcase pressure. Another symptom is oil in the air cleaner assy. I have a possible explanation for this. E16's are also known to have another maintanance issue, that hasn't been discussed here before. They are known for having the rubber PCV hose soften and collapse. It is behind the carburetor [or tbi], and is a formed hose. I always have a few on hand, for this problem. Alot of Nissan dealer parts personel are so new, they weren't around when B11's were in the dealers frequently. They don't even know about these hoses, and tell you they can't get them anymore. A good parts man knows what you need, and will find them for you. Regardless, a "cheapskate" could take some small hose clamps, and put them over the kinked section of this PCV hose to straighten it out, and re-open the path for crankcase gasses to flow to the PCV vavle. 
Other possibilities: above the front crank seal. and below the cam seal, is the jackshaft seal. Have you replaced that one? I always replace all three front seals. When you go to pry them out, be VERY careful not to gouge the aluminum seal holder, or scratch the cam/jack journal itself. Otherwise your new seal will leak anyway. Remember to always polish the sealing surfaces with Scotch-brite before tapping in the new seal. Be careful of Napa cam seals, they are of inferior quality, as they are a single lip design, not nearly as good as the Nissan double lip design. These motors take a little finesse to service right. Like anything else, when you screw a few up, you learn the right way to do it. There is no catasrtophic oil loss problem with the E16. There are oil loss problems with tired mistreated fixer-uppers, but they all can be explained and repaired correctly. I hope this helped.


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## blownb310 (Jun 10, 2002)

*Re: Re: Woah is me*



blownb310 said:


> [BI just ordered four more pistons and a set of rings for the replacement E16 I am building for my Brother's B12 wagon [that his wife blew up last week].  [/B]


 ***** I just got the engine back together for my brother's '87 B12 wagon. As always, there were a few surprises along the way. Unaclocker will appreciate these. I filled the radiator, only to have it run out onto my shoes.  Turns out, when the rods exited the side of the block, pieces went through the radiator too! I'll bet she had her foot planted right in this thing till the end!  
Secondly, I had to replace the automatic flexplate [flywheel] too. From trying to crank the seized engine, she ground all of the teeth off of the flexplate in one spot. It's a good thing I have a good inventory of B12 parts.


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## Guest (Dec 21, 2002)

So I got my next paycheck today.  Time to dump more money into my pit.  So I called around and around, finally found a decently priced (read: cheapest in the state) alternator for my Sentra. The car is an '87, but I kept the '85 alternator when I swapped engines. Turns out that was a good idea because the later alternator is even more expensive. I got my draincock from the dealer, I haven't installed it yet, the cracked one is holding pressure, so I don't feel like messing with it yet. Tomorrow I'm going to try to get the exhaust system fixed, if I can find a muffler shop that can squeeze me in. While the car was down, I had a friend weld that air injection hole in the catalytic converter shut. (did I mention I pulled the cat off, and it's not clogged?) Then I'm going to run to the junkyard and pick up a new window regulator and drivers door panel. That should about finish off this paycheck. Next payday I expect to order my new engine. Then I can move on to fixing the axle, and starting to enjoy this thing.


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## cactusfarmer (Nov 8, 2003)

UnaClocker said:


> Granted, I will be out about $1,000 by the time this is all said and done. At least I'll have killed my whale.


Your story reminds me of a line from a song I heard one day on Click and Clack's car show. It went something like, "I bought a thousand dollar used car and had to spend another thousand dollars fixing it, now I have a two thousand dollar, thousand dollar car."

Good luck!


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