engine, box etc

[mikeyp]

i'v got a light tapping sound coming from my engine that i've done another topic about, highly suspect that the bottom end sounds like it's just started going but the top end has started to tap at exactly the same time.
turns out there is a dent in the sump that could be causing oil pickup problems.

the rear oil seal on the transfer box has also gone so it's spraying oil out of where the prop joins on.
so with this in mind i'm taking the engine and box out this week to fix it all before it does more harm, however i have a few questions.

1. looking at the workshop manual i see there is an o-ring, is this the source of the oil leak?

or is it more likely that the 'drive pinion' internal seals are leaking?
looking at taking the drive pinion apart looks quite advanced as there are a number of non-reuseable parts in there and i'm not sure if it's a good idea to take it apart.
seeing as another transfer box is only £40 would it be best to get another one rather than try to fix mine?


2. if my crank is damaged or worn i intend to have it ground and polished by a precision engineers workshop not far from me. they normally build aircraft engines so i trust their work. however i have read quite a lot about the debate on grinding or not grinding. what is the bottom line?
can i get my crank ground and refaced and trust it to work again?


3. are there any bits that i can leave off or remove while the engine etc it out, mainly for weight saving or just tidying up the engine bay a bit?
i know about the 'Y' bracket, but i also still have a top mount intercooler.


4. shims. i've been trying to find out where to get them or how to repair them and asked at the engineering workshop the other day. they said that they could weld the underside of the bucket and machine it back to the size needed.

i learnt about the feeler gauge method and how to do it properly but it does feel like a disaster waiting to happen. is it really worth cheaping out on the shims or should i get them redone by the engineering people?

5. anything i've overlooked that is going to catch me out?

thanks people

 

[PobodY]

Without any real knowledge...

1) Sure, why not. It seems pretty likely to me that the only O-ring in that picture is likely to be the thing that has failed. - What combination of luck and mechanical aptitude do you have? I think I'd be tempted to swap it, but then I'd have a go at rebuilding the one I'd taken out; if nothing else you can learn something new, and you might be able to on-sell it for the cost of the parts you've put into it.

2) As I understand it; if you take the nitride coating off the crank by grinding it too much, it's toast. Reading between the lines; if you re-nitrided it, you'd probably be OK to keep using it (with new shells to match). That might simply be not economically viable, I don't know.

3) There are a few of them; I'll have a look for the group N manual and post the link. That has all the bits that Nissan say you do/don't need for rallying.

4) If you've got the money to burn, get them done by your engineering firm. However, the feeler gauge fix works and there are plenty of cars on the road with home-made shims. As long as they're the right size (both in shape and clearance) they can't go anywhere. - That's all a shim is after all.

5) There's always something else. ;-)

 

[mikeyp]

hmm. finding it very hard to get a price quote for nitriding a crank. anyone had it done?
there must be someone running a ground crank nitrided or otherwise?

 

[red reading]

Before you go getting prices take the engine apart as normally if you catch it in time you can either just fit new bearings and oil pump and if needed have the crank journals polished, and as for the transfer box the diag you have above is not for the gtir (looks like a xtrail one) just get a good second hand one as they are a wanker to rebuild and reshim.

 

[mikeyp]

fingers crossed the crank isn't goosed then :lol:

yeah i have a feeling that i copied the wrong diagram from the manual, i think that is one of the other 4wd variants of the n14 or b13. oops.
i'll just get a working second hand transfer box then. best give boby a call.

 

[mikeyp]

no point in starting another topic..

i'm a fair way though getting the engine out but i've got stuck on one small part. i chose to undo the ecu plug and pull the loom through the firewall. there is a small set of wires that are joined to the ecu loom just on the engine side of the firewall, they go round behind the abs pump and to a plug that is under the air filter.

this is where i am stuck. i've undone the little clips that hold these wires to the chssis and undone the plug of course, the wires seem free from either side of the abs pump but i can't feed them through, they just wont budge.
i've taken off 2 of the bolts that hold the abs mount to the chassis leg but that didn't gain me anything, there must be another bolt under the pump. i really don't want to undo all the loom plugs and lable everything if possible, there has to be a way of freeing this little run of wires.

any ideas people?

i'd quite like to remove the abs anyway but i handn't planned on doing it with the einge in, is this my only choice if i want to take the ecu plug though the firewall?

other than that i'm finding taking the engine out quite simple so far.

 

[PobodY]

You shouldn't need to pull the loom out! It just disconnects from the engine in a couple of places; it was s rally car after all.
Leave the ECU etc where it is, and just undo the connection above the fanbelt.

 

[mikeyp]

is it just those 4 plugs over by the PS tank then? i was reading a guide that said there were others.
then i found a guide that said it was easier to take the ecu plug out.. he must not have had abs.

still, i got the abs out which is one task done. not too hard once i worked out the 3rd bolt was in the wheel arch. lost my bloody locking wheel nut key though, dropped it down the drain! had to abuse an old imperial socket to get the locking nut off. gotta get a new set of nuts now.

i've learnt quite a lot about the car already, i'm sure there are more things to learn as this little rebuild goes on.

 

[jambo_gtir]

My big end went and I kept driving it for quite a while.... the crank was fine once i got it checked, so you might be ok.

 

[pulsarboby]

You shouldn't need to pull the loom out! It just disconnects from the engine in a couple of places; it was s rally car after all.
Leave the ECU etc where it is, and just undo the connection above the fanbelt.

as above....leave the ecu harness in situ.
the one george is talking about is not the ecu harness its the rear sensor harness.
the ecu harness is on the other side and does batt connections, reverse light, coil, dizzy, ign amp module, injector resistor pack etc.
its simple to remove and you wont have to label anything as other than the reverse light plug and dizzy (i think) the plugs can only fit back in one place as they are all different shapes so childs play really

 

[mikeyp]

cheers guys, i did leave the ecu plug were it was in the end and undid the rest of the plugs. i got a pen a marked each plug with a number and also numbered the connector it fits to. that way even my tiny brain can't bugger it up.

got stuck on the exhaust to decat bolts. just 2 bolts and i can't get the first one to even start. they look a little rusty but not too bad. sprayed them with loads of wd40 and left em to soak overnight now. part of the problem is height, i can't get enough room to get bigger tools in there cos my jack is leaking so i can't get the front more than about a foot/18inches off the ground. tried to bleed it and that just make it worse.
the ring spanner has moved on the nut too so i'm going to pull that off and use a 6 sided one. some fool has put the nuts on the same side as the decat box so i can't get a socket in there.

oh and my mate borrowed my sump plug bits so i've not drained the boxes yet.. good job i'm off all week.
these things are sent to test us i spose. i think i'm going to get some new exhaust bolts so they are not a mare next time (i hope there isn't a next time).
the bolts for the turbo elbow to downpipe were fine even though they looked rusty.

so 2 exhaust bolts, drop tf and box oil and remove driveshafts then it can come out. this is taking so much longer than i had hoped.

 

[mikeyp]

wow what a day!

i got the exhaust bolts off by using my foot on the spanner and jamming another aginst the underside of the car. a little block of wood between the exhaust and the edge of the tunnel stoped any flex and they came out just fine. the bolts were too long to put back in the other way round so that's why they had the nuts on the decat box side. got some new shorter bolts with nuts today.

dropped the transfer box oil as it's 1/2" so that was simple enough. the gearbox seems to be 10mm and i've still not got my plug tools back yet so this is holding me up. just the gearbox oil and drive shafts to go and it's all out at last!

my jack is being a pain in the arse, it won't reach the same height i got it to when i put the axle stands in. as they are under the removable bar at the front of the engine bay i think i need to move them. going to have to get some wood or something to use as a chock. that or i'll leave it till i borrow the engine crane and lift the whole car with that.

everything that could be difficult, was difficult today. i wish i had a lift and a bit more space! still, nearly there.
borrowing an engine crane from a mate and an engine stand from another mate so i'm going to have a fun weekend tinkering. looks like i'll be mainly waiting for parts all next week and it's back to work so progress could be slow. (like it hasn't been already!)

 

[mikeyp]

well i'm stuck again guys.. this time on the most simple of things, the gearbox drain plug.

i was waiting to drain the fluid as i had lent my drain plug tools to a mate so taking the driveshafts out was my last job. well they are fully undone and only held in by the gearbox now owing to the fact that i can't get the right size tool to undo the drain plug.

8mm is way too small, 3/8 is too small and i slipped trying it. 11mm is too big and the only 10mm plug removers i have in 2 kits are hex ones and not square.

i'm still waiting for a mate to lend me an engine crane that i was meant to get today but that's not happened again, so it's not a mega rush yet but how can i get this plug out? do 10mm square drain plug tools exist? my local factors didn't have one.

cheers

 

[grim_d]

You should be able to use a 1/2" drive ratchet on it in a pinch but you say that 11mm is too small so can only assume that it's a different plug? Either that or mine was different.

Perhaps it's all chewed up from people using 1/2" ratchets on it? :-D

You can get square drain plug keys that fit, because I have one, but it's at my unit so I can't measure it, not much use to you I know.

 

[mikeyp]

well i got hold of a 10mm square ended spanner. this turned out to be a very lose fit and not really up to the job. so i made my 11mm square plug fit with a hammer. put the braker bar on it and shocked it with a hammer at the same time as applying force to the bar. all i managed to do was dig a bigger hole in the sump plug. the tool is now jammed in there and the plug didn't move at all.

so after boby gave me a tip i just removed the driveshafts anyway and drained the oil like that. ok i'm not going to get all of it but i should get enough to be able to take the engine out. i'll attack it once it's off the car and get a new plug for it.

the last owner liked to put liquid gasket on everything.

the 1/2" drain plug is the transfer box one, that came out without a fight just using an extention on the breaker bar.
fun and games. still waiting on a bloody engine crane so it's all stop till friday as i'm working away for a couple of days.

 

[Murff93GTiR]

believe it or not mate you can drop the engine out from the bottom get your jack underneath with a good strong bit of wood thats nearly the full width of engine and box to spread the weight the just lower it down depnding on how high the car is will depend on wether u can pull it out or not if not what i did was got a big jack and a couple mates and lifted the front of the car and rolled it back as i dont have an engoine hoist and dont know anyone with one.

 

[mikeyp]

yeah boby said you can do it like that with a second jack behind the engine lifting the chassis. my main problem is that my once very good jack has failed on me and it won't lift the car more than about 12" which isn't really any use to anyone anymore.

i could go and buy a bit of wood and start faffing around but with a shot jack it's all just a bit more effort than it needs to be. my mate is going to lend me his crane tomorrow (i hope) so then i can move the car and the engine with ease. plus i can move the engine onto the stand to make working on it easier.

just a bit anoying as i wanted to have this finished by now and i've still not got the lump out. ho hum.

 

[PobodY]

I tried doing mine like that; with blocks of wood etc. It was fine until it got to the tipping point and rolled on the back wheels.... and fell off the blocks. :doh:

In retrospect I should have chocked the rears slightly better than I did; I think they just got pushed.

If you've got a friend with a crane, you can even lift the car off the engine; that's the way we did mine last time and it seemed to work quite well.

 

[MarkTurbo]

If you've got a friend with a crane, you can even lift the car off the engine; that's the way we did mine last time and it seemed to work quite well.

Like this :lol:

I only lifted the car by the crossmember as it was being scrapped, don't think i'd want to lift it there otherwise!

 

[PobodY]

Exactly like that. The only problem I've noticed is that I think I've bent that bit of trim that does under the headlights in the process.