Blowby-too much smoke!

[madkaw]

Anyone else think the last lobe looks a little weird? Looks like there is a chip out of it and kind blue on the top of the lobe. Maybe nothing and pictures can be decieving

[zmanoside]

Well adjustment is out of the exhaust valve on #6 however with my 17mm wrench I just can't get a good enough bite on it to turn it, too thick of a wrench. I'm beat. Going to get some sleep, regroup and think about what my plan is going to be. I'm tempted just to throw the damn thing back together and bring it to my friend that knows what he's doing and has the right tools. I'm confident he could pull this engine in less than an hour. It would take me all damn day. Good night fellas thanks for your help. I'll keep you updated. And yes, I verified both times I rried to turn using the camshaft bolt the tranny was in neutral 

Edited April 10, 2016 by zmanoside

[rossiz]

2 minutes ago, madkaw said:

Anyone else think the last lobe looks a little weird? Looks like there is a chip out of it and kind blue on the top of the lobe.

i think it's a distorted reflection of the casting mark on the cam tower...

[zmanoside]

All of the lobes look to be pristine to me. Nice and uniform shape and shiny. That is just exactly right, it is a reflection of the circular casting mark right above

[madkaw]

Okay, I think I see that now-sorry for the worries

[zmanoside]

Hey my bad, I didn't see that you had said that it looked like there was a chip in the lobe. I could have told you guys it was a reflection. Just got a text from the previous owner. Chrome rings were used in the build. I had a guy at the auto parts store next to me mention piston soaking. Worth a try? Or a no no.

Edited April 10, 2016 by zmanoside

[Mark Maras]

 What is piston soaking and what is it supposed to fix?

[zmanoside]

6 minutes ago, Mark Maras said:

 What is piston soaking and what is it supposed to fix?

What I've gathered is some stuff called bon ami or magic mystery oil, squirt it down into your cylinder, let it sit overnight and it can help free up a a stuck ring and helps rings seat properly.

[Zed Head]

1 hour ago, zmanoside said:

Well adjustment is out of the exhaust valve on #6 however

You should always give a number where measurements are involved.  "Out" isn't enough.

The locknut can be very difficult to loosen and you can break other things,including your knuckles when it does come  loose.  I use a small sledge hammer to tap on a wrench to break them loose.  The mass does the job without much overshoot.  The cam lobe does look like it has wear on the base circle which would imply the lash is too tight, or non-existent.  That can burn a valve.

If you're set on doing it yourself we can come up with a bunch of tricks.  But if you have a friend with experience, you'll probably learn more and be ahead in the end if you let him do it.  You might just get the valves adjusted then go drive it hard to reset things and break any stuck rings loose.  Inertia, heat and high energy fuel burns at 5500 RPM should loosen anything stuck, on a running engine.  I think those magic oils might have an effect on an old rusty engine that hasn't run for a while but you're way past that.

Could be the engine's hard to turn because it's not fully broken in yet.

[rossiz]

marvel mystery oil.

not sure why you'd have a stuck ring on a motor this clean/new. usually rings stick from carbon or glazing/varnish. the best possible scenario would be the ring gaps lined up, which still requires pulling the piston (see my previous post). some tools you will need and want to have for this work and in general for L6 maintenance:

• crowsfoot spanner for valve lash adjust (cheap)
• feeler gauge for lash adjust (cheap)
• plastic slip-in tool to keep cam chain tensioner from popping when you remove the head (cheap)
• ring compressor (cheap)
• torque wrench (spend $$ here and get a really good one, it's an invaluable tool for all mechanics - get the kind that "click" vs. the ones that "flex")
• jack stands (always on a good concrete surface!!) so you can get underneath and pull the oil pan. don't risk your life w/cinder blocks or wood...
• "how to rebuild your nissan & datson OHC engine" by tom monroe - get it, read it and be liberated to do anything you need on this simple motor

parts you'll need to do the work:

• head gasket (get a good one - lots of info here on this site)
• pan gasket
• ring set (maybe...)

this can be a fun adventure in learning quite a bit about your engine and nothing involved is beyond the home mechanic if you get the tools and read the book.

[Zed Head]

A follow-up thought - #6 is typically the detonation cylinder.  Where head gaskets blow and rings break.  Mis-set timing, low octane fuel, overheating; could be the cause of the problem.  Doesn't help fix it but might help focus.  Unless oil splashed up on to the valve seats, which seems unlikely at low cranking RPM, the oil in the cylinder raising pressure still points to rings.

If it were my problem, I'd use a borescope to check for cylinder damage first.  If there is none, and it runs well, and you get lash set right, take it out for an "Italian tune-up".  Nothing to lose.  Sometimes people baby their new motors when they should be using them to break them in right.

[zmanoside]

Good morning! Well, exhaust valve lash was tight. I could not get the .008 feeler in there at all. I didn't try anything smaller. Tonight I'm going to try and do my first valve adjustment, put everything back together and drive it. See how she runs for a little bit and then do another compression check after I drive it real good as zed head suggested. I bought what I needed to build a crankcase evacuation system that will route the extra blowby out of the exhaust. I'm thinking/hoping that the ring isn't seated due to not having any sort of vacuum from the crankcase and the pcv was capped and that uncapping the pcv and installing the evacuation kit might help seat a ring. It may work it may not. My friend has a bore scope and we will take a look in there and see what we can see. One of the reasons I bought the car was to have fun and wrench on it myself, so that's what I'm gonna do. I'll get the books on Amazon and use my friend and his tools when I get to that "defeated" point. I really appreciate all the help and motivation. I've been browsing Z forums for a while, there is a reason I joined this one. I work A LOT and have two small kids that are a lot of work right now (they need their own valve adjustments) I will keep you all updated on any progress. Cheers.

Zach