1986 XE S12 - Project Serenity

(https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10343492_938159472890872_8541444637521668578_n.jpg?oh=3f650902d85109fe897e3a7de9ce3758&oe=5579FB4A&__gda__=1434662386_2bf618cc4007a4abb973e3079bfcfa31)

Well I got the timing, I did it with out the FSM. Since I know ca20 timing like the back of my hand since my first s12. Put back on the clutch and flywheel decided to keep the 6 puck on it.  Prepping the install, I was going to install tonight but I decided to pressure wash the inside before continuing. Since this rebuild kit I got from waylon this is a good practice for a first time rebuilding an engine.

KA will come in time, until then I am messing around with the ca20 and so far it seems good.

Hooray for a little CA love!

rednucleus on 10:22:12 AM / 03-Mar-15Hooray for a little CA love!

And the motor is in...

(https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10443392_939878039385682_3143339825568051044_n.jpg?oh=93d67a8776b2734f611915b805a9c144&oe=5587584D&__gda__=1433644689_17daa27adc978915d7c91f8ba54a1687)

Gotta love those CA20's..........zip zip!

Hooray for the Little Engine that Could

I still have yet to fire her up. New head gasket, pistons in which I believe I have done right FSM shows very little to no information on the wrist pin installation timing shows dead on since I have acquired Jason stuff I kinda lost a lot of stuff I had a side when I took her apart completely. So hopefully tonight I'll be dumping oil and firing her up

(https://scontent-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10984487_942120285828124_7261830446331347297_n.jpg?oh=f969355699160ffccf846f60c9d0a7b8&oe=558B91EF)

Finished with all the vaccum leads, water locations for the heater, and the harness.  At first it didn't want to start but I forgot about the dizzy location needs to be set in the correct location as I forgot the inner and outer locations. Once done it fired right up, sounded like a completely healthy ca20 for maybe 1 minute then it died, when I restart the car it will ignite and die less then 10  seconds after firing.

Checked compression I am getting between 125 - 130 on each cyl according to the book 129 is the spot, and on the good side no oil  on any of the plugs. THere is a strange oil leak in the back of the head tho, I am not sure where it is coming from but it looks like it is seeping out a small block off plate in the back. Tested the fuel pressure and it is at 37psi, so I am assuming at this point the fuel is bad and due to being 6 month old gas? last time I put gas in that was Aug and has been siting since September / October since I have stopped troubleshooting due to the piston rings being bad and if I recall it also has seafoam in the tank as well, so it looks like I will be removing the current gas and dumping 91 inside to get things moving again.

force it to run on starting fluid and see if it'll stay running.

You bring up a good point about the seafoam. idk if its ok for it to be in the tank for a long time. you might wanna pull the pump just to check out the condition of the hoseand see if maybe the seafoam did anything to the plastic.

and the fuel filter too

Checked the pump looks alright, I also just remember I did something to the dizzy before if I recall it had a bad wire I will need to retrace in a few.

Back to troubleshooting, so far it seems to be a timing issue.
As shown in this video this is how she is acting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4LxRe50l-M
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Yeah dude, sounds nice and shitty like my CA20 did.
Actually, sounds a lot more shitty.

Let me know if you need a "new" ca or parts. Mine is almost out.

It should be alright,  just something went wrong and if I had more time to troubleshoot I am sure to find it.
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from memory theres three marks on the cam gear. its like 2 arrows and a dot or something idk. one mark should be at 12 oclock, another at 6 oclock, and the third should point downward and to the left at maybe 7:30 or something close to that.
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no worries, my cam gear has 2 marks 1 arrow and 1 big red dot.  When I put the timing belt on the dot is on 12 and arrow was at 6, on the 0 degree mark on the crank as the FSM described to be when aligning the head back and install the timing belt. in which is why I don't understand why the timing is wrong.
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Test drove here, and all it needs now is to be tuned right and valve cover gasket replaced.  The brakes tend to lock up fast, and the clutch is very weird but I see why it is now because it has an xtd 6 puck.  I also noticed that stock s12 has a bigger turning radius (o_O) but nothing I can't manage.  I didn't see any big piles of smoke only from the valve cover was oil dripping everywhere.

Keep up that CA love, glad to see your progress!

I should be working on that but I got sidetracked to a nistune problem on the cadet motor.... and learning the software, the guides they posted are outdated.

(https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/11025195_946854705354682_4908135287894721900_n.jpg?oh=f10f60ec5dedc686023caf3e72684811&oe=5571EB53&__gda__=1434577977_554884f1525ea8e67ddad249eca534b5)

Hood is back on and she fires right up everytime I turn the key. So she is almost ready to be a daily driver.
I need to swap out the windshield still, and get the canucks installed.

In the mean time I snagged up an local crankshaft deal for the future KA swap.
I just need to figure out the calculations again to determined the correct bearing numbers.
(https://scontent-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtf1/v/t1.0-9/11064835_945333832173436_3052912318215345937_n.jpg?oh=ecb9feac0fea5d9adcbaf34135ac8ee6&oe=55827B77)
all shiny and ready to rock.  It was pulled from a clean motor just was stripped down to rebuild into a turbo KA with new pistons that just never finished and they did some hell of a deal on the sale.

She is now ready to start testing on the streets as today I went to dmv and picked up some Classic Vehicle plates.

:thumbsup:

Took her for a spin since my fairlady silvia has been put down for being rabid!  Took her to get some gas and drove just fine, there is a weird grind.
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Well not too bad for the first week, but looks like I didn't tighten the oil pan bolts right as it caused a massive oil rain near the front of the engine. For now till I can get some time to temp lift the block to redo the oil pan gasket I have used gasket sealant stuffed inside as much as I can and re-tighten in a sequence that seems to not be in the book that seems to help tremendously. I still have to pull the rear canucks and none blown shocks from the red parts car still and get an alignment.

Well my luck, the issue for the oil wasn't the oil pan but I blew a front main seal, fun stuff.

Holy crap, would like to see some pictures on how you do that. Since most of the mechanics around me don't want to touch my car so i have to learn of it as much as possible.

Yeah technically no one will touch it unless they are familiar with it. Even then I would be worried who touches my s12's
But sure, I will take more pictures, I wanted todo some gopro video's on my garage projects.

^That would be awesome

Dude, great stuff! I'm glad to see someone show tons of patience with our rare cars and make a DD out of one at that! I have two DD now and I am loving the looks I'm getting by some that remember the car fondly. Keep up the good work and keep us posted.

Here is some HQ  pics might be a bit slow depending on your connection. To change the front main seal I had to strip it down to the timing belt again.

(http://www.g-funk.net/200sx/serenity/2015-04-18%2010.42.43.jpg)
(http://www.g-funk.net/200sx/serenity/2015-04-18%2010.42.48.jpg)
(http://www.g-funk.net/200sx/serenity/2015-04-18%2010.42.57.jpg)
(http://www.g-funk.net/200sx/serenity/2015-04-18%2012.22.20.jpg)
(http://www.g-funk.net/200sx/serenity/2015-04-18%2012.25.05.jpg)
(http://www.g-funk.net/200sx/serenity/2015-04-18%2012.25.10.jpg)
(http://www.g-funk.net/200sx/serenity/2015-04-18%2012.27.59.jpg)
(http://www.g-funk.net/200sx/serenity/2015-04-18%2013.36.49.jpg)

Nice work! I probably would of just tossed the ca at that point glad I sold her to.someone that gives a damn.

Yeah, other then the loud ticking noises, she runs good for now.

CA20 is rather a simple engine and delicate. But after the pull apart and rebuild, it gave me great confidence now and a better understanding of the ca18det motor.

Another idea I had going on for the red car was to make it a ca20e+t  when I finish the ka24de rebuild and place in Serenity.

Well lesson learned here, don't trust the Gas gauge as it can be a lie. I guess when there is less then a gallon left in the tank, it is a very hard process to review her to get her to a gas station. When I parked I thought I had 1/2 tank left, not sure for how long I had 1/2 tank, but I knew I should of gassed up sunday night as I said I was going to.

I had to call out of work when I attempted to leave Monday morning 05/11/2015 it wouldn't crank, it would attempt to crank 1 time then stop. I thought it was the battery so I swapped battery and turns out same thing, charged the battery for 20 minutes and same thing. Then it started to crank but no spark, then a crapload of fuel leaked out of the exhaust manifold. Cleaned it up put on the fuel pressure gauge and the guage at first was showing 15 - 20, then after 1 crank it jumped to 30psi attempted to keep on cranking to attempt to "awake" the system it wouldn't work. Disconnected the FPR vacuum line and then it cranked over and all was back to normal I went straight to the gas station and filled it up a full 12.5 gallons of gas. I believe I will need to investigate the float or adjust the gauge.

Reminds me of my turbo when it was running. Keep it up bro. That's gonna be a sweet daily. 
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Wonderingraven on 05:54:40 PM / 12-May-15Well lesson learned here, don't trust the Gas gauge as it can be a lie. I guess when there is less then a gallon left in the tank, it is a very hard process to review her to get her to a gas station. When I parked I thought I had 1/2 tank left, not sure for how long I had 1/2 tank, but I knew I should of gassed up sunday night as I said I was going to.

I had to call out of work when I attempted to leave Monday morning 05/11/2015 it wouldn't crank, it would attempt to crank 1 time then stop. I thought it was the battery so I swapped battery and turns out same thing, charged the battery for 20 minutes and same thing. Then it started to crank but no spark, then a crapload of fuel leaked out of the exhaust manifold. Cleaned it up put on the fuel pressure gauge and the guage at first was showing 15 - 20, then after 1 crank it jumped to 30psi attempted to keep on cranking to attempt to "awake" the system it wouldn't work. Disconnected the FPR vacuum line and then it cranked over and all was back to normal I went straight to the gas station and filled it up a full 12.5 gallons of gas. I believe I will need to investigate the float or adjust the gauge.

Not sure actually, normally it is the float sticking and the design of the fuel tank. Maybe the float is in the wrong spot perhaps ?

Turns out I just hada  parasitic drain that caused my battery issues as the ground wire broke.  So low fuel wasn't my problem after all.

Glad to hear it. So what's next?

Looks like it is the starter after all... so pulling starter.

Next I will be ordering some new shocks for the rear and installing the rear canucks I have.

Wasn't the starter, tested with 3 starters that night but today the ghost has returned and traced it back to the ground wire to engine that connects straight to the battery terminal turns out the nut was loose.

So when you pull the motor from the car be sure to mind where you put the ground cable, as I used the nut that connects to the alt and not direct to the block.

Something I noticed when you hit the tester light on;

Dizzy 4 plug below.
 --- (Clip)
(1, 2)
(3, 4)

If you touch the tester light on #2 the fuel pump kicks on and off.  But anyways I found this out as I was testing everything because I was getting no spark out of no where.  Where I made it home Monday night, that is when the fuel pump made a weird noise and wouldn't shut off after the key was out.  Seem that the main power source was one of the problems before but after hours of troubleshooting I found that my dizzy was not working anymore it got power just not delivering spark. Decided to check part  numbers with the ca18et's I have around and turns out they are the same part #. Swapped int he ca18et I had from one of the blocks and it started right up.

Past couple of weeks it has been idling different and been a bit powerless and sketchy lately and now I see why..

Well so far so good with the distributor.

My rear brakes decided it needed to be changed.
So I went a head and do this upgrade as well, canucks and kyb gr2
(http://www.g-funk.net/200sx/serenity/2015-09-21%2021.46.03.jpg)

Little lower then it was before but as I wanted to keep her near stock as possible.
(http://www.g-funk.net/200sx/serenity/2015-09-22%2007.17.21.jpg)
(http://www.g-funk.net/200sx/serenity/2015-09-22%2007.17.58.jpg)
And after the drive to work.
(http://www.g-funk.net/200sx/serenity/2015-09-22%2007.46.39.jpg)

Drive was extremely nice, I Still have a small wheel wobble in the front but no more Cadillac squatting in the rear especially when I take off from a stop.  She is starting to have  a nice drive feel.

This last week after the brake issues int he rear, I also ran into a snafu as my passenger side efan decided to blow up technically. Bearings was bad so I disabled it and drove around the past few days on 1 efan it was also a little bit broken as well, so I figured I would stop and get another efan setup.

Saturday: I attended the Street Driven Tour, sadly I did not drive since my sev6 project is down due to an oil pump issue.

(http://www.g-funk.net/200sx/serenity/2015-09-26%2013.42.46-2.jpg)

Today being Monday for me, I picked up 2 sets of eFan.
(http://www.g-funk.net/200sx/serenity/2015-09-28%2012.22.45.jpg)
the smaller efan setup is going on the sev6 being low profile and all would be a great ideal for it.

(http://www.g-funk.net/200sx/serenity/2015-09-28%2014.24.24.jpg)
Yep I lost the fan blade that was on the one with the bearing so bad it was shaking up the car violently to a point I had to fully unclip it.

(http://www.g-funk.net/200sx/serenity/2015-09-28%2017.11.07.jpg)
I attempted to just switch out the fan motors but the mounting points for the motors are different between stanza and sentra, just an FYI they are the same size in diameter both the shroud and the motors.  So I soldiered on the old connections to the new fans to match the same ones Waylon setup in the past so I can keep the connectors as they where also the same color.

I let her run for a bit and it ran smooth and quiet even after a shut down.

Pizza man: "Are you a mechanic?"
Me: No, I am just an I.T. Guy who is not afraid to get my hands dirty.

lol

3rd time this happened so it is now KA time and this will be the fastest KA swap ever... soon as I lock in a replacement block it's going in.

Pissed fuel everywhere out of the intake and it is getting annoying.
(http://www.g-funk.net/200sx/serenity/2015-10-12%2008.32.13.jpg)

KA time!

What really sucks is now I am home I can't for the life of me replicate the issue...

Yup that's the way it always works. Were you able to drive it home at least

Yep, I never had this problem with my sev6... I didn't trust the car enough to stop on the way and pick up the carb from Oriely's as I wanted to.

KA time!

Yeah I wouldn't have either ...