sewebster

Should I use RTV on the intake manifold gaskets? I was thinking just a little on the coolant ports but not anywhere else? This is a 91 VG30E.

Putting my VG30E (1991) engine back together, and having some problems following the instructions in the dealer manual. I have read the timing belt threads (two of them anyway) and they don't follow the procedure, just "make it tight" more or less. The problem is that the procedure seems to always want you to turn the tensioner clockwise, and eventually the spring just pops off the stud. Maybe they meant counterclockwise at some point?

Do I need some sort of LSD additive?

I have a manual, so should be easier to control the shifting Yeah, I haven't really decided what I think yet. Oh well. I wonder if I should use this expensive Royal Purple break in oil for the first go in the garage, or if I should use conventional oil plus the zddp additive, then change after the first few minuts you described to the Royal Purple synthetic. What's so bad about idling? Low oil pressure? Do you think I should crank the engine around for a minute or so with the starter with the coil disconnected (or plugs out?) in order to prime the oil pump and get some oil moving?

The answer is 1.25 mm. The studs seem to be about 38 mm long (maybe supposed to be 40?) with 10 mm of thread on the block side and 20 mm of thread on the manifold side. The washers are thick and the nuts have a flange on them. Probably none of this is critical though.

What about hard accelerations to seat the piston rings? People seem to be all about this on the internet

Thanks guys. I found a local parts store (Lordco) has the Royal Purple line, including their break-in oil, with zddp, so I picked that up. Probably I'll keep using the regular 5W30 Royal Purple after break in (still need to figure out exactly what I want to do for break-in). Need to decide between 5W30 and 10W30 I guess, but the manual says 5W30 is preferred and it does get cold up here when I go to the mountains...

Anyone know the pitch on the VG33 10 mm studs?

I placed the order for the set of lifters earlier today. Since I replaced the valve, rockers and rocker shafts, might as well do it all properly I shall look into getting some zddp around here or online. Back to my original question though... if the lifters aren't "full" of oil, then you'd expect there to be more slack in the system, not less, as seems to be my experience. I was fooling around more again today though, and I think that maybe there isn't actually a time in the cycle when all the lifters are FULLY down. Probably the actual sequence is slightly tweaked from my "naive" by the textbook 4 stroke cycle. So perhaps this is why I need to apply slight force to get the rocker shafts down. I'm just concerned that if my valves are actually slightly open when they should be closed that they will die because they overheat (not to mention I could lose compression) so I want to get this right. Replacing the valves again would be lame.

Ok, thanks for the advice. I'm not entirely sure how much all the fancy additives and stuff matter. I mean, I don't think the rest of the truck is going to last another 250k miles, even if the engine could, but who knows. The truck has 185k miles on it now. I think I can easily replace the lifters just by popping the rocker covers and rockers off at any time (ie. doesn't need to delay my reassembly process) right? Presumably they come off without having to remove any other engine stuff? The two I already replaced were Sealed Power brand, which I understand is supposed to be good (?) and are $22.79 each, there is also Rock Products which is $14.43 each... any idea if they are decent? Probably I should just spring for what I trust... I wish I understood how the lifers work inside better to understand how they would fail. Maybe I should saw one of my old ones in half. Actually, that sounds like a good idea... hmm. Sorry for all the rambling, but this is helpful.

Yeah, I have the dealer manual and followed the procedure, but since the heads are off the cylinder position is irrelevant. You just don't want the cam lobes to be pushing the lifters up when tightening.

I replaced two of the lifters that looked like the tops might be a little worn. I didn't realize replacing them all was a standard thing to do... but the reason I didn't was the cost. They are like $30 each or something... not sure how terrible an idea this is... When you say floating, you mean if the rocker can rock back and forth right now? Definitely not. It was snug when I started tightening and more snug now So adding zddp is a usual break in procedure? Where do you get this stuff. I didn't notice it in the parts stores. Maybe it is illegal in Canada or something Thanks for the help.

I'm in the re-assembly phase of my engine rebuild on my '91 now... I put back together one of the heads today. When I got to bolting down the rocker shafts I noticed that before I tightened the bolts the shafts weren't all the way "down" and resting on the lifter guide plate. When I torqued them just a bit (< 5 ft-lbs) then it was nice and snug. But wouldn't this be slightly opening the valves? The valves should all be shut at the camshaft at 0 degrees... unless there is some tweaked timing from the ideal 4-stroke 6 cylinder order. (edit: this is the left head, so at cyl 1 TDC they should all be shut I think). Anyway, does anyone know what I'm talking about and whether it is normal? I can think of some ideas of why this could happen, but I'm just hoping all my lifters aren't seized or something. Thanks for any tips. Hopefully sometime soon I'll be able to start answering more questions than I ask!

Cool. Thanks for the advice!

Ok, thanks. My understanding of "standard" retorqueing procedure was the run the engine for a bit before retorqueing, but the dealer manual procedure just involves tightening, loosening, tightening again, so I'm a little confused.

Putting the heads back on my 91 (VG30E) soon. The dealer manual says to torque the bolts in sequence in two steps, then LOOSEN and torque again in sequence two steps (different final torque value). I have a fel pro head gasket from a engine gasket kit with no instructions. Should I follow the book? The felpro site seems to indicate that their gaskets are "no retorque." The gasket looks kinda like "soft metal" not multi layered. Thanks for any advice!

Has anyone drilled a new fill hole higher up on the case and installed another plug? Seems like it would be a decent solution, but I guess you'd want to remove the innards of the transmission first...

Thanks. I was doing some more searching around, and it seems that the thread might be 1/8" BSPT, which is pretty much M10x0.9. The problem is that if I put an adapter and then say a 1/8" NPT tee, then I can't thread the factory dummy light on, because it isn't 1/8 NPT. So I need some kind of reverse adapter again... lame. Hmm.

So anyone know the thread on the oil pressure sender? I think a lot of cars are 1/8" NPT, but seems unlikely for this. The page I linked above with the cam sprockets sells an adapter, but can you buy electric senders for aftermarket gauges that have the right thread? I guess this would mean my oil light would be on all the time and I'd just ignore that and look at the gauge...

If you want adjustable cam sprockets I found some here: http://www.z31parts.com/engineparts.html and they come in red or blue! A little pricy for my taste though.

What's your source for round toothed sprockets? But I don't drive too much, so really it's probably gonna be another 10 years until I need another timing belt... hmm.

You mean the shape of the teeth on the sprockets? Interesting.

Working on rebuilding my 91 V6 engine and am wondering about a few more things... How do I inspect the engine mounts? They are expensive enough that I'd rather not replace them if I don't have to. Any tips? Any ideas on installing a real oil pressure gauge (rather than just the light). After I spend all this time doing the engine it seems wise to keep an eye on what the oil is doing. I figure I install a tee and then both the standard switch and a second electronic pressure sender that I wire to a gauge. Anyone know the sender thread? Thanks!

Cool, thanks for the advice!

Aha, thanks! I think mine is a bit smashed, but just looked up a price and dang that thing is expensive (~$100). Maybe I can fix up the connector... Is the timing automatically retarded if knock is detected, I don't think I've ever dealt with a knock sensor before.