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'92 SE with 220k Miles - Full upper end rebuild - Black smoke and power stutter over 2500k rpms


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I bet that is it!!  No, the upper riming cover bolt did not line up, i left it out!  OK, this is very interesting.  SO to be clear, what gaskets do I want to buy?  Please help me find/source them. Thank you!

 

Here are pics of the intake manifold surface - they are clean

 

 

intake manifold surface 3.jpg

intake manifold surface 4.jpg

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Yeah, if that bolt don't fit, you got the wrong shi... gaskets.

 

I pulled up Rockauto's listing for a '92. Sure enough, they have no idea that there are different gaskets for the two engines, because they've got a bunch of the same parts listed for VG30 and VG33 applications. :doh:The Ajusa and Victor Reinz gaskets aren't built the same as either of the factory gasket types, so I'm not sure which one they're meant to fit. The Mahle/Clevite MS16365A are clearly stamped-steel VG33 gaskets, not what you want. The gaskets that look correct to me are the FEL-PRO MS922704MAHLE / CLEVITE MS15362W, and APEX AMS5170. I believe I used the Fel-Pro set on mine.

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That is the FelPro set I already bought/installed. The picture is different than th actual gasket. This one is black woth blue rings.  I just went to 3 local shops and all have the same Black/blue gasket.

 

I might just reinstall and just torque the @!*% out it.

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Hmm. Sounds like they "improved" something since I bought them, though that was long enough ago that I don't remember for sure what mine looked like. How thick are those gaskets, at the rubber rings? I have a set of VG33 intake gaskets in my pile, I can measure those and compare. I don't suppose you've got the original gaskets still kicking around?

 

Unless the surfaces are damaged, which it doesn't look like they are, or the bolts were loose, I doubt torquing the piss out of them is gonna help. Did you bolt down the intake using the torque sequence in the service manual? Maybe it was sitting a little cockeyed.

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I didn't keep the originals,  unfortunately. The new ones seem to be thin metal encased in a thin rubber coating and the blue rings are barely, if any thicker.

 

I spent 30 minutes wiggling the intake manifold around until it felt perfectly seated and went thru FSM 2 step torque sequence, adding a couple of ft more pressure last night. Will put the rest back together today and see if any improvement. 

 

Not looking forward to connecting the coolant hoses in back of the plenum, although I've come up with a technique that helps - I rest the plenum on my forearms, so my hands are in back and able to access hoses and wiring connector under plenum. Once it's all attached, I gently pull them out and lower it down onto manifold.  Not comfortable, but easier than anything else I've tried!

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Nope.  Fired right up, silky smooth, no smoke. Then, about 10 seconds later, a couple of puffs, then full smoke show.

 

I cant believe it, but i guess i need to go deeper. Heads off to check gaskets

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I'm getting a bit burnt out, honestly.  A few questions i keep asking myself as I prepare to take this thing apart Again:

 

- Why didn't white smoke start until after I did the injectors to solve black smoke?

 

-Did machine shop botch the head resurfacing?

 

-Are my head bolts stretched and if so, is that the problem?

 

How many beers is this going to take me??

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Just got Heads back on.  The gaskets look fine, no problems.  No sticking or indents, so maybe not torqued enough?  A lot of coolant leaked into #6 as I pulled head off, but that was expected with leftover coolant in the DS head.

 

No obvious issues, although I did get a couple of things wrong 1st time around. 

 

-The FSM calls for the head bolt washers to be inserted with radius side up.  I missed that and they were inconsistent throughout.  

-I pulled exhaust manifolds all the way off on DS and off the Head on PS before removing heads.  This made re-installing heads a lot easier. Maybe the weigh of the manifold affected my torque sequence?  I removed and re-installed the Heads with exhaust manifolds attached last time.  

 

*I noticed some dust/debris behind timing belt cover on driver side, so need to figure that out. Belt looks fine, so need to investigate further.

 

I'm hoping to have all this back together tonight after work.

 

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On 6/18/2025 at 4:18 PM, Bozer1991 said:

This made re-installing heads a lot easier. Maybe the weigh of the manifold affected my torque sequence?  I removed and re-installed the Heads with exhaust manifolds attached last time

That could absolutely affect it. Those manifolds aren't featherlite lol.

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UPDATE - I took the pathy out tonight to find a cliff to drive it off of when after about 20 minutes of smoking out my neighborhood....the smoke cleared!  I think there was just residual coolant in the exhaust system that needed to burn off.  Otherwise it runs great, drove on freeway, all around town and no issues.  Now I need to see if she'll pass CA smog.

 

Thx for those who provided feedback on this chain, I really appreciate. 

 

Next up, some cosmetic projects.

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That's great! Makes sense there was stuff to burn off, when I did the intake gaskets on my Xterra, it smoked for a good 10-20 minutes as I drove it around. People were flagging me down it was funny lol. Eventually it tapered off and was fine.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Passed smog first try. Phew. Time to move on to front suspension and some interior cleaning 

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On 7/2/2025 at 10:57 AM, Bozer1991 said:

Passed smog first try. Phew. Time to move on to front suspension and some interior cleaning 

Always nice to have a win. It must be running pretty well now then.

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She runs great, no issues, smoke, weird sounds at all.  If anything,  this rebuild was overkill because the rest of the truck seems a bit tired now!

 

I might tackle the front end suspension,  shocks alone (bilsteins) didnt help much.

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