Thread: Manny's VET Open-Motor Surgery

As many of you know, I went VET about 2 yrs. ago. I had my good friend LanceSR20 build the motor. The car made 523 whp & 409 wtq. It ran for a solid year at 40-50 miles daily.

Eventually, I ran into a cooling problem. The motor never really overheated. However, everytime I went into boost (even at 1 psi), the temp started to climb slowly and hover at 3/4 of the way. I would shutoff the car for about 5 minutes and start her backup again. The temp would be fine if I just cruise but once I went into boost, it creep back up to 3/4. I figured the headgasket went out.

With finishing my last semester in college & starting my official career, the Sentra, unfortunately, sat for 1 yr.

To the present...
I finally got around some time during the holidays to work on the car. I pulled the engine out this past weekend and opened her up. Here are some pics:

Short Block (HG still on).

Cylinder #4: light rust on cylinder wall (exhaust side, about 1" thick).

White build-up? found in different coolant passages

White build-up between cylinder 1 & 2.

Rust on exhaust valves (combustion chamber # 4)


OBSERVATIONS:
1. Initial observation of headgasket does not point to anything obvious.

2. Even after sitting a year, there is no rust located in cylinders 1,2, & 3; only 4 (exhaust side). Combustion Chamber #4 has rust on the exhaust side. This leads me to believe the headgasket gave out somewhere in this location since coolant/water was able to seep through this area. What do you think?

3. The motor sat for 1 yr. However, I initially noticed this little white build-up shortly after I turned off the car for the last time; it couldn't be from the 1 yr. hiatus. The build-up is very prominent in different coolant passages throughout the motor. i found the same build-up through the upper & lower radiator hose. I have no explanation for this build-up. I feel this could of been a contributer to my cooling woes. Any ideas?

what head gasket did you use? i am in the proccess of building a VET and i am jw.

Se-rawkus what turbo did you have on the motor? Boost levels used? What are you going to do with the sub?

damn manny I told you to keep your dick out of the VET!


seriously though, that looks pretty crusty. Did you have any coolant in the oil? it could be some sort of oil that got into the coolant and formed that sort of milky saturated-oil sludge.

The white build up is tipical for using tap water. There is nothing to worry about there.


I have a feeling the exhaust vales in that cumbustion chamber are like that because you ran the car alittle lean in that one. It looks to me that the head lifted a little on that corner and thats why the rust is there.

I do not think the headgasket is at fault what so ever.

You need beter head bolts, the deck of the block needs to be resurfaced to make it true again and use bottled water in your motor or pre mixed 50/50 antifeeze.

Cometic 87mm headgasket.


Precision SC61 (Stage 5 wheel and E-Cover compressor) @ 23 psi.

The sub?


None at all. The coolant was just a little milky than normal.



I guess I will make use of my extra shortblock and prep her up by retapping the threads to accept GTiR head bolts. I will swap out the pistons and rods.
I'll take the head to a machine shop and get her all cleaned up.

Were you using ARP head studs? If so, i think that's your problem.

why, what's the problem w/ arp head studs? they stretch?

Yeah. Figured that out after talking to Dre & Lance.

That is why I want to go with the over-sized GTiR bolts.

The bolts don't bottom out on the block like the stock bolts.

Just get the Greddy head studs. Lance and Miko have both seen them, Charles ran them on his VET car and he never had a problem. They bottom out in the block and use a nasty nut and washer combo.

Matt