evilhighway's GQ daily stocko bus (heart surgery in progress)

[evilhighway]

Hi all,
About 6 weeks ago I became a proud owner of a Gq Patrol. Picked it up for $3900 and have been happy driving such a big vehicle considering I have gone to a Patrol from a 3cyl daihatsu mira. Its on gas and petrol and is powered by the tb42.
A few years ago I had a diesel td27 terrano and was really put off by diesel engines. So I made sure I got petrol. Not trying to stir up the diesel guys but I know petrol engines and not diesel. Just personal choice.
That being said on Thursday the patrol broke down and after putting new points in I soon realised it wouldnt idle and well there goes the head!
I took the head off yesterday and the block seems good the pistons and cylinders also look good with nothing major. The head gasket had deteriorated and looks like it may be its original headgasket. I thought for a moment that I maybe able to just get another head gasket until I properly inspected the head.
It has cracks between the valves in 1, 2, 5, 6 and another one also 2 exhaust valves are cracked.
Heres a couple of pics of the car. Its pretty straight except for the ding in the passenger rear 1/4 as you will see.




Here is some pics of the engine bay with the head off and also some pics of the head and some of the damage!
















Sorry the pics are a bit blury.

I have found a place in qld that do a head exchange service for $1085, a repaired head with valves bolts etc etc for my old ones. I also found a secondhand tb42 thats done around 200 thou for $550 but I think Im more leaning to getting the new head. even though it twice the price I atleast know its not on its way out and should last longer than second hand engine!
Knowing my luck I would get the second hand one and in a few weeks I have the same problem!

Does anyone know of other places I could try for exchange service etc?

Oh here is a pic to show you the difference in car size from one extreme to another!

[gec]

Have you priced a new head from Nissan?

[Silver]

good idea to get new head bolts, as you have done.

[BigMav]

hmmm, unlucky mate, I dunno if I would be so quick to dissmiss another second hand engine but I see your reasoning behind it. There is many many TB42's getting around with high k's with no problem though.

[Bigrig]

Sorry to hear it mate - as said, plenty of TB42 spares floating about and fully understood on sticking to petrol as it's 'what you know' - I'm the same!!

Good luck with replacing it. That said, if you're going a full replacement engine, I have one that just came out if mine (put another TB42 in with a turbo as a package deal) - for the right price, I'd probably be willing to part with it (I'll let others decide the value as I wouldn't have the first clue what they're worth!! lol).

[evilhighway]

Havent priced a new head from nissan as yet and never actually thought of that either. I did have a look on ebay and there was one that went for $695 delivered was the cheapest i could find on there. Then there is the valve issue and if im gonna get exhaust ones i might as well get all new ones. So theres an extra cost there then the new head bolts = more $$$ and finally the vrs set. After all that I would need to get the new valves seated properly. (i havent done that one b4) Then I can reasemble the head and install.
so in summary
head = $695
vrs = $200 ish
then head bolts and valves + labour
or an already repaired head with bolts valves already done and the rest of the vrs set for $1085
the choice going this way is much easier and efficient.
I totally undertsand getting a second full engine but its still that chance im taking. If it was one of my daihatsu's then i would jump at it as I just got a spare engine and gearbox for that for $50 and am able to get most daihatsu bits i need fairly cheap, but I dont have the luxury atm of stuffing around and taking the chance on wasting $500 or so with the possibility of coming back to the samme prob.
If i do it right then i can atleast have piece of mind its all good.
I do really love the input though!

[evilhighway]

Ok so I got the new head reco head all looks good and i got a cash price discount but still able to keep the 6 month / 10,000kms warranty with the cash price. All looks good apart from one valve thats a litttle pitted in the middle but shouldn't be any problems with it. Its just a little ugly.
I just got all the manifold's back on and I'm sure the intake manifold was welded and then covered in cement when it was put on, as it was the worst gasket I've ever had to removed. I've cleaned copper head gasket's on an alcohol fueled 501 chev that were easier than this thing. Pic of the head with manifold's.


Now I thought I would play it smart and put some extra marks as reference to do the tappits on the harmonic balancer where the timing marks are because according to the manual when No 1 piston is at TDC you adjust valves 1,2,3,6,7,10.
When piston 6 is at tdc you adjust valves 4,5,8,9,11,12.

The problem I have is when piston is at tdc on timing mark nunber 6 piston also seems to be at tdc?
Or is it actually psat tdc and my eye cant spot the difference?
Please any advice on this would be greatly appreciated! I presume someone would have done this before.
Heres is a couple of pics o no1 at tdc !

[evilhighway]

Ok found my answer so I will post back with a good status hopefully!
Hmm Ive been that used to adjusting on a 3cyl I had forgotten eveything I learnt!

[evilhighway]

Ok so I finished putting the head back on today! Well I finished the other day but I put everything else back on today. I have to take it slow as I have a bad back injury and being only 160cm tall I have to monkey climb around it and I can only do a little bit before I have to stop anyway! Finally I got everything back in. Added oil and water (didint have coolant and was going to change it after 1000k's anyway).
switch to petrol and few pumps and away it started. YEEESSSS it was purring like a kitten.
I was very pleased. Well for the next 10 mins anyway.

After about ten mins I gradually increased rpm to around 2k then slowly let my foot off to come back to idle! well it missed a little and then died!
It seems as soon as it got warm id wont idle! wont start on gas and only got it to run on gas once when I changed over while keeping it at about 1k.
Its doing what it first was when the head went.
The following are the things I have tried with it to rectify the problem so far as I know it cant be the head now and suspect that its something else.

Ok I tried:
*adjusting the idle
*adjusting the air mixture screw
*replaced the fuel filter (even though it wont run on gas)
*replaced the coil
* I took the thermostat out to see if that made any difference but no and well my water pump is working good!
I havent touched the timing as it was the same when it broke down and should be the same. Oh it has new spark plugs also and I should close the gap a touch to help the gas but want it to run on petrol first.
Im thinking that the TPS has shit itself and wont allow it to idle, but I really dont know.
It is an auto so could it be the kick back sensor on the accelerator pedal?

Any Ideas Guys Im really stumped and those next 2 are my next best guesses.
Oh does anyone if an efi pintara TPS will work with these? I havent looked at them yet but thought I would ask!

[evilhighway]

ok Im going to re adjust the tappits and give them plenty of movement just to check that they arnt closing due to them warming up and blocking fuel flow! I wii go from there. if it does keep running i will just have to trial and error the right gap.