w58 head

[ddrum]

Ok I just bought a W58 peanut head on ebay and i recieved it today and found this

 

 

If you notice the camshaft moved about 1/4 of an inch back, I was wondering how this could of happen? How can i tell if something has been damaged? ex: cam, rocker arms, or cam towers?

[ddrum]

Took off rocker arms and cam and this is where you can see the most damage, does this look bad?

 

 

Any help will greatly appreciated.

[Exlaxracing]

That's bad any damage to the area where that cam rides is very bad that groove is going to be spinning inside your motor ie acting like a shovel on where that rides scooping out metal. I would take that cam and head to a machine shop and see if it can be saved if not get your money back or buy a different cam

[banzai510(hainz)]

Wonder how that happened also. Most time this happens when people try to put a timming chain on when installing the head trying to line up the cam sprocket and try banging it on the cam dowl and it isnt really lined up correct.

 

be honest if you could chamfer the hole a little and just fine sand it it should be OK. just make sure the edge of the hole is below the wear surface. I would call it good. I think its a casting flaw from manufacture.Hard to believe since most Jap parts are pretty good.

Put the same rocker in the location it came from and Im sure its fine.

 

In theroy if your able to turn the cam by hand with all the cam towers on and no rockers your fine.

[ddrum]

Thanks Banzai510, that good to hear, so i should just sand the little chip and the line and its should be fine, right?

 

I should add this, this head is from a 1978 510, and i have another w58 from a 1980 720, would it be better to swap the cam from the other head?

[datzenmike]

The cam is held in place with the cam thrust plate...

 

 

This should be bolted onto the front cam tower and is sandwiched between the cam sprocket and the cam itself to prevent lateral movement. If your head was shipped without the cam sprocket (my bet was it wasn't) there is nothing to prevent the cam moving backwards.

 

It was likely dropped and the cam slid or was forced backwards.

.

[ddrum]

That's exactly what I thought at first, but the head doesn't show any bumps or damage from the outside and it did have the cam thrust plate and not the sprocket.

[banzai510(hainz)]

I should add this, this head is from a 1978 510, and i have another w58 from a 1980 720, would it be better to swap the cam from the other head?

 

No just keep it simple. Just bolt the head on.Im not fsmilier with the later heads. I will assume both are round exhaust port heads. Onw might or might not have holes in the head for a water line or not. If they look the same I would look at the combustion chamber and see if one is a closed chamber head and pick that one.

 

But others on Ratsun would know this as I never owned a later head that I have ACTUALLY used

 

most L20s are set on cam sprocket #2 timming

[datzenmike]

That's exactly what I thought at first, but the head doesn't show any bumps or damage from the outside and it did have the cam thrust plate and not the sprocket.

 

There may very well be no damage on the head... could have been dropped on the back end on a wooden floor and the sudden stop would have slammed the cam backwards if the sprocket wasn't there. Doesn't look like any lasting damage done.

 

Hainz the W58 (open chamber) was the same part number for the later 710, A10, S10, 620 and 720. All had round exhaust with steel port liners. I can't find any closed chamber W58 in N Am vehicles but I did also find one in a wrecking yard. I suspect they are off JDM import motors of the '80/90s. It was often cheaper to import a low mileage motor from Japan than to rebuild them.

[ddrum]

I have been inspecting it closely and and the only thing it has is the little chip from the second photograph, that being said there should be no major damage and i should just put it back together right? As long and the cam turns by hand without the rockers in place, or should i sand it?

[banzai510(hainz)]

ddrum, Correct just bolt it up maybe ck the valve last to mack sure its set.

 

Datzen mike\\ some body said they had a W58 closed chamber and seen photos on here. Maybe its a Canadian thing.

 

all the import motors I have seem were W53 heads.

 

The Japs never had L20s in Japan. It was a export motor only that I know of. USA ,Australia

[ddrum]

Thanks a lot guys, By the way mine is a closed chamber and out of a 1978 510.

[datsunaholic]

I have several closed-chamber W58s. Hell, when I blew the head gasket on my Daily back in February, I pulled the head expecting the normal open-chamber W58 but found a closed-chamber W58 with head-saver shims on the towers. The engine has a remanufacture tag on it, so not only was the engine remanned but the head was used and remanned.

 

The block on mine is a true late-model L20B (with the Z20 casting), generally found in 1980s or crate engines. I have several of these late L20Bs. My 4X4 has one too. I sold one in the '75 truck I got rid of a few years ago.

 

 

 

 

I don't think the part number tells the story. Nissan used what the had on hand all the time. In just my 1978 510s alone I've found heads marked N56, N58, and W58. All those are the round-exhaust w) liner, and all are open chamber, as far as I know. The closed W58s I have all were found in trucks, BUT all had an obvious engine swap as they all should have had squareport heads.

[datzenmike]

The one I found had a tag on it that you could barely make out "200sx" I also considered that maybe it was a dealer warranty replacement head. The parts numbers sometimes say 11042-W5880SV Could the SV stand for service?

[datsunaholic]

It probably means "Serviced" which would be a part number for a repaired core. But I do not know this.

[datzenmike]

I'll have to go by the local Nissan dealer some day and ask them. Doug, do your heads show a casting number on the very back that might ID the closed from the open?

[datsunaholic]

Nope. Nothing on the back that differentiates. I didn't know until I had 'em off that they were closed, well except the one BRAND NEW one I have that's never had hardware in it. The numbers on the backs of the heads I think are inspector numbers/dates, but I don't know. I took pics of a bunch, and I did find one head with NOTHING on the back. It's a W53 on a VERY late, L16 crate engine. All my U67 and W58 heads have numbers on the back but they are all different. I didn't look on the back of the W53 I installed, and I can't see it now in the truck. Not without a mirror, at least.

[datzenmike]

Well how the hell does Nissan know the difference?

[datsunaholic]

The same way they know the difference between the 15 different A87 heads. They don't. Well, not after the factory part number label fell off, anyway.

 

In looking at the different W58, U67, A87, etc heads it's become my obervation that they were ALL cast as "closed" heads, and the open part was simply machined out when they did the final prep before assembly. So the basic casting was no different except where noted- different intake port size, for instance. The rough valve seat bores were cast differently, but even then A87 heads had different sizes on occasion as did 219 heads. Trust me- I have the Jason Grey specs and a 219 head that's nowhere CLOSE to what's listed. It's a stock head off an L14.

 

What I do note is there are some numbers/letters stamped on the valve cover gasket surface. I used to assume those were done when the heads were remilled at a machine shop but I have heads I KNOW were never remilled. They might have some bearing on the actual part #.

 

A lot of the L-series head part numbers don't even match the casting number anyway.

 

I found these part numbers as still being valid in Nissan's ordering system, and all are listed as 4-cyl L-series heads. It's not an inclusive list; I gave up looking after a while.

 

11041-U8680

11041-U6001SV

11041-U6002SV

11041-U6702

11041-U6702SV

11041-V9182

11041-W5880

11041-W5880SV

11041-N5800SV

 

11041-04W80 (this has an applied model of 720 6/79-6/80, and superceded by

11041-W0381 (this has an applied model for 720 9/79-6/80)