My next 720 resto

[720inOlyWa]

Depends upon how it is running by then. One, or the other. Should I bring a towbar to haul that beautiful little raffle prize back with me? In that case, I better have the 4x4 ready to go!

[720inOlyWa]

You know how it goes... the rehab chore list is growing shorter, and your excitement for starting up the rig grows at about double the rate of actual progress. Tension mounts as you remember a few little things that you promised yourself you would do, back when the head was off. The hoses go back on and there is no reason not to add coolant, so you do. Man, at this point the ‘starting line’ is within sight!

 

It was at this point that I took a break to run an errand up to the hardware store. Besides, I need more Prestone. As I am backing out of the driveway, I noticed a drip, drip, drip dripping off of the back end of the engine and onto the driveway. WTF?!? I shut down the rig and got out to see what was up. Sure enough, anti-freeze. I quickly traced the path of the rivulet back up to the underside of the intake manifold. My heart sank. Did I miss a crack in the block? When the head was off and the deck was clean, I looked with a hand lens, but didn’t see any. But who knows? 

 

I grabbed an assortment of mirrors and a flashlight and began checking the block and head. I cannot tell you how relieved I was to find tat the seam of the intake manifold gasket area was the leak spot. I chumped my intake gasket install, somehow. It will be a pain in the ass, but I can fix that. Whew!

[720inOlyWa]

An excellent weekend of rehab progress on my 4x4. But let’s cut to the chase this morning and give you the moral of the story first- Intake manifold gaskets: when datzenmike tells you to put ‘em in dry, you put ’em in dry!

 

The ‘pain in the ass’ mistake that I made when installing my intake manifold gasket (see previous post) only became worse on the second try. Imagine my dismay when I saw the expensive green liquid gushing out the bottom side of the manifold- AGAIN. Steadfast determination followed quickly on the heels of a brutal self-assessment, and then I was off to O‘Really’s  buy the last Z24 intake manifold in town. I know this because I bought the first two, and the sales person joked at the time that they still had one more if I needed it. Well, I needed it.

 

My mistake was in assuming that the hillbillies who worked on this truck previously had also been guided by datzenmike to ‘put ‘em in dry’. I had not pulled the intake manifold away far enough to notice several little bits of adhered old gasket still grimly attached to the manifold side! It must have leaked already, because I removed an intact gasket to begin with. But that’s on me for not looking hard enough at the manifold face.

 

Sure enough, the third time was a charm. I scraped and cleaned all surfaces and used some short wooden dowel plugs to hang the gasket on the head at both ends as I bolted up the center. Of course, this time, it went like a breeze, which just shows exactly what you (I) can learn from your (my) mistakes. I am pretty damn good at hanging an intake manifold now...

 

After I filled the coolant, I finally gave a fairly good pressure washing to the block, pan, and lower extremities of the engine bay. I also spent an hour scrubbing the intake manifold with a small steel brush and engine cleaner. You couldn’t tell it was aluminum when I started, and it is clean now.  Finally- and this may be the true milestone for this weekend- the engine bay has been upgraded from ‘Horrific’, to ‘Pretty Damn Bad’ to the much more encouraging ‘Not Quite There Yet’.

 

Today, I will begin the task of cleaning up all the vacuum lines, connecting the choke, sorting out all kinds of wire, vacuum plug, and hose issues in preparation for the start-up. I ordered new studs for the EGR valve attachment, so those ceremonies will have to wait for the arrival of these parts.

 

I mean, I am pretty beat up this morning, but damn, the intake manifold is in there right this time!

 

[720inOlyWa]

Well, as of this afternoon, the 4x4 is a runner again! She started right up, timed up nicely and warmed  up to 45 PSI Oil pressure. The idle mixture screw is going to need some more fiddling, but it seems like she wants to run sweet as you please. The guts seem pretty strong, but that is just a first impression. I just drove it down the street and around the block.

 

Clearly, the power steering pump has issues, it makes sounds like lambs being castrated when you steer, and there is a little fluid leak coming out of the side pipe. We will look into this and a thousand other issues as we continue the saga...

 

But today, officially, she’s a runner again, and that’s a good start.

 

[720inOlyWa]

I topped off the power steering reservoir tonight, and that stopped the drying lamb sounds. But there is a little splatter of fluid around the reservoir, and that aint right. It s leaking somehow. Since it is sticky PWS fluid that I am wiping up, we have to mop up that issue before it makes things all grimy again. We caint haddat! If an old 720 truck would just show up at the Pick A Part, I’d be all set for about 20 bucks...

 

 

It lopes a bit at idle, like something is just a little off base. But it is firing fairly smoothly and cleans up with RPMs, which tells me we are pretty close. Just niggly issues that need to be tracked down and eliminated. I am cautiously optimistic- I think it just might shape up nicely. In a week or two, it could be purring over little hills and such.

 

One more thing- and this was a little amazing- when I checked on the dash lights tonight, to see if I still need to touch up the flat black on the temp gauge (I do) I noticed that the clock that I had installed a week ago- which had not been working- was now ticking away nicely! I guess that it just took running the engine to wake up its little circuit. Bonus! The dash looks pretty great with all of the lights working now.

 

[DrvnDrvr]

Sweet Set!!!!  Love the factory look. Nice work :thumbup: :thumbup:

[720inOlyWa]

What I thought was a leak in the power steering reservoir turned out to be a tiny thread of oil spatter flying out of the front corner of the valve cover. I tightened the screw there and it dried up right away. Perhaps the power steering isn’t a problem after all, we shall see as we go along.

 

I ran the engine for about three or four minutes, enough to feel it warming up while I tried to smooth out the idle. Circling around to the drivers door, I checked the gauges for oil pressure and amps. I noticed the temperature gauge had not moved at all, but it should have. So I shut it down immediately and felt the coolant in the radiator- only warm to the touch, when it should have been hot. And there were lots of little flecks of additive dancing in the green liquid.  So I closed the hood and went boat racing for the weekend. A three hour drive offers me plenty of time time to think about things.

 

First of all, I didn’t look at the thermostat at all, and that was a dumb mistake. In fact, an automatic check and/or replacement of the thermostat will be a part of the routine, going forward. Always.

 

Second, I knew this engine had been treated with Stop Leak because a large empty bottle of the shit had been tossed into the bed of the truck when I bought it. Now I know that I should have given a stern flushing treatment, back-flushing the engine and heater core as vigorously as I flushed the radiator. For all I know now, the thermostat could be compromised by a big wad of Stop Leak!

 

As I figure out the running issues, I am going to begin by draining and flushing everything again, especially concentrating on the heater core and block. I will also pull the thermostat, and check the temp gauge itself to find out what’s up there before I run it again.

 

I have never used- nor would I use- Stop Leak. After talking to my friend Rich, who is a 30 year GM service manager, it became clear that I had better take this Stop Leak shit seriously and flush like mad. Then flush again. Then once more, maybe.

[Nissan_Boy85]

Just an idea, I know Prestone makes a cleaner to be used during flushing. We used it at a Toyota Dealership to try and get what oil we could out of a cooling system (water pump shaft is lubed with oil and kept separate by a rubber seal, stupid idea) and it seemed to work good. No idea on how well it would work on Stop-Leak, but it might be worth a shot.

[720inOlyWa]

Well, you know what today was, right? Why, flush and new thermostat day, of course!

 

 

It only took about 20 minutes of full flush to get most of the ‘particles’ out of the system. I think you would have to totally disassemble and pickle everything to get it all out. I did okay.

 

Look at that stupid Weber air filter. Man, it is going away, just a MOT...

[Charlie69]

Watch your heater core for leaks.  I kept loosing fluid after a flush but could not find out where it was going.  Finally found a small leak.  The heater control valve was leaking.  Replaced with good used one and no more problems.

[720inOlyWa]

Thanks, Charlie, I will check that tomorrow  morning.

[jrock4224]

i think my friend in high school owned that 2x4 ....looks painful familiar

[720inOlyWa]

i think my friend in high school owned that 2x4 ....looks painful familiar

 

Could be. It lived most of its life in the Aberdeen / Montesano area, then belonged to a young guy named Kyle here in Olympia for a while, until the head gasket blew. It has been mine ever since. I love to hear about it, if you knew it back in the day.

 

Yesterday, I ordered NGK plug wire sets for both trucks. They will arrive in a few days. I also ordered a Nissan cap and rotor for the 4x4 from our local dealer. I wont admit what that cost without libations being involved. The distributor shaft feels good, so replacing all of the high tension wiring should remove any question about getting spark to the (new, NGK) plugs.

 

In the mean time, I am going to replace the (metal) EGR valve gasket, which had been used and pretty thoroughly crushed previously, with a new asbestos gasket to eliminate this common vacuum leak spot. If these steps don’t eliminate the misfiring at idle, I will get a quad latte to go and just stare at the engine again, until something comes to me....

[720inOlyWa]

After chasing down a small vacuum leak around the base of the carb, I finally got this truck to start ad run smoothly. There is a little bit of bearing squeal that appears to be coming from the A/C idler pulley, but I have replacement bearings at the ready for that job. The engine itself seems great, with no ‘case rattle’ to speak of. Finally, I was ready to take my first real test drive in tis truck, after replacing the head gasket, timing chain, and a bunch of other engine related re-hab. 

 

Firs and second gears were fine, although the clutch is very tender, suggesting, perhaps, a warped clutch plate of a grabby flywheel. Third gear sounds like somebody poured a pound of nuts and bolts into the transmission! Holy cow, it is bad!

 

So my luck ran out, a little. I thought that I could sneak another truck into the ‘dd’ column with some TLC, but it turns out to need a lot more than that. Transmission work on a 4x4 seems very daunting right now, because I have no idea what I am up against. But I am not certainly giving up on this truck. I mean, it has a brand new windshield... and a strong engine! Naw, I will just park it and begin to figure out how to replace or rebuild the transmission- a new frontier in my 720 Nissan truck education.

[Lockleaf]

Whatever you choose to do, the transmission comes out most easily through the top. It's faster and easier to pull the engine than to pull the 4x4 stuff out of the way from underneath. Good luck!

[720inOlyWa]

Whatever you choose to do, the transmission comes out most easily through the top. It's faster and easier to pull the engine than to pull the 4x4 stuff out of the way from underneath. Good luck!

 

Thanks for this info. I was wondering just how this was all coming out of there... I wonder if anyone has thoughts on what might be wrong with 3rd gear. Is it going to be easier to replace the tranny, rather than rebuild it? Of course, if I was going to simply replace it, I would rebuild or rehab that one anyway, so that I am not putting junk back in my truck. I just wonder what I am up against, since I have done zero transmission work, ever. Someone who does have experience says that it isn”t hard to rebuild at all, so we shall see...

[84720FourWheel]

Yeah, everyone wants to fight it through the bottom, it's so much easier through the top. Thats the procedure in the fsm

[720inOlyWa]

Have you been through this drill before, 84? Any ideas as to what I am up against?

[84720FourWheel]

Basically it's way easier to separate the engine and transmission when they come out together. You can see what you're doing, and you aren't holding a transmission over your head trying to push it in.

 

The most trouble I had pulling my engine was getting the power steering pump off.

 

 

As far as transmission work, I haven't gotten into that yet. But from the diagrams I've seen it doesn't seem to hard to get apart, but I'm not sure if get it back together right the first time.

 

You'll want to either get a plug for the end of the transmission, or drain it before pulling. That was a messy mistake.

 

Also bag up your bolts and mark what they go to, you think you'll remember, but you don't.

 

It's really not too bad, I think it was 7.5 hours book time for removal.

[720inOlyWa]

When you are facing something as serious as replacing or rebuilding the transmission, you really want to hear somebody say ‘it’s really not too bad...”. So thanks for that, 84720. Also for the tips on using a 2wd transmission and pulling it out from above. When that day comes, I am going to need a tall damn lift! (Maybe I will have to build one!)

 

I finally got my 2 sets of OEM plug and coil wires, and I had the OEM Cap and rotor waiting for the wires for this 4x4 truck. (I wasn’t expecting third gear to be toast.) So tonight, just for the hell of it, I rewired it and replaced the cap and rotor. It really runs great now, though I have no idea how it cruises through the gears. That will have to wait for the transmission solution. The way it runs at the curb now is sweet inspiration, though. It sounds and feels pretty strong. The case is pretty quiet too. Since it is all coming out anyway, it will all come apart and get the lower end rehabbed, bored and ringed, to match that new ‘roo head.

 

I am getting myself psyched. As the heat wave abates a bit, I will do my readin’ up, then dive in...

[Lockleaf]

When I pull my engine, once the engine is ready to come out, I "kneel" my truck to hoist it out of there. I take the tires off and lower the body as far as I can without setting it on the legs of my engine hoist. I slide my Jack inbetween the legs of the hoist and use that on the subframe to move the body around. I also usually remove the hood so I have no issues of hood interference. My truck has the 3 inch lift control arms and rides on 31s, and this process gets the truck body low enough that I can pull the engine out and clear my standard height garage door with hoist as high as it needs to be for the engine to come out.

[84720FourWheel]

I was able to get it out fine, but I lost the first chain that I used to take it out, so the longer one didn't go as high. Had to drop the t bars and then jack up the rear end to get the bastard back in there.

 

I then found the chain the next day.

The hood has to come off, and its helpful to have a couple of other people with to help man handle everything out.

 

The front diff may have to come out, I dropped mine, not sure if there are clearance issues with it in there.

 

 

Drive shaft bolts were a pain. Use the linked wrenches trick. The bolts for the intermediate shaft are most easily accessed through the tcase shifter hole, with the shifter in 4lo.

 

Ooh the throttle cable! Be careful with that, I bent the little metal sleeve at the firewall several times.

 

Don't forget about the reverse light and top gear and neutral switches, got hung up on one of those while pulling the engine.

 

The wiring from the distributor to the ignition module I cut and put connectors on for the next time the engine has to come out.

 

I read you can remove it at the distributor, but I couldn't feel how it came out, and I wasn't pulling the dizzy to figure it out.

 

I'll probably chime in with other tidbits as I remember them.

 

I wonder if they make different syncros that are compatible with gl5 for our trannys... The Royal Purple 75w90 hurts my wallet. 20 bucks a quart.

[Lockleaf]

Use AC Delco Synchromax or equivalent. DatzenMike posted a commentary on it recently and gave it rave reviews. Usually easy to find and comes in at nearly half the cost. It's yellow metal safe.

[84720FourWheel]

Like the Pennzoil GM synchro stuff? I thought about it once but it seemed so thin compared to the 75w90.

[720inOlyWa]

Keep talking, you guys- this is really helpful stuff!