New at engine rebuild L16

[banzai510(hainz)]

never seen one go bad

[datzenmike]

Me either but it could fail you'd never know you were running unfiltered oil. In fact unfiltered oil is fine. Anything metal and heavy is on the pan bottom and the rest of the oil has spent the last three months being run through the filter 20,000 times so it probably pretty clean anyhow. I wouldn't knowingly run it this way but you could.

[Richie]

13 hours ago, banzai510(hainz) said:

never seen one go bad

I’m sure mine wasn’t bad. I didn’t even notice it until the book said check the ball and spring. But it came back from the engine shop missing 🙃

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Shops remove everything when they hot tank the blocks. It's the best way to ensure that all orifices get clean.

[datzenmike]

Good thin you noticed or your oil filter would just be along for the ride.

[Figbuck]

Hey Richie, you inspire me to start rebuilding my L16 this summer! I wish I would have mentioned Colin Messer's Book. I used it 30 years ago when I did the first rebuild on it. I used it again last fall on my L20, along with the same book you are using... and the Nissan 620 field service manual for the torque specs. The book is a lot harder to find cheap, but prolly worth it for some of the pictures and procedures.  You are not to late in the process to read the engine building sections. I recommend it. Good Luck, hang in there.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Keep-Your-Datsun-Nissan-Alive/dp/0912528656

Edited April 24, 2021 by Figbuck
indica x sativa

[Richie]

On 4/23/2021 at 5:54 PM, Figbuck said:

Hey Richie, you inspire me to start rebuilding my L16 this summer! I wish I would have mentioned Colin Messer's Book. I used it 30 years ago when I did the first rebuild on it. I used it again last fall on my L20, along with the same book you are using... and the Nissan 620 field service manual for the torque specs. The book is a lot harder to find cheap, but prolly worth it for some of the pictures and procedures.  You are not to late in the process to read the engine building sections. I recommend it. Good Luck, hang in there.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Keep-Your-Datsun-Nissan-Alive/dp/0912528656

Thank you so much!

[Richie]

Hey guys. Quick question. On the L18 piston rods I matched the numbers with the stamps on the same side. But underneath the rods I see numbers that do not match the numbers stamped. Also on the new pistons I have there is no indicator saying which piston goes to which cylinder. Would any of this be a problem? 
 

https://imgur.com/a/4P5bPmt

 

Edited May 7, 2021 by Richie
Picture

[datzenmike]

Nissan tended to balance everything separately so in theory you could jumble them all around and it would run fine. BUT this should be avoided if at all possible. All parts are never exactly the correct weight so a rod that is just a hair heavy would be matched to a piston that is just a hair light so they cancel out. Rods and rod caps are stamped 1/1 2/2 3/3 and 4/4 so go by that. Pistons have a notch that should face to the front when rod installed and the oil squirter hole on the rod shoulder should be on the spark plug side of the engine.

[Richie]

Hey so let me know if I didn’t wrong. This is piston 1. 
 

https://imgur.com/a/L4lXVMV

 

my friend heated them up 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Those rods look like they got pretty hot. Did you see him heat them? Didi they get red? I heat them until just before they turn gold. It's called "chasing the ghost". Once you see the circle moving just around the flame, that's when they are hot enough.

 

Hopefully your friend didn't overheat them.

[datzenmike]

You tube is full of people heating them blue or more and I cringe. Myself 400F should be lots and you can do this in an electric frying pan full of sand. For god's she use an IR gun. Put the pins in the freezer over night. 

[Richie]

2 hours ago, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

Those rods look like they got pretty hot. Did you see him heat them? Didi they get red? I heat them until just before they turn gold. It's called "chasing the ghost". Once you see the circle moving just around the flame, that's when they are hot enough.

 

Hopefully your friend didn't overheat them.

Ooooo they got red. Are the ruined now? 🙃 and there is a lot of movement. The pin moves but doesn’t go to far pass to hit the cylinder wall. 

[datzenmike]

I imagine the rods are forged and there is some heat treatment. Annealing is the process of heating steel to red hot 500F or more and letting it cool slowly. This removes the hardness to allow it to be worked. The rod is still steel and will work but it is now no longer as hard as it was. You only have to look at the rod originally to see that Nissan did not heat them enough to discolor them when assembling.

 

 

The rod should be interference fit onto the pin. Locked together when cooled, they should slide back and forth sideways in the piston.

[Richie]

2 hours ago, datzenmike said:

I imagine the rods are forged and there is some heat treatment. Annealing is the process of heating steel to red hot 500F or more and letting it cool slowly. This removes the hardness to allow it to be worked. The rod is still steel and will work but it is now no longer as hard as it was. You only have to look at the rod originally to see that Nissan did not heat them enough to discolor them when assembling.

 

 

The rod should be interference fit onto the pin. Locked together when cooled, they should slide back and forth sideways in the piston.

I looked at them just now and they are still pretty straight. The only thing is you can really tell how straight they really are under the actual piston head. I really don’t know what to do now. 

[datzenmike]

They will be straight, and they will work. As I said the rods were probably heat treatedfor additional strength when they were made. After all they have to transmit the power from the pistons to the crankshaft. At highway speeds passing or climbing a hill that's up and down between 50 and 100 times a second. Heat treating can easily be removed by reheating and allowing to cool slowly. I don't know what to advise you to do.

[Richie]

13 minutes ago, datzenmike said:

They will be straight, and they will work. As I said the rods were probably heat treatedfor additional strength when they were made. After all they have to transmit the power from the pistons to the crankshaft. At highway speeds passing or climbing a hill that's up and down between 50 and 100 times a second. Heat treating can easily be removed by reheating and allowing to cool slowly. I don't know what to advise you to do.

Well I did let them cool slowly. I guess I’ll just have to take the chance and learn. First engine rebuild first engine blow up. 

[datzenmike]

For stock use probably ..... ok. I wouldn't if using some power adders. You tube is full of people heating them blue with a hand held torch.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

If they got red, they probably got hot enough to destroy the heat treating. I guess you'll find out...

[Richie]

https://imgur.com/a/0PhhAi2

 

is it ok if this oil plug sticks out and isn’t flushed like the one in the front? Thanks 

[datzenmike]

 

The engine plate won't fit over it and the flywheel might rub. Threads need to be deeper.

[Ooph!]

Check the threads may or may not be a pipe thread hole

[Richie]

27 minutes ago, datzenmike said:

 

The engine plate won't fit over it and the flywheel might rub. Threads need to be deeper.

I’ll grind it down. So I should make it flush? The threads are good. I just barely put it in just for reference. 

[Richie]

https://imgur.com/a/rWugONC
 

this is it hand tighten in 

[Crashtd420]

10 hours ago, Ooph! said:

Check the threads may or may not be a pipe thread hole

They are not tapped from the factory, it's just a press fit slug ...