Wynona the wagon's resurrection!

[DRIVEN]

Bout fuckin time

[HRH]

Maybe if you came down here and helped out, it would go quicker!! Dropped the pans off to Joe today, going to work them up, probably be another two weeks before I can even put them on. The timing parts are here though, so I'll probably tear down the engine a little further and do water pump, timing belt, tensioners, etc. Apparently the water pump is coming this Friday. I thought I forgot to order it but I didn't, yay!

[HRH]

Got the oil pan back today. Made a 1" section out of the back, hopefully should clear the crossmember. I suspect I'm going to have to modify the pickup, but we'll see. The dogs went with me to Walgreens to get some cold medicine for the wife.

[HRH]

Wait for it.....photo dump to come!

[HRH]

Got the garage nice and toasty today, ended up getting it torn down to the point of happiness. Have new parts to put on after some cleaning. The cams don't move much but I made a tool anyway, so yeah, I'm Batman! Not that thrilled with the water jacket being full of rust sludge. I smooshed it and smelled it, it's definitely rust, although nearly looks like stop leak. No big chunks, just a paste. Thinking I may run a garden hose reservoir through it on first start up instead of my nice brass radiator. We're a ways away from that yet though. Need to find some broken connectors, a temp sensor (also broken) and lots of vacuum lines, etc. Not sure what I'm going to do for an intercooler but I'll find something. For being a 94, this thing is still fairly complex and all the water fittings look like shit. That's what happens in a salty coastal area though.

The oil pan does not fit with the stock oil pickup now, but I took the L26 oil pickup off, and it looks almost identical for fitment, but sits farther back. Going to do a little fiddling, but I think I may be able to swap the L26 pickup to the RB block and have it work just fine.

[HRH]

Nice rust, huh? It gets better!

[wayno]

It appears to have had straight water in it instead of an antifreeze mix.

[Laecaon]

I once got one of those dick shaped water pumps. I then told the company to send the proper one for my motor or they wouldnt get theirs back. I got a RB25 WP instead of a CA18 WP. They go for significantly different money, OEM.

I would just hook it up as is to the hose...

[DRIVEN]

I agree with both Wayno and Jacob. Looks like they were running straight water. I'd really consider sourcing a set of new freeze plugs, knocking the old ones out, and flushing the shit out of that thing before it goes back together. Back and forth and see if you can get in the water jackets with brushes, etc. I'd hate to see you have to fight plugged up radiators and heater cores after you go through all this work.

Also, Nissan vacuum and water piping is fucking retarded.

[HRH]

I may pop a plug or two and see how it looks. I don't disagree, just really wanted to put shit on and go. Bah. Fuck this shit for now, I'm going to go eat. Found VG30 thermostat and RB are the same, and I got a temperature switch from a 2001 Frontier that appears to be the same as the broken one. Just have to ohm them out and check the connector. The one I got fits a shit ton of vehicles, probably correct.

[HRH]

Ok, haven't verified the temp sensor yet, but I did find 2002-2006 Nissan Sentra QG1.8 MAF connector will likely work for the RB20 MAF connector. I'll go to pull and save tomorrow and get one to try.

[HRH]

So the MAF connector from 05 and 06 Sentras with QG18DE didn't work, they have smaller pin sizes. BUT the '04 Sentra MAF sensor connector works! It has 5 wires, just have to omit one. Slight ohms difference on the temperature sensor I picked up, but I think its close enough to be the same. Actually, just found the factory number on the internet and back crossed it. Same temp sensor as 2001 KADE from Frontier and a ton of other stuff. 1435077 ATM part number at your local NAPA. So that will work. Pieces coming together.

Latest issue is I wanted to replace the oil pump seal just because. Found out the crank sprocket gears on RBs like to weld to the crankshaft. Typically have to split them to remove, then put on a new gear. So debating if I want to do that, or just say fuck it and leave it alone. Think I'm going to order the parts just so I have them if I need them. All this RB shit takes too long to get. So far, not much other than seals and some sensors crosses over to any USDM stuff. Not too hard to get parts, but it's all ordering online and waiting a week or more. Got to get a clutch set coming too. The flywheel had some pretty decent hot spots on it, but nothing too terrible. Should turn out okay. All sorts of clutch sets with flywheels oddly enough. Doesn't look like there should be any issue with turning the flywheel. Not a dual mass or anything, just standard Nissan.

[Laecaon]

The oil pump on the RB is similar to the CA. They dont have too much issue. And yes I went and removed the Timing Cog on the crank. I drilled/tapped it and pulled it off that way.

CA is kinda sort the baby RB like they say. Uses a lot of the same accessories, or at least design. Same hydraulic lifters, same head design. At least we got USDM FWD CA18DE so gasket kits are easy.

[HRH]

Yeah I started reading up on that, the crank sprocket is slightly thicker on the CA oddly. Like 3 mm. Either way, have all parts coming. I like your idea of drilling tapping. Think I'll do that and make a puller, that ought to work nicely. I don't even really need to do anything, no signs of leakage, but I'd rather replace a 90's hard seal now than wait for it to start leaking after I install. Or wear a groove in the crank.

[HRH]

So the only part I'm waiting on now is the oil pan gasket, which had to be ordered from Japan. Boo. But I did find the rubber grommets for the timing cover, part no. (13524-D0113) or 2 on the end depending are a pain in the ass to get and expensive anyway. So after testing some things, looks like I can cut slivers of 5/16 fuel hose and make those work just fine. So there we go. Got all the timing parts and clutch set in today.

[Laecaon]

FRSport.com often has parts instock if you don't want to wait.

[HRH]

Yep, already ordered a bunch from FRsport.com Found Raw Brokerage in Florida to be quite helpful as well. Couldn't find any recent posts on being reputable or not, but sent me the two plates for the cam gear I wanted fairly quickly via USPS, so that was nice.

No one had the oil pan gasket though. That had to be ordered from Japan. I wouldn't use it, but I've found it's much easier to separate a pan than using sealant alone. The Right Stuff welds the pan to the block. I'm still going to put it on both sides of the pan gasket, but if I do have to take it off, the chisel will blow out the fiber gasket and then I just have some extra clean up. I thought about using an L26 pan gasket and just sectioning it, but I don't have time to work on it right now anyway so I'll just wait.

[HRH]

Think I probably should also yank off a rod bearing cap or two while I have the pan off and check the condition of the rod bearings. I'm a little annoyed I turned it over so much without having oil pressure. Pump lost prime from sitting, even with full pan. It's probably fine, especially with no load, but I think check is a good idea at this stage in the game. Going to try and get out in the garage tomorrow and do some work now that I have all the other parts. Tweaked my neck Thursday though, been trying to take it easy so I can swivel my damn head again. Getting old sucks.

[HRH]

Damn, got too late, decided my efforts would be better inside cleaning out our equipment room so it can be a workout room once more. I'll probably have some time off this next week if it's still slow, I'll get to it then.

[HRH]

What a motherfucker! The crank gear was a bitch. I originally only drilled and tapped two holes in it, tried to pull it off, wasn't having it. Bolts kept bending, didn't get it quite on straight for the holes. Anyway, ended up cutting the gear on top of the key way with a die grinder, then a Christmas tree carbide burr to make a trough, and then drilled out that hole so it just barely went into the keyway. That was the last amount of pressure it needed, came right off then! Still needed the puller. Rusty dust crank, cleaned up pretty easily with some 220 though.

The seal I crossed to an older Nissan number does appear to work just fine. 211-8547 from NAPA in the ATM line. Crosses to a 15800 from SKF. Original seal was a AH2342F NOK seal. That didn't exist in the interchange for SKF though. So the oil pump seal is in, going to get lunch, then start putting her back together. I probably could have just left it, the original seal wasn't too hard, but oh well. The two top seals can be done in-car easily. The bottom one, not so much.

And yes, I'll have pictures and video later.