Ken-chan's car blog

Valve cover painting is one of my favorite diy’s.  Granted it’s nothing fancy like powder coating, it still adds something cool to the unique setup.  I try to make each valve cover bit different from the other.

To clean, prepare & paint a valve cover expect to spend good 7-8 hours of mostly wait time and about 1.5-2 hours of actual work… Ensure you get about 3 coats of paint with some breaks between for each stage.

Let’s start…

1. Clean up the valve cover using degreaser, 400 grit paper, steel brush if needed – avoid creating scratches.

Afterwards wash degreaser off with water, dry it or blow out with air gun.  Tape off the cover top openings to prevent overspray from getting in (follow the shape of the oil cap).

2. Use vaseline to mark off areas you don’t want painted, such as lettering.

3. Use filler/primer to spray the cover – hopefully wet-sandable – if you spot uneven surfaces, use wet sandpaper to smooth it out. If you can’t find filler-primer combo, extra oversprays with some time out can help to make surface even. Afterwards let it dry.

4. Spray it with your high-temperature favorite color – in this case I chose orangy-red (lol tang? I am not good with color naming).

5. For the 3d feel / effect, I used mesh – ensure it’s tight (can use elastics) to give you good spread out pattern.

6. Overspray with another color – this time choose a darker color so that when you remove the mesh, the net effect will create lighter mesh effect.

7. After spraying few layers, leave it for a while with the mesh on.. once it hardens, gently peel the mesh away from surface – you will see the 3d effect and also bottom color will now show up as a grid.

8. Have a favorite sticker you would like to embed into your valve cover? Ensure it is a sticker with a shape – as the shape will transfer to the cover. Gently stick it on.. you can put very little bit of vaseline on the back of the sticker for easy removal. Just ensure that vaseline doesn’t spread over any surface areas or paint won’t grip there.

9. For this step, I’ve decided to create an effect of dark lettering on light background. I’ve measured out and created a spray rectangle over the lettering & sprayed 3 layers (with some time between) over the stickers and anything in that rectangle.

10. Now using exacto knife.. gently peel away the letter stickers..
As for nissan lettering.. Use qtip to rub off the paint – since the vaseline is below the paint, the paint will simply drop off the areas where you applied vaseline.. Use small paint brush to finish off the edges around lettering – it will remove the excess pieces you may have missed.

I found as an added protection – clear coat helps and surprisingly stands temperature well – spray 2-3 times (again with dry time between) – it will add more protection to the paint.

Here is the big shot for upclose…

Click here

And here is another valve cover done using similar but slightly different techniques.

And here they are for comparison…

Click here

And one more gloss-black for the new engine build…

Enjoy!

Back in June I replaced my balljoint – the whole process took very little time because of a rental tool I got from Partsource. NOTE: I was advised that it might be too big to work on the 240sx – it takes a bit of figuring out how to put the plate pieces in place to make it fit

Free tool rental if you return within X days = $ saved and less typical finger damage than using traditional hammer pounding.

I heard of torching methods to loosen the balljoint but this is not a good way to remove these as they can turn into projectiles and cause severe damage.  Google it and don’t try it.

Removal is reverse of the installation basically so please look at later photos to help you understand removal which I didn’t take photos for

After determining that the issue was a balljoint failure, I found out about the free tool rentals that some shops offer – I rented the “balljoint press” after putting a deposit down.  Here is what it looks like:

Here is what i did to get started:

1. Raise the vehicle on the side with the faulty balljoint.  Secure with jack stand.

***Safety goggles on – it’s amazing how cheap these things are for what they protect.  I have to make a note about it here: I’ve seen things fly out, grease pop out, rust and other crap fly from under the car and head towards my face.  I’ve been in emergency twice for removal of crap from my eyes – including one time piece that got stuck near my pupil.  Happily no damage and I can see well.  But I see people go under the car with no eye protection and I just wish I could let them know how cheap the solution is when the problem could mean their eyesight and/or thousands of dollars in treatment for pair of $3.99 glasses.  It’s no brainer to me – I use them all the time – as I enter garage to do anything.  One of my friends has a tear in his eye from rust piece – he has a blind spot because of it.  Interestingly – one of his priorities is safety for people he works with.  What’s the price for losing eyesight?  Gotta be more than $3.99.  So having ranted on – get the frickin safety glasses already and let’s continue

2. Remove brake caliper – usually 2 bolts – secure it with a wire to the steering arm + sway bar to ensure you don’t twist or break the brake line.  Don’t lose the pad shims if it came with them.  Remove caliper bracket – usually 2 larger bolts.  Now remove rotor.  You should see plain hub-axle like this:  (I cheated a bit – this is an after-job photo)

3. Take pliers in combination with a good screwdriver and pry the pin out of the locknut on top of the balljoint.  It will take some effort – you can use a precision punch to knock the pin out from the side of the nut.  Once you do that. you should be able to unscrew the nut.  Use a prybar on the wrench if you need to.

4.  With the NUT off, you have balljoint that’s stuck in the hub-axle very likely.  Take a hammer and give it a good wack on the side of the hub where the balljoint spline enters the hub-axle.  You should see the lower control arm loosen and drop a bit – this indicates you were successful.

Now mark with marker (for alignment) and unbolt the 2 top 19mm nuts that hold the hub-axle to the strut tower and rest the hub-axle on the side carefully – I used a solid protein jar to support it in position so that I wouldn’t have to remove tie rod (you will see this in few other pics).  This gave me the clearance to work and apply the press on the arm without removing it from the car.

Now remove the snap-ring securing the balljoint from falling out of the lower control arm.  You will need to use snap-ring pliers (see installation section below for a way to remove / install this ring).

5.  Now you have enough clearance to take out your rental press and put it on to do the job.  Choose the cup and top plate that does the job – should have good support from the bottom that rests on outer edge and doesn’t apply force of the press to the center of the balljoint bottom.

6. Now go slowly at first and ensure that it doesn’t create issues.  It might be a good idea to place a small cloth between where the press will rest against the arm as you turn it over.  It left a small mark on my arm – no issue functionally but if you can avoid it – why not.  Now keep turning until it pushes it out and drops into the lower cup of the press.  I am not making it sound easy – sometimes u need a pipe on that wrench to turn it like I had to, but in comparison to typical process of balljoint removal – it’s 5 minutes vs couple of hours (NO JOKE!).

7. Bingo!  Here is the shot of the 2 combo pieces I used on my 240sx to remove the balljoint…

8. Removed it.  Great – now it looks dirty though.

9. Let’s clean it up.  Bit of wd40 to clean away the grease (don’t use some corrosive solutions for cleaning).  Also you can use very fine grit sandpaper (400) to remove any rusty crap from there – don’t polish too much or you will wear out the hole and your ball joint will not hold in place properly.  Just clean up any stuff left over by previous balljoint & dirt.  Afterwards wipe it all off with paper towel.

10. This is what the clean one should look like – smooth feel around the hole.  Disregard the damage on the outer rim – I think that’s how I bought the car.  My guess is that one of the previous owners didn’t rent the press

11. Checking to see how far the new balljoint goes in without pressing in – doesn’t catch the ring yet (“finger press” hahaha).

12. Lube the OUTSIDE of the balljoint!  Same with the balljoint hole in the lower control arm – it’ll make it easier to go in without damage.  Don’t worry – it won’t spin or get loose afterwards   Any non-corrosive lubricant will work here – I used hydraulic oil that we use for lubricating pneumatic tools.

13. Select your plates for the press and start pressing it while watching carefully not to damage the balljoint.  Notice the combo I use – the bottom of the balljoint uses a cylinder that presses on outer edge of the balljoint not the center to avoid damage!

14. Keep stopping and remove the press once in a while  to make sure you got clearance in the upper cup so you won’t cause damage to the balljoint.  As you can see I had enough clearance still but I kept checking – no point of tightening it all the way to find out that you busted the grease cup on the balljoint and caused physical damage to the balljoint.  Stop and keep checking every few turns:)  Once you’ve checked that it went in all the way (look at the bottom and see clearance – there should be no spacing between control arm and the bottom of the balljoint.

15. Let’s put on the new snap-ring.

16. Done.  check out the angle of snap ring – i positioned it for easy access & removal if I ever want to access it with the hub-axle still in place.

17. Now put the hub-axle back on, tighten 2 x 19mm bolts to torque specs after ensuring the tower lines up with the alignment marks you made earlier.

18. Now bring the lower control arm with balljoint towards the hub axle, put on the nut and tighten it to torque specs.  Afterwards put in the nut lock pin and bend the ends to prevent it from coming out by itself from the vibrations.

19.  Reassemble brakes & double check your work before putting on the tires to make sure nothing is loose. (Noticed that pad is scratching my disc in the middle in the photo).

Enjoy the firm ride

S: Steering feels loose (shifts) when entering a high speed turn. When going fast (highway) and turning the wheel to follow an arc or turn, car jolts / shifts and makes steering more difficult to keep in line. It feels like car shifted weight for a moment and now it’s moving left or right in terms of steering. It feels like steering is loose during either LEFT or RIGHT turns.

C: Possible FRONT passenger or driver side lower ball joint failure.

Testing: Inspect both front lower balljoints. Usually when you are seeing symptoms when doing a high speed LEFT turn, the faulty ball joint will be on the PASSENGER SIDE. When you are seeing the problem when doing a high speed RIGHT turn, you will likely find the faulty balljoint on the DRIVER SIDE. It has to do with weight shift as you travel fast and make a turn – the faulty ball joint cannot take the beating and starts to loosen up causing that steering “shift” feeling.

Put a pry bar underneath the hub axle and test couple of angles to see if balljoint is loose – side to side and pull up on the axle and see if it pops out. Also visually inspect it for cracks or leaking grease. If it’s either loose or pops out or it’s leaking, replace it.

Solution: If either balljoint is found to be faulty, replace it with a new one.

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR REPLACEMENT INSTRUCTIONS

Happy belated New Year! This is a DIY idea for those of you that have experience issues with Idle Air Control Valve (IACV) acting up or just interfering with tuning altogether. On some newer EMS systems, it is possible to control IACV for tuning purposes but in this DIY, I’ll demonstrate another way to do it. Typical challenges with missing IACV are the cold morning starts that require light foot on the gas for 15-20 seconds to keep the throttle plate open enough to get the engine going. In the winter, it becomes even more tedious because if you let off too early with the throttle together with fuel enrichment – you could potentially flood it if you stall it. Then you must pop the fuel pump fuse and then crank it. I’ve only had it happen once but it’s not fun.

So whining aside let’s come up with a solution that keeps iacv out for tuning advantage and also lets us start the car without mickey-mousing with the gas pedal…

Below is the diagram of the idea I started with. It is based around the vacuum solenoids I took off the 2 corolla gt-s’es I took apart. Tested the vacuum solenoid – held up to over 20 psi without issues – fits the bill.

And here is the actual pieces I’ve started to work on already…

Please stay tuned for updates

I’ve waited a while before posting this item as I wasn’t sure how it would turn out until I’ve run it for a while. Most people are aware that tubular manifolds are prone to crack from the vibrations of the exhaust downpipe starting with the 4th runner.

On my old manifold I noticed that all cracks start from the rear tube going to the front with 4th one having the most damage, 3 less and so on. I noticed my first manifold tube was ok, but the 3 others had cracks. This makes sense with the idea that exhaust vibration and weight + heat expansion + cheap manifold all play a role in eventually having cracks appear & stuff breaking beginning with the last tube closest to the downpipe.

So I thought: why don’t we strengthen the rear & take some load off the exhaust 4th tube? At the same time help to reduce vibrations.

*note: I started with a mockup motor but eventually noticed that my 3″ exhaust elbow that’s on my current motor has slightly different layout so in the final pictures it will look not exactly fitting for the current elbow.*

Dabbed too many weld tears on there… prototyping

And the final product (on the actual motor – not the mockup):

So far I’ve noticed no issues with it. It keeps it firmer. Obviously time will tell if the extra support aided in distributing the weight & vibrations…

In case you need to replace windshield wipers in your nissan 240sx, the following information will help you identify the lengths of each wiper blade depending on the car model.

Nissan 240sx – S13 (1989-1993)
Driver side – 20″ (inches)
Passenger side – 20″ (inches)
Rear/Hatch – 20″ (inches)

Nissan 240sx – S14 (1995-1998)
Driver side – 21″ (inches)
Passenger side – 20″ (inches)

Here’s one idea how to do boost leak testing:
Hook up one end of you boost leak tester to the intercooler piping and the other end to the air compressor valve or pump. Pressurize the intercooler piping and use 5/8″ hose to listen in & pinpoint any air leaks. You can do boost leak testing on individual intercooler pipe pieces / blow-off-valves, etc. as well if you suspect they are not holding up to the desired pressure.

*** NOTE: Use safety goggles – pressurized piping + things lying around it become potential projectiles.

This is what I typically do:

1. With engine off, I usually remove coupler that connects intercooler piping to turbo, install my boost leak tester there.
2. Pressurize the whole system, prop open the gas pedal with a piece of wood or brick to ensure I get full pressure flow for testing any manifold leaks as well.
3. Obviously there will be some leakage depending on cam/valve positions where the engine stopped, so pressure may drop over time. What we are doing is
   listening to external air leaks around couplers, throttle body, manifold, piping, etc.
4. To aid in listening for the air leaks, grab a 5/8″ hose .. While your buddy or you keep pressurizing the piping to specific psi with hand valve, walk around & probe with the hose for leaks. If you hear a leak through the hose, look where the other end is pointing then turn it to figure out the exact spot of the leak.
   (Note: quiet pressurized air chamber with air compressor off makes sense – loud compressor working in the background does not since you won’t hear any air leaks).
5. Once you figured out the issue, solve the leak – if it’s piping, reweld it, if it’s hose coupler, tighten it up, etc. then retest until the pressure stops dropping fast.

That was my brief idea on boost leak testing. Now, let’s make the tester. Here’s what you’ll need:

• A gauge to measure pressure that you’ve built up in the intercooler piping (or you can use the one inside your car if you have it mounted already).
• Air compressor that you can turn on / off or buddy with a footpump to pressurize the piping up to specific pressure you want to test for. If it is an air compressor, make sure that you have quick on/off switch handy to ensure you do not over pressurize the piping beyond what you are testing for OR you will definitely find a leak or make a new one fast. I test my piping to 22 psi since at most I am peaking 17 psi. If I upgrade bunch of things and my requirements change, I’ll have to raise the pressure level for testing as well.

After making few dual gauge pods a while ago, I ended up with 2 1/16″ wooden cylinders that came out after the cutting was done. My intercooler piping on the hot side is 2″ so putting the 2″ intercooler coupler fits well over the wooden cylinder – just needed to clean up the edges a bit and wholla.

Notice the X in the middle of the wooden cylinder. It is the X used to mark the gauge center – I didn’t even have to drill the center since the cutout saw drill did it for me when I was making the gauge. I hammered in a 2 way barbed fitting so that I can attach vacuum hose for pressurizing the tester. I did clean the center a bit to make sure I won’t dump some wooden pieces in the piping, but it was a win-win situation: make gauge pod, reuse pieces to make a boost leak tester all in one shot.

Some new DIY projects…

Please check out this link to view the diy guide:

http://www.makemilk.com/pic_hosting/s1495/diy/mc505_potentiometer_repair/

A short tune after repair with mc-505, roland xp50 and korg x3.

korg x3: elec guitar

roland xp50: piano, strings

roland mc505: everything else

MC505.mp3 a short tune test if mc505 works

Hia people… A quick update on ka-t3: it’s running good + good compression – over 1050 km on it (broken on on stock s14 ka24de ecu + safc)  – time to start boosting   In the mean time I’ve torn apart the older motor (ka-t2) to start working on it…

Just a quick spirit booster…

For KA-T4, we will be doing a slight upgrade to everything including the blower…

Change of plans… All turbo components for KA-T4 are gone now…

Here is a good way to quickly fabricate an alignment tool for the piston rings…

To get your alignment print-out tool:

1. Open your factory service manual (FSM) to the engine rebuild page which shows the piston ring alignment.

2. Copy (hit print-system request button).

3. Open your favorite image editing application and select EDIT->PASTE from the menu.

4. Cut out rest of the image except the piston ring alignment diagram.  Enlarge the section about 200-250%, print a sample.  See if the center of the piston in the diagram roughly fits the real size of the piston.  It may take 1 or 2 guesses.

5. Once you have a final printout, use exacto knife or scissors to make a nice tight hole to slide over the piston.

6. Now put some bubble wrap around the rod bottom (to prevent any possible scratches) if you are using vice to hold the rod-piston in position when putting the rings in.