kringle03

Well here's the situation, and of course I've completed several searches on this quest for an answer.

I have a 93 GXE Auto with the VG engine.

I was traveling home the other day, with about half a tank of gas left, pulled into a shell and filled up (7.3 gal. approximately) and took off home. Got to my complex, stopped to check the mail, put it in reverse and.... stalled.... started car back up and tried to go forward and... stalled.... Rolled into a spot and waited for friends. The only reason I mention the gas is bc it's that last thing to go into the vehicle before it started acting up.

Help arrives, we push it all the back to my garage at my building and then proceed to troubleshoot (things made easier bc of him having a 93 GXE VG also). Started with a fuel additive to help remove water if the gas was contaminated. Engine turned over at this point. Before it was simply cranking (sounding normal, just would never turn over, as you will see in the video).

SO... Progress... or so it seems. Engine would run for a little bit at a low rough idle, as soon as the throttle would open up it would bogg down and die.

Fuel pump turns on.
Fuel pump fuse is good.
Took my MAF out, cleaned it and reinstalled it. No change.
Took my buddies MAF and put it in my car. No Change.
Checked spark across all six wires by grounding them out to the IM. All sparked.
Ohmed out all injectors. (all ~12.3)
Cracked open the case for the timing belt to see if broken. It is intact and working.

The only thing I haven't been able to test yet is the fuel pressure. Any ideas from anyone? She's my baby and my only ride, and absolute must have for work and I can't mess around with this much this week since I'm closing on a house...

Garf

iTrader: (1)

iacv? tps?

gapboi210

wow that motor sounds like it is turing over really quick like it is missing compression. I had a neighbor who neglected her oil changes and her Sentra sounded the same way. Few oil flushes and all was back to normal.

kringle03

Here's most of the recent service...

273,000 Tune Up. NGK Plugs & Wires, Bosch Cap/Rotor & Fuel filter, Crankcase Ventilation Hose Replaced, Oil Change April-09
275,000 New Battery April-09
276,000 Blehmco Grounding Kit and New Hood Struts Installed, Replacement Intake Ventilation Hose, Oil Change May-09
277,000 Tire Rotation and Balance, Battery cables and connectors (+/-) Replaced, Hit dog on Hwy 71, May-09
278,000 New NSA Starter Installed May-09
279,000 Oil Change May-09
282,000 Passenger Side tail light bulb assembly Replaced, Removed Driver Seat/Reinserted Bolt for Tilt, Tires Rotated/Patched RP, Oil Change June-09
283,000 Seafoam Applied to Engine and Gas Tank June-09
284,000 Oil Change for Ticking Noise in Engine. Ticking Still Present. Consulting Tony. July-09
285,000 Added 2 Quarts of Castrol High Milage ATF July-09

LvR

To me it sounds like the recent history and progression of the story points to bad gas or no-intake-air situation.

I would ......................... buy a 5 or 10 liter can of fresh gas, extend your hoses on the fuel pump and dump the pump into the fresh fuel. Manually apply 12V to the pump and leave it circulating for a minute or 2.................. want to see the fuel pressure regulator return lots of fuel

Try starting the car now with the pump still dumped in known fresh fuel.


Also check to see if you maybe haven't sucked a plastic bag or some such onto the air intake that may be blocking off all air into the motor

gapboi210

then again maybe mine turns over just as fast. But it still sounds odd. Could the belt jumped a tooth or two?

kringle03

that NSA starter has it's own kinda chime to it opposed to stock

burhan92SE

u gotta check ur fuel pressure...electrically, ur fuel pump could be right but it could fail mechanically so watch out...

kringle03

Another question... when I get a hold of that fuel pressure gauge... can I leave it in series with the fuel line... or after checking pressure should I remove it? It just seems like it would be nice to have it there already for future reference...

burhan92SE

it doesn't even take 5 mins to hook up the gauge and take it back off...

kringle03

Update:

Tested pressure... it's at it's specified PSI rating of 43.4, so the pump is working and supplying pressure at least to the fuel rail... I'm no mechanic and I'm desperately running out of things to do with my skill set...

burhan92SE

next thing...check ur compression on all cylinders.......

hadman

iTrader: (21)

It does seem like a fuel cut issue to me. By way of what I don't know. But the engine sounds healthy otherwise. You should pull codes from the ECU and see if it turns up anything. You may have additional issues, like an Engine Coolant Temp Sensor, Cam Pos Sensor, IACV, etc...

kringle03

Update:

I had a friend come over today who's a mechanic for the Post Office, and though he just had a moment to point me in the right direction, I think we're heading there... Despite what I said earlier we are no longer getting spark. Pointing directly to the Distributor. (Which btw seems to be cracked along each screw hole, will post pix later.) Removing the distributor and cranking the gear that drives the distributor gear was not turning, which my friend observed...

My question, what is that "gear" attached to/apart of? I'm not sure by the FSM and online parts manuals if it's part of the camshaft or part of say the cmps?

LvR

broken off crank snout?
broken cam belt?
loose cam-belt?

If the crank rotates the cams rotate by way of the belt and the dissy is driven by that

kringle03

the dissy is driven by what? the cam? or a gearing on the cam? (that's my question, though it wasn't very clear in my previous post I must admit)

LvR

On the Lh cam, that bevelled gear just behind where the pully gets bolted to

1993-VG30E-GXE

Is it possible your engine has seized because of a dead oil pump or dying oil pump? Check the bottom of the distributor...is it bathed in oil? Mine was dry...I suspect for me, it is either a dying oil pump or clogged oil galleries, that MAY have eventually caused oil starvation on that side of the cylinder head....where the distributor is.

All will be revealed when I open it up once it stops raining.

kringle03

When we took it out, it was covered in oil. So it would seem that the oil pump is operating fine.

Well that gear wasn't spinning on the LH camshaft. So I guess that could mean the camshaft gear could be busted.... the timing belt could have gone... or the crankshaft could have ripped itself out... it's gonna be towed and taken to my mechanic this morning... I'll report back with what we find out...

infinitiblast

iTrader: (2)

Car is turning over way to easy. I'm voting for timing belt.

kringle03

Here's what I was referring to about the cap being broken at the screws... the White "marks" on the cap are actually places that the cap split...

LvR

Don't know who fitted those earth straps, but he should get a swift kick in the nuts imo - the whole cap to rotor alignment is screwed and also the water seal/protection is gone.

That cap is supposed to have metal grommets through which the screws pass thereby ensuring the cap always seat snugly on the o-ring at the bottom of the cap, the screws cannot get over tightened to damage the plastic of the cap and the proper seating of the cap flat on the metal surface also ensures proper alignment of the coil tab and individual cylinder tabs with the spinning rotor inside the cap .............. does your cap have those metal screw inserts? - doesn't look like it

kringle03

Na sure doesn't... GO BOSCH!... lol... well it seems that the damage to the cap and rotor were due to the camshaft breaking and causing an upward trauma force to the dissy... anyway valves are gone... looking into a replacement engine and accompanying costs... any pointers on an engine swap would be helpful...

285K is not bad for a motor IMO. And I'm not easy on my car by any means, thank you Nissan for making a great engineering piece of art!

LvR

Irrespective of what happens that kick sure is needed - it sure is not the way to securely locate a earth strap.

Sorry to hear about the broken cam and scrap motor, but yeah, I guess Nissan did a decent design job on the VG motor - cant remember ever hearing of a cam snapping on its own on a VG though its possible - can you post a pic or 2?

So your cam-belt is totally in tact? - where exactly did the cam break?

kringle03

Unfortunately, I don't have any specifics yet but once I get the new motor in it (about a week out, so around next Friday) I'll tear down the old engine and post pics of the damages... it pains me to have to toss another motor in though...

kringle03

And just to clear that up, I agree it's not the best way to do so; though I was simply following instructions of the grounding kit... at the time I didn't want to remove the dissy... Don't worry it'll be inverted and put in place of the original ground under the dissy on the new engine

infinitiblast

iTrader: (2)

Let me know how that motor swap goes, I believe I'll be in the same boat within the next few months.

kringle03

Will do! I'll have a full damage report by the end of it with pix, plus I'm sure I'll be parting out sections of the old engine if anyone is interested. I'll post what I have, just PM me.

infinitiblast

iTrader: (2)

If its got some good injectors I might take the whole fuel rail off ya.

kringle03

Yeah the whole set of em are good...

1993-VG30E-GXE

Kringle what do you think caused the camshaft to break? Lack of Oil, Old Age, Improper Timing Belt Function? Maybe take a look when you see it. I'm just curious to know the cause.

CapedCadaver

iTrader: (8)

hard debris inside the valve cover? overtightened timing belt? just personal hypotheses... not sure if they are sound or legitimate.

kringle03

Hard debris is a possibility. one of the last things done to the engine was the adding of seafoam to the crank case as well as the fuel tank... that very well could have dislodged chunks of carbon buildup inside the casing causing this problem... but that all remains to be seen... I'll post what I find...

Another quick question, was there an upgraded part for our exhaust studs? I know it's been mentioned before that the common "upgrade" is to drill out and tap in 300ZX studs as replacements, but did Nissan actually come up with a revised stud for our cars? While this new engine is still out, we are going to be doing as much to it as possible, so as to avoid future problems.

drifter_240sx

i wanna see pix of the old cam shaft never heard of one snappin in a max before

kringle03

So the replacement engine came in the other week, here's a few pix of it





It's in pretty decent shape, and only has 82,000 miles on it.... got it for $600 with a one year warranty on parts and labor....

So here's what we found as the culprit....


The crankshaft tore itself clean off!

It had damage on it that we observed about 30/40K back (a small nick in the half-moon key slot) but decided that I would just drive it till the thing gave up... and sure enough it did...

Zero_webb

I know you said you checked the Timing belt, but my Maxima pulled a very similar trick, and it turned out the timing belt itself was good but the Idler pulley was out.

kringle03

Well I checked the timing belt while it was still running... there was a point in time that it would still run though very poorly... and I just cracked open the timing belt housing to see if it was turning... and it was then... after it wouldn't start anymore i didn't recheck it....

ColombianMax

iTrader: (7)

Although you've found the problem already, I must agree with some of the people here. It really sounded like the timing belt had snapped due to the fast cranking but having that snap will also do that. Where'd you get your replacement engine? not too bad for the miles and warranty..

kringle03

Engine was from Greenleaf Auto salvage... they are nationwide, and deal with independent people as well as shops though with shops they don't charge freight...

Update:

The tranny was leaking pretty bad, in the past week prior to the mechanical failure of the crank... took it into a nearby shop... all the bearings were really rough, multiple gears were literally broken across teeth, burned plates, the whole bit was completely shot! Even the case was messed up, the lever that moves back and forth to adjust for pressure had gotten worn down and stuck in position so that the pressure would never change across the tranny! BUT I lucked out, they actually had a VG tranny there that they are going to tear down and completely rebuild for about $1100! A great price, though it is all bench work... they didn't have to take it out of the car.

So I'm getting a new engine, new tranny, prolly ordering a new rack and pinion, and then we're good to go! But my wallets about to be in the hurt

ColombianMax

iTrader: (7)

Wow...altogether its gonna be a costly repair. You should def be good for many years to come though