ka24de valve train mess

[freeze2104]

So i traded my xbox for another 240 to use as a donor. It came with 3 heads with no valvetrain installed. EVERYTHING is in bags.. now ive been reading that when you take the valves and everything out to make sure they are in correct order. What do i do if everything is in a couple different bags... all the valves in 1 bag and springs, shims.. ect in other bags. how the hell do i figure out which valve goes where and the rest of the stuff???? Any help is greately appreciated!!!!:confused:

[Rabboni]

You go smack your forehead against a table. Then, take your head, and valves to a machine shop to have them machined, ground, lapped, then assembled. There are people that will tell you to just assemble them all willy-nilly, but dont listen; their way may work, but it wont be reliable and is likely to fail.

[freeze2104]

:bash: hmm... any idea as to how much that would usually cost? I really only got the car for the 5 speed parts when i do my swap but i figured wth, why not put the engine back together and have 2 working 240s but if its going to cost an ass ton of money then ill just sell of everything and take the 5 speed parts lol.

[Rabboni]

It shouldnt cost you too much money. I couldnt tell you off the top of my head, but any machine shop could give you a quote really quickly over the phone. However, parting out the 240 will lead to a high profit margin when compared to the price of an xbox. So, it up to you to decide between cash, or another 240sx/moneypit.

[nismoman]

It's not as bad as you think. You just have to match up the intake and exhaust valves have them lapped to the seats. New valve seals. And re shim the buckets. You could even do it yourself with a repair manual.

[napz510]

The shop that I went to, charged me $185 for the resurface, new seals, valve job, pressure test and setting the valve lash. I think it's a fair deal..

[freeze2104]

the guy i got everything from gave me a sweet ass deal for everything lol(i kind of felt bad) He threw in a kit with new seals and a bunch of other stuff. Anyone know a DIY guide for valve lapping? i have some extra valves and heads to practice on :keke:

[doomviillain]

take it to a machine shop and the'll replace the springs, retainers, valves, resurface, and guides as well as calibrate the lifters. If you wrongly adjust the lifters you can throw off the compression. I got my heads rebuilt for $180, if you ask me its more than just a fair price.

[LayNLow]

Actually dual cam KA's do not have lifters. It has a shim on bucket valvetrain design.

[1sik240sx]

Lap the valves and pray to jesus.

[eazye2000]

Also, something to pay BIG attention to:
Make sure the cam caps are in order, and attached to each head accordingly.
They have 'I' and 'E' and then a number stamped onto them with an arrow.
I1-> means it's the Intake Cam, first cap starting from the front of the head/bumper. And the arrow points to the front of the car.
E3-> would be Exhaust Cam, third cap from the front, arrow points to front of car.
I hope I explained that right.....

If not, junk the head(s). Each head is machined from the factory with those caps in place, and cannot be swapped around. Basically, the head is line honed for the cams. You can't just swap caps around and have good tolerances. You can get away with it sometimes, but it eats up the bearing surfaces in the head/aluminum.
Basically, the caps would have to be ground down a bit, and re-honed. But then that throws your cam-to-shim clearance off and that's a whole different mess... Plus it costs 200-300 bucks for each cam. Then however much to machine the stem of the valve down the same amount the hone took off.

Hope I got that out there correctly. PM me if you have any questions.

[freeze2104]

the head im using actually has the cam caps still on luckily lol.. ill call a few shops and see what they would charge.. if its more than i want to spend ill just try it my self and if it starts and runs, sweet, if not ill sell it and it wont be my problem anymore haha. youll never learn unless you try right? i still have my nice one to actually do right lol

[eazye2000]

The best advice I have, if you are going to try and use one of the spare heads:
Plop a cam in the slot. Then put the caps on, and tighten slowly according to the FSM. Try to turn the cam after each cap is tightened. If that one cap binds up the cam, swap it out for another one in the box of assorted goodness..
I hope it works out for you. As before, if you need any help, PM me.

[freeze2104]

nice i didnt think of that, well at least it will give me something to do over the winter. Thanks for all the advice!

[freeze2104]

so i wanted to make sure everything was good... i called the guy and asked him if the head with the cams and cam caps were all from the same head and he said no.. so with what you said in the previous post i should just junk all of it and get a head that works and is assembled?? or should i continue with this fun little project :bash: There is a guy on craigslist with a working assembled head for $100 should i just get that, start re assembling everything or get some expirience in the internal parts of engines??? sorry for all the dumb kind of obvious wanting advice questions lol.

[nismoman]

If you are not confident you can put the head together then I would just spend the 100 and sell the rest. It's easy if you've done it before but real confusing if you haven't and have a box of parts.

[freeze2104]

I think I'll buy the head and try and fix the other one that way if I get two working ones I can sell one of them. Then it also gives me an idea of what to expect when I do my sr swap in my nicer of the two 240's. Thank you guys for all the advice!!! Once taxes come back its swap time and a build thread lol. Thanks again!!