Major problems with ZD30 - D22...

[pedrok5000]

Hi, posting on behalf of a friend that needs some help

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Agreed to help out a mate with an 02 D22 ZD30. He'd been told he needed a new head, and quoted $4,500 for the work. He doesn't have that kinda money available presently (he's had a shocking year), but desperately needs the truck running again so he can get up to Gladstone to be with his sick wife.

I took a look at it for him and found the coolant bubbling at a little under normal operating temps. Told him while it might be the head, we could replace the gasket for a price he *can* afford, and it might do the job...

Got some specs and stuff faxed over from Nissan, but failed to notice the cam bearing cap bolt torque figures weren't there until I went to tighten them on Saturday night. He / we didn't want to sit around waiting until Monday for the specs, so I made a (bad) judgement call and proceeded to torque the bearings by hand.

Engine back together and running beautifully on Sunday (turned out to only be the head gasket - w00t!), so he loads up, hooks up the boat and starts out. Half an hour later, the cops brought him back - he'd broken down 2 minutes up the road (although we drove it around for half an hour while testing). We recovered the boat and truck, and hit the key. Sounded like a broken timing chain.

Pulled down the engine, and found the timing chain intact, but the sprocket spinning on the cam gear. Broken locater dowel. Nissan only sell the dowel attached to the gear so $62 later I fit the new gear, properly torque the cams (I had overtightened for sure originally), reassemble engine and start. Idling like the chain's a tooth out. Pull it back down again to find the chain lines up properly against the sprockets. However, found that the dowel has broken *again*, allowing the sprocket this time to only move about the distance of a tooth (I had also now gotten the torque spec for the bolt that holds the sprocket and gear onto the cam, and assume I hadn't tightened that far the first time around).

I'm now extremely apprehensive to touch this engine again until I know exactly what's going on. Unfortunately, though, the owner *really* needs his truck on the road again, like a week ago

Any clues? I don't suppose any of you are intimately familiar with this engine and also located in Brisbane?

Any help at all would be very, very appreciated. Nissan won't help any more...

Cheers,
Mattt.

[bogged]

tried http://www.nissan-navara.net/forum/

[mkpatrol]

Warped cam tunnel?

Very likely if its been overheated.

Was the head surface ground and checked for straightness when it was off?

If not then there could be a number of issues still with the head.

[Dzltec]

Have all the caps gone back in the same spot?



andy

[ADEM]

is it insured? can he get rid of it somewhere where it will never be found? thats wat id like to do with my 02 navara anyways!

[mkpatrol]

Have all the caps gone back in the same spot?



andy

Forgot about that too

The cam is too tight which is causing these issues.