I finally managed to use one of my own head shims had to open up a galley that I found to be a little restrictive, just used a dremel tool to open it up to a slot shape. The installation was fairly straight forward but I just made sure everything was clean as clean can be. I also sanded down the shim using 800 & 1000 grit and then sprayed with methylated spirits to clean. I made sure I didn’t touch any of the surfaces. All those little bits of material in the bores are just bits of fibre from tissue paper, I blew all that off when I put the head on.
The hylomar was put on two different surfaces and left for the solvent to evaporate, it flashed off fairly quick even in the cold. I think I may have put too much on but I’m not sure. I let the head sit bolted for about 15 minutes then tightened again and again about four more times. I let it sit for about two days while I worked on everything else.
Dropped the gearbox and replaced the noisy thrust bearing, sorted out the rattley exhaust and tightened it up so it wasn’t hanging down so obvious at the back. Almost got round to lowering it even more but decided to leave it.
Also made up a catch can setup that looks as factory as possible, just an old overflow bottle from a pintara (keepin’ it Nissan). I can afford all that shiny eBay #OOPS# anyway, so I settled for an $8.00 second hand dirty as all buggery overflow bottle. Need to sort out the hose on top of the rocker cover, looking at putting in some bent pieces.
GX race head is on and there is an obvious increase in power and the exhaust note has a bit more of a bark to it. Gave the engine a flogging and it all went well, lotsa power to be had out of this little A12.
Speedo cable got replaced but it still doesn’t work…..not sure what’s happened there.
Also got some new linkage sockets which have a clip on the inside then a second clip to make sure it doesn’t detach from the ball, another Nissan part.
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