Replacement Head Required :-(

The message from Simon Dean contains these words:

You don't say what the mileage is, but it's ten years old and by no means unheard of for some engines to eat camshafts and followers at that sort of age.

Ford Pinto and CVH, for starters.

Sorry, 113,000 miles. But its a Nissan, that's the hard thing to believe, but the engine is filthy.

Cya Simon

The message from Simon Dean contains these words:

My neighbour's Primera is a dog at that age.

Clever chaps, the Japanese - they seem to be able to make cars that are very reliable right up to the point where it all fails at once.

No, most vehicles fail at a particular age because of the way they are used and in the quality of the servicing they get. At the ten year mark they are down to the "I never get a service" type owner.

mrcheerful

Well it wasn't me. i do service it. Not as regularly as I would like, but I try for every nine months or so.

But the engine was black when I first had it. Never thought anything like this could happen though at the time. Sigh.

Cya Simon

Did I mention that it's for sale?

How many miles does it do between services? I wouldn't fancy keeping any diesel engined road vehicle (hey, there's an acronym for that isn't there, buggered if I can remember it though) for any length of time unless it had oil changes every 5000 miles. Despite a lot of manufacturers these days still only recommending 10k/12.5k service intervals. Occasionally I've let mine slip to 8-9k between changes, but generally that's because I've been racking up the miles quickly and they've mainly been on motorways, so it probably hasn't had too much of a negative effect.

Most diesel engines should easily be able to last up to 100-150k only getting serviced every 10-15k, but only just - especially if a lot of the driving has been in unfavourable conditions for the engine, like loads of short journeys, stop-start town work etc. But they should happily last to around 200-300k without major problems if serviced more frequently, like every 5k or so.

Peter

This is a known problem on the SR20De engine and is down to insufficiently frequent oil changes. The SR20De is near-enough indestructable is regularly serviced with the right oil.

For a repair, try one of the Japanese engine importers; they should be able to get you a replacement assy. at a sensible price.

Cheers, erm, Microstar. Thanks for the information.

the engine was black when I first had it, so I guess it wasn't treated to kindly to begin with. So cam/follower wear etc is a likely symptom of this? Im not just having the wool pulled over my eyes?

And what are the consequences of not fixing it? Im guessing loss of power, and loss of petrol :-)

Can you point me in the right direction towards finding a Japanese Engine importer?

Will bits off an SR20DE work in an SR20De as well? Im aware there are two varieties of the SR20, and the De is tuned more for environmental reasons....

Cheers Simon