help removing inlet manifold

[patricks]

Success got it off!! Thanx boys!! Really thought u fellas vocky evocarlos KevinH were playing a practical joke on the convict saying it would come thru the top! Sure enuff it did. There was no method to the madness it just came out with lots and lolts and lots of jiggling. Did take the injectors and rail out and sooo much easier to do when the light is good . Putting the manifold back in was easier but still painfulll........

Think i have to agree with u Carl, and all the debate about the z22se pcv system - it must breathe quite well cause the tiny pcv hole in the head after all these years and KM was not fully blocked off. Yeah it was partially obstructed but to still be flowing even now means it was designed pretty well from the outset. Cleaned what muck was in the hole and the manifold and put it back together - i really really wanted to port the manifold whilst it was out........but i couldnt be bothered i realised i like driving the car more than i like working on it lol. Hope this fixes the oil consumption problem (400-600ml per 1000km)

 

[patricks]

Success got it off!! Thanx boys!! Really thought u fellas vocky evocarlos KevinH were playing a practical joke on the convict saying it would come thru the top! Sure enuff it did. There was no method to the madness it just came out with lots and lolts and lots of jiggling. Did take the injectors and rail out and sooo much easier to do when the light is good . Putting the manifold back in was easier but still painfulll........

Think i have to agree with u Carl, and all the debate about the z22se pcv system - it must breathe quite well cause the tiny pcv hole in the head after all these years and KM was not fully blocked off. Yeah it was partially obstructed but to still be flowing even now means it was designed pretty well from the outset. Cleaned what muck was in the hole and the manifold and put it back together - i really really wanted to port the manifold whilst it was out........but i couldnt be bothered i realised i like driving the car more than i like working on it lol. Hope this fixes the oil consumption problem (400-600ml per 1000km)View attachment 66344

 

[KevinH]

Well done patricks I guess sometimes you just have to get a bit 'forceful' with things.

The owners manuals mention that oil consumption is 0.6 litre/1000 Km (0.5 litre/500 miles) for the Z22SE engines.

 

[patricks]

Well done patricks I guess sometimes you just have to get a bit 'forceful' with things.

The owners manuals mention that oil consumption is 0.6 litre/1000 Km (0.5 litre/500 miles) for the Z22SE engines.

Really?? How much oil do u use? I never used to top up between oil changes its only been since i went past about 280,000km that ive started to use oil and back then i only changed the oil at 15,000km intervals.

 

[KevinH]

Never really monitored it that closely - occasionally I've had to just top it up but found reading the dipstick can be rather hit and miss. It's recommended to leave the engine for 5 minutes before checking the oil level but even then the readings can be rather spurious.

 

[richard165]

That's right mate

There are a lot of posts about checking oil level but all are different. This engine certainly has its quirks.

For example, I travelled about 90 miles. Before a long trip I check everything. Oil recently changed correct level, no leaks.

Due to my ocd I checked an hour after arriving and it was just over min mark.

What is the right time to check and how do you get a correct reading? This question needs a definitive answer.

 

[Kb1974]

Personally I leave ot to sit for at least 20 mins after engines been ran before i check any engines oil levels. This way any thats in the head or elsewhere has time to return to the sump to get a correct level reading.

 

[Berto]

This procedure works fine on my Z22SE:

With engine the colder the better, insert dipstick with flat side facing to your left. While you pull it out flex it slightly towards the ground (don't rotate it). Then check level on the flat side of the tip.


What a joke that after a century building automobiles the industry has the "courage" to serve us with these useless dipsticks (it may look as an accident, but it isn't).


But we shouldn't complain much, for other car owners are screwed far worse. Behold the way of the future:

 

[richard165]

Why is it so damn awkward to check the oil, I've read too many posts on here about erratic readings on dipstick.

I've also read that there is a metal plate under it causing these readings?

If that's true I'm going to take my sump off and get it out. which I wasn't going to do as it looks like a pain. There is no gasket and I don't really like to use the rtv.

 

[richard165]

This procedure works fine on my Z22SE:

View attachment 67118

With engine the colder the better, insert dipstick with flat side facing to your left. While you pull it out flex it slightly towards the ground (don't rotate it). Then check level on the flat side of the tip.


What a joke that after a century building automobiles the industry has the "courage" to serve us with these useless dipsticks (it may look as an accident, but it isn't).


But we shouldn't complain much, for other car owners are screwed far worse. Behold the way of the future:

Thank you very much mate I'm going on a long journey home. ill try it right now!

 

[patricks]

Ur oil looks real clean Berto mine looks like that for 1000km then its goes black lol

This weekend i sprayed about a litre of water down the throttle body with the engine at 2000rpm. This is supposed to clean the rings. Doing this ahead of the pcv mod still waiting for barb to land

 

[Berto]

Ur oil looks real clean ...

As a matter of fact it isn't my engine in the pic above. But the oil in my Z22SE remains quite clean, far from black.

... mine looks like that for 1000km then its goes black ...

^ That's a dead giveaway of high blow-by rate + insufficient crankcase ventilation.

... This weekend i sprayed about a litre of water down the throttle body with the engine at 2000rpm. This is supposed to clean the rings ...

^ Well done, good ole trick to decarbonize engines. (It must be done with care however, for if you get trigger-happy you may hydrolock and ruin the engine).

Guess which cylinder had a water (coolant) leak from head gasket failure and got steam-cleaned:

 

[patricks]

Yeah i didnt have an issue with it the old girl stayed at 2000rpm mostly it occasionally dropped to 1500. Seems to rev a bit cleaner now. Hoping i wont have to do the mod. But if oil consumption stays the same then its gonna happen as soon as the parts arrive.

 

[Berto]

Internal engine cleaning

^ From the superb Ozzie website http://www.autospeed.com/, with tons of great DIY articles like this one.

 

[patricks]

The barb came in the post today. This cant be right. I dont even see the M5 thread being long enough to span the wall thickness of the cam cover?? What do u think Berto will this do?

 

[Berto]

Can't tell from just an out of focus pic Patricks. Can you measure the thread lenght?

If it helps here's an internal pic of my concoction (click to expand):



The cam cover thickness at the point of drilling is about ~5mm give or take, not unlike the bottom wall of the rectangular passage in the pic.

But that's the aluminium cam cover, the plastic one like yours might be different.



For a comparison, so looks the OEM secondary fresh air PCV intake (under boost) in the LNF engine:

 

[patricks]

Berto the thread length is 4mm. But i can always drill a hole right through the plastic cam cover making the hole smaller than the m5 thread and then just screw in the barb as far as it will go so there is still a passage for ventillation.

What im more concerned about is the opening for the hose pipe. where the red arrow is - it is only 2mm in diamter to accept a 3.5mm air hose! Will this do??

 

[Berto]

As long as the fitting is solidly screwed to the cam cover wall, it shouldn't matter too much if it protrudes inside the passage or not (it may suck a bit more oil if it doesn't protrude, that's all).

... it is only 2mm in diameter ... Will this do??

Any extra crankcase ventilation should help in your case, but honestly I can't tell for sure in advance if an extra 2mm Ø fitting will be enough to make a solid difference.

With a recently cleaned up OEM 2.5mm Ø metered orifice (4.9mm^2 cross sectional area), plus the extra 2mm Ø fitting (3.14mm^2) you'd be at 8.04mm^2 total.


Thing is, I don't really know the status of the metered orifice in my engine (haven't taken out my inlet manifold to check yet). It may be clean like yours (4.9mm^2), or it may be completely clogged up (0.0mm^2). So with my extra 3.5mm Ø fitting (9.62mm^2) my current total area is anything between 9.62 and 14.52mm^2.


I believe your engine has higher mileage than mine (~200K km). If I had to guess, I suspect an extra 2mm Ø fitting might not be enough to make a difference in your case.


The only real way to discover is empirical test, that's why I used an elbow to which I could screw different fittings of varying internal diameters until I found the diameter that worked best (3.5mm in my case):

Best place to get gadgetry of this kind is some pneumatic components store. Just an example in Oz: http://www.pneumaticsolutions.com.au/

 

[patricks]

Ok Berto great thats clearer now - thanks for the link i. So potentially as the metered orifice clogs in the manifold the size of the barb needs to change. I can tell you mine was partially obstructed but clearing it made no difference whatsoever to oil consumption - it seemed to be happier tho. I have these barbs now so ill try them and i can always go to a bigger size i suppose. Ill keep u posted to my findings.........

 

[Berto]

... So potentially as the metered orifice clogs in the manifold the size of the barb needs to change ...

^ Exactly. The total sectional area of the combined post-throttle PCV lines (metered orifice + by-pass) must be in the sweet spot for a particular engine.

• Too small the sectional area, and it will not flow enough to cope with the higher blow-by ratio of a high mileage engine with worn out/gunked up rings.

• Too large the sectional area, and it will flow too much for the ECU to be able to rein the idle @ ~750 rpm (I experienced this when I tested the 5 mm fitting).

... it seemed to be happier tho ...

^ That's the extra crankcase vacuum making your piston rings work better.

... Ill keep u posted to my findings.........

Yeah please keep us updated on your progress.