So I went and checked the valves and they are not bent. I got scared because one set was open but trolled myself because the cam was pushing the valves. I am no mechanic but I can rebuild the engine if needed 😊

 

I'm the luckiest flippen person to mess up timing 😓😭😭
the timing is off by alot but the valves aren't bent 😭😭
I'm crying tears of joy. Now I'm gonna do this right and not flip this up

 

Strongly recommend reading the FSM a few times before you try setting the timing again. There's pretty good pictures in the FSM and specific directions to follow to ensure you don't end up messing it up a third time.

Section EM - Engine Mechanical, page 59 is where it all starts, assembly should be at around page 70. I know it sucks reading technical manuals but you need to read this ENTIRE SECTION from start to finish, follow each step, don't proceed to the next step until the previous one is 100% completed. You got lucky last time, you might not be lucky the next time.

https://www.nicoclub.com/infiniti-service-manuals

 

Funny story I did. Alot like everytime i looked at the car during the day. So funny story do you think turning the motor by hand after setting timing then putting everything back together would cause this?

 

No, once that chain is locked into place timing won't change.

 

At tdc

At tdc

At tdc

 

I rotated it by hand but never went back to tdc.

 

Did you double check timing after releasing the 'grenade pin' on the main timing chain tensioner?
The yellow & orange paint marks are intended to line up with the small dimple marks on the cam gears and crank sprocket respectively, but they are 'seeking' after you rotate the engine over. You can re-check by rotating the engine over a few times by hand and see if they all line back up.
This thread from the My350Z might be helpful:
https://my350z.com/forum/engine-and-...-question.html

 

well yes but then I rotated the engine to make sure the valves weren't smacking the piston. I rotated the engine a good 10-15 times but I never rotated back to original tdc.
maybe rotating it might have skipped a couple teeth?

 

Very unlikely, but in the future once you pull the tensioner locking pin you should push against the tensioner guide and make sure the tensioner is really snug so you don't leave a gap between the tensioner and the guide.

Once the tensioner is locked in place it's not going to jump a tooth no matter how hard you beat on the engine.

 

SOLVED!!!
so compression is done by the piston moving up and down in the cylinder. The rings were stuck closed so stuck against the piston. My father in law and I put some tranny fluid in the cylinders then compression tested, and whadaya know compression shot up, and not in a bad way. Let the rings expand, and put the engine back together. Started right up for 5-10 seconds each time. Now I'm waiting on the rings to expand some more tomorrow. I'll be putting the timing cover back on as well as...everything else. Oil pressure is not a problem anymore too. FIXED FIXED FIXED now to have some fun after a couple miles.

 

Not exactly true, if you add oil to the cylinder and the compression jumps that just means the rings are destroyed and the OIL is what's sealing up compression. The oil will quickly burn off (couple of seconds) once the engine is running and then you're stuck with leaky worn rings again.

The piston rings are made of METAL, they don't expand (except from temperature), you pour in the oil on top of the cylinder and it helps seal up the leak temporarily.

Rings don't get stuck closed, I think you have a little misunderstanding about what the rings are and how they work. Look at this picture.

Piston and rings, 1 - piston, 2 - set of rings for each piston.



Now the rings fit into those little grooves at the top of the piston, they are filed to have a certain gap because it's not a complete circle.

Here is a picture of the rings installed on a piston. You can see all three rings on the piston.



The rings are then compressed and the piston slid into the cylinder in the block. You can see each of the 3 pistons at various positions, the back one is set at "top dead center" which is the top of the compression stroke.

 

The rings slide up and down in the cylinder bore and do two things, they keep PRESSURE built up on the top of the cylinder during the compression stroke and they scrape the oil off the cylinder wall to keep it down in the crankcase. The rings are metal, the cylinder walls are metal, it's metal riding on metal which wears out eventually. They will wear out prematurely if you don't keep up on oil changes or if you run low on oil. The oil provides a microscopic layer to minimize friction, this engine has little oil squirters that are constantly spraying a stream of oil on the bottom of the piston to help lubricate the rings and cool the piston at high rpm. Ignoring maintenance interval on oil changes causes a substantial amount of damage to these moving parts.

When the piston rings begin to wear out they don't seal up the cylinder as well anymore and you lose compression. If you pour oil through the spark plug hole and then do a compression test it will read higher because the oil seals up those microscopic worn out edges of the rings.

However when the engine is RUNNING the cylinder temperatures are around 2000 degrees and the oil is burned off in seconds. Then you just have worn rings again.

 

The piston rings do expand as the engine goes from cold to operating temperature, you will see a 8-10% difference in compression psi if you test on a cold engine vs a hot engine. Your first compression readings were SUPER SUPER low, you were getting 30-50psi and a healthy motor will be like 180-200 psi.

 

Okay everyone I come back with some very sad news.
got her started 🥴🤪😄 BUT it was without coolant just to test run. Well once I put coolant BOOM shooting coolant like a geyser from the spark plug holes. I'm quite distraught because there is new "shim" gaskets. Torqued all the head bolts down to spec checked 2x. I didn't spray the head gaskets with copper spray don't know if I was supposed to. The car was overheated by previous owner so I'm hoping the deck isn't warped the heads aren't because well their new/used heads. so I found the compression issue. I slipped over it because the head gaskets are new. Here is some good news oil pressure was back up with everything changed. 😊😕