Al Savage's 1983 Sentra 2D CD17

[asavage]

I bought this one:

1983 Nissan sentra - $725 (Springfield)
Date: 2008-06-15, 12:03PM PDT

1983 Nissan sentra diesel runs gets great mileage 50+ manual shifts
good all gauges and heater controls work inside not pretty but works
body is strait and from what I can tell rust free window is cracked but
didn’t obstruct my view commute for pennies asking $725.00



This item has been posted by-owner.
Location: Springfield
PostingID: 720713118

On Saturday, 05Jul, I drove six hours down to the Springfield, Ore. area to see this rig. While the Camry in Sandy, Ore. sounded nice, it was just a bit too much money for a rig that could not be driven and that had had a timing belt fail and bend valves.

This Sentra has not been driven regularly in a while. It fired up fine (nearly 70°F ambient though), has some cold misfire (like an SD22). I pulled the oil fill cap right after starting: it has significant cold blowby, that I hope will not overwhelm seals etc.

PO said it has an oil leak, possibly pan gasket (more on this later). PO said he'd replaced both half-shafts (diesel are different than gasser), and both front struts. Verified that they looked a lot newer than anything else on the vehicle

(click on any image for larger)


VIN JN1SB12S8DU001342

I was bummed by the rust though:


The rig presents as fairly ratty, though straight. PO replaced the original seats with later grey ones; rear seats are coming apart a bit and stained, driver's seat is not too bad other than the rip shown below. Some stenciling on the dash from the PO PO.

PO added a manual switch for the . . . wait for it . . . electric fan (fooled you, eh?). Coolant temp sensor appears new but is bypassed. Manual switch is not fused

Some rubber bits missing (part of window channel on driver's side; window channel coming down on passenger side; RR quarter window has evidence of previous caulking).

On test drive, clutch quite sudden on engagement. Terrible howling noise from drivetrain, unaffected by accel/coast/decel, slight differentiation on left/right turn. Shifts well.

Based on the 1/2 mi. drive, I offered and PO accepted $500. Strapped it to the dolly and drove another six hours north, in bed by 2am. $160 of fuel for the green Aero, 20 MPG down with empty dolly, 15.5 MPG on the way back towing Sentra. Total miles = 625.



Sunday (after sleeping in a long time), and after the usual $20 at the car wash, I found the first major: the rear motor mount is sheared so badly that I can't figure out what is holding the engine in at the firewall side! The upper mount plate, that attaches to the engine, is actually slid underneath the mount in the pics below!


This dropped the whole drivetrain down about 2.5" and that pulled the shifter tube stabilizer forward, destroying its two mounts under the shifter. Shifter mounts $49 from the dealer, rear engine mount $55 for the motor mount. My dealer's price is within a buck or two of the online price, so I ordered from the local dealer.


Triage on the oil leak revealed three semi-major leaks, none of which are the oil pan:

• Oil line from block to vacuum pump ($30);
• Oil pressure switch ($12);
• Oil cooler cover o-ring ($7)

All three of those parts added up to about $49 from the dealer; they will arrive tomorrow.

Notice anything amiss with this left wiper pivot?


Another part ordered, ($16).


Radiator is not mounted such that the two "pegs" on the bottom of the radiator fit into the rubber grommets. Instead, the radiator is merely hanging from the upper to mounts, and is sitting at an angle, with the lower end nearly touching the alternator! I haven't had a chance to disturb this yet.


Drained the transaxle oil: fur on the magnetic drain plug about normal, no ferrous chunks. Oil condition quite decent, much better than any 720's I've drained. However, when transferring the gear oil from drain pan to container (in the sunshine), much "gold" in the oil.

Ordered four quarts of AMSOil synthetic (of course) GL-4 gear oil. The GL-4 is the preferred oil as it is easier on the yellow metals used in these old manual transmissions. AMSOil MTG is around $8.50/quart. Installed new gear oil tonight.

The broken rear motor mount also allowed the left inner CV boot metal clamp to contact the lower control arm, wiping the clamp out of existence, letting the boot come off and dust/dirt into the new reman CV.

I pulled the halfshaft off, cleaned up the CV and boot, regreased, installed new clamp.




The best news so far is that the worst of the drivetrain howl is probably this LF inner wheel bearing:



While the right side might also need replacing, this left one was really bad. Surprisingly, only a slight difference in sound when leaning the car left vs. right. Noise differential more pronounced in the shop with the front end up and idling in 4th gear.




I had to really wail on the hub to get it out of the inner bearing inner race, which mushroomed the hub a bit. Some Dremel work cleaned up the hub's ID enough to allow the splined shaft to slip in again.



I took about three hours to remove the hub and wheel brgs from the left, clean up the parts and clean the one CV joint. Another three hours to refit all those parts. I work slow.

=============================

Tonight, I dropped out the engine oil (failed threads on drain plug: typical) and had to really work to remove the engine oil filter, as someone used a tool putting it on. Had to give up on strap wrench and go to the puncture-n-pry method. Messy, but effective, and fortunately there is a lot of room on the firewall side of the engine.

Cut off the cracked positive battery cable terminal and replaced.

Found the crankcase depression regulator leaking on the valve cover (oil leak No. 4). I'll try to address that tomorrow. I hope the blowby does not mean I have to live with it.

Made new keys (partial code in glovebox verified by reading the bitting of the key furnished by PO). All the locks work well. Trunk lid is sprung on the forward right edge.

Plans are to install a spare Aero radio (must have NPR on my commute!). Need to buy a new antenna. Missing washer bottle bracket. Trunk release cable is broken. Might try to get a JY windshield, as this one is fairly badly cracked. Got rid of three yellow jacket nests so far. Vacuumed everything out, ran the trunk carpet through the washer. Dome light socket missing.

There's more things on the list, but that list is at work, and it's bedtime . . .

===============================
Mileage record
First full tank = 50.7 MPG
Aug08 840 miles, 17.2 gallons = 48+ MPG on petrodiesel.
08Sep08 286 mi. 6.1 gals = 47 MPG on B100 homebrew, all highway miles.

[asavage]

Interesting CD17 stuff . . .

Oil Filter: The 1983 Sentra CD17 uses the same (expensive) oil filter as the 1983 Maxima LD28: Wix 51094, about $18 here.

Fuel Filter: The 1983 Sentra CD17 uses the same fuel filter as the 1981-83 Maxima LD28: Wix 33476.

Air Filter: The 1983 Sentra CD17 uses the same air filter as the 1981-83 720 SD22: Wix 46284.

And the oil drain plug is the usual 16.4mm thing that Nissan seems to have used on all the small diesels for years. I think it's NAPA 704-1910.

[TruckA]

Looks pretty good for the age, even though you have gone through it pretty well already. I definitely need to look into that CV boot tool, I hate putting those clamps back on.

[asavage]

Paid $23 for the boot clamp tool. Seems worth that much, though it's an overseas item, rebranded. Lifetime warranty (who's lifetime?). It's approximately KD Tools quality, not Lisle or Matco. I've avoided buying one for years, and actually arranged to borrow one again, but impulse bought the tool instead, when I bought the clamp & grease.

[rlaggren]

Looks like that car found about the best home possible. I would've still been hitting the bottle over the engine mount and fighting w/the wheel bearing. <g>

I have been able to get the oil filter strap wrench to work "beyond the pale" by cementing some 40 grit sand paper onto the strap - 3M spray. The one I use has a nib that takes a 3/8" ratchet extension and that helps a lot, too.


Rufus

[asavage]

I took a cheap, 14" No. 3 flat-edge screwdrive and hammered it entirely through the oil filter, then put a pipe on the handle.

That's tight.

I now own or have access to enough tools to make replacement of the FWD wheel brg possible, if not exactly fun. That Matco split brg remover set is a recent eBay acquisition, bought it in 2007 but hadn't really used it yet.
===========

Changed out the oil pressure switch, oil cooler top cover o-ring. O-ring very hard and friable. All the valve cover screw washers (with integrated rubber sealing washers) were installed upside-down for some reason: flipped all the washers over.

Had to remove the alternator to get to the block end of the vacuum pump oil line.

[asavage]

Oil cooler cover o-ring. Access to this cover is fairly limited, although one can see it easily enough. Old o-ring is rock-hard. Makes me wonder what other o-rings in this engine are like!




New NAPA oil drain plug 704-1910 (which number does not seem to work, if you try to look it up; perhaps the counter person mis-typed it).



It's disturbingly easy to do this (click on image for close-up): sandwich the oil pressure switch wire under the oil filter.



Incorrect way to mount valve cover screw sealing washer (this washer is upside-down):



EGR/crankcase oil vapour crap. This is the worst of any engine I've seen.


That last pic does not really do justice to the volume of crud I could scrape out with a large screwdriver, but some of those pieces on the white paper towel are over 1/2" (13mm) high! Some of the chunks that fell down into the runners looked to be nearly one inch (25mm) large! I don't think it's been cleaned in a long time, but it's nice to know that the EGR system is working

I think I'll pull the intake manifold tomorrow. No gasket available soon, so I'll RTV the old one, it looks in good shape. That gasket is shared with the exhaust, as on the LD28 and SD22.

In order to change out the pressure line for the vacuum pump, the alternator has to come off. Some random pics for my own reference. Notice I re-mounted the radiator so the lower pegs are now in the grommets. Also notice the smallest vacuum pump (smaller than the LD28 or the SD22):

[davehoos]

alternator on my CD20 piviots at the top with bolt on adjuster under alt.
the vac pump is normal size.auto trans have slightly wider vac pump.

A/C compressor mounted under the alt at sump gasket level with a adjuster idler pulley bellow crank shaft.

water pump is run off the power steer pump on the back.

[leadpaw]

Nice! a new CD17 owner. I would love to know the details of the vacuum pump oil feed line, the block side of the hose doesnt wanna come out at all on mine.

Incorrect way to mount valve cover screw sealing washer (this washer is upside-down):

actually the washer looks to me like it is properly installed, from my observations the washers seem to be more vibration dampers than sealing washers. my washers have been installed like that since my car came out of the dealer.

Sunday (after sleeping in a long time), and after the usual $20 at the car wash, I found the first major: the rear motor mount is sheared so badly that I can't figure out what is holding the engine in at the firewall side! The upper mount plate, that attaches to the engine, is actually slid underneath the mount in the pics below!

theres another torque mount behind the ip. I had the exact same thing happen to me.

[asavage]

I replaced the oil feed line (and return line) to/from the vacuum pump today. It was bitchy. I took pics, and I'll expand on this and include pics tomorrow.

[davehoos]

this is correct way to fit with the bucket washer down.

there are 2 sizes of the washer with the smaller fitted near the timing belt.
looks like yours has heeps of room.

petrol engine and CD20 has an earth strap under one of the washers.

[redmondjp]

Al,

You mentioned about chunks of crud falling into the intake runners when you cleaned out the intake manifold--this can cause fatal engine damage if the chunks are hard enough and get into the cylinder (causes piston/head damage at TDC). I've read about more than one person at TDIclub.com who have caused engine damage by cleaning out their intake manifold/intake runners in the head and getting chunks into the cylinder and then starting the motor.

If you haven't turned over the engine since doing this, you can pull the intake off of the head, pull the valve cover to see which intake valves are open, and then use compressed air and a vacuum to clean out the intake ports (blow compressed air into the intake ports which have the intake valve closed, while having the other ports covered so debris doesn't blow into them). If the intake valve is open on one cylinder, you can pull the glow plug for an air path and blow into the glow plug hole with compressed air with a vacuum on the corresponding intake port.

I'm sure you know all of this already but I wanted to put it here for any other newbies reading this. As far as the amount of buildup, not even close to the worst that I have seen--some of the VW TDI motors will still be running with only a pencil-sized hole through the intake after the EGR valve. Apparently going to the ULSD fuel has cut down on the amount of intake buildup that occurs.

Excellent pictures on your progress so far. As far as the interior goes, can you still get a dash cover (or replacement dash) for a car that old?

[asavage]

You mentioned about chunks of crud falling into the intake runners when you cleaned out the intake manifold--this can cause fatal engine damage if the chunks are hard enough and get into the cylinder (causes piston/head damage at TDC).

I pulled the intake and cleaned it more thoroughly Saturday, reinstalled the same day.

I was expecting a uniform-ish obstruction of the runners and ports, similar to what I scraped out in the pics above. What I found, however, was that the head's ports needed NO cleaning at all (unlike my LD28), and the runners had about 1/8" buildup. Most of the crap was in the "log" at the top.

I did find 3/4"+ chunks in a couple of the runners (mostly in No. 1) that I'd knocked down when scraping the "log" earlier.

I've read about more than one person at TDIclub.com who have caused engine damage by cleaning out their intake manifold/intake runners in the head and getting chunks into the cylinder and then starting the motor.

Strange, because the stuff I was scraping out was nothing like solid. More like somewhere between the consistency of jello and whipped cream.

If you haven't turned over the engine since doing this, you can pull the intake off of the head, pull the valve cover to see which intake valves are open, and then use compressed air and a vacuum to clean out the intake ports (blow compressed air into the intake ports which have the intake valve closed, while having the other ports covered so debris doesn't blow into them).

Compressed air would be a mistake. I considered compressed air when I did my LD28 years ago, but the mess would be unbelievable! For the LD28, I taped a section of garden hose to my Shop Vac and that worked well.

This time, on the CD17, one cannot really get to the back of the intake valves, as they are much further in the head/ports than the LD28. And the sightline is poor. But what I saw (mirror and flashlight) showed very little to remove, it looked pretty good. I elected to not try to even vacuum out the small amount of leftover carb cleaner, as in the temps we had here Saturday, with the intake off, much of it evaporated off in the few hours I had the intake off. I did hear a little bit of hammering when I started it (ether noise) from some of the carb cleaner. But no chunks went in, AFAIK.

I'm sure you know all of this already but I wanted to put it here for any other newbies reading this. As far as the amount of buildup, not even close to the worst that I have seen--some of the VW TDI motors will still be running with only a pencil-sized hole through the intake after the EGR valve. Apparently going to the ULSD fuel has cut down on the amount of intake buildup that occurs.

I'll be running B99, which has (quite a bit) reduced particulate matter (soot), and I think that will extend the intake cleaning interval.

can you still get a dash cover (or replacement dash) for a car that old?

I'm trying hard to keep this a sub-$1000 car. If I begin trying to "restore" this rig, it'll never end.

For example, I have a line on an '86 Sentra with only 40k on it with a blown gasser engine, stored in a garage. What if I bought it? Rather than pulling a couple minor parts, it might be tempting to move the CD17 over to it. But, of course, that would be the perfect time to change the clutch. And the front brakes on the diesel have vented rotors as opposed to the gasser, and this and that and pretty soon this becomes another damned project (which I do not need).

I bought a beater and I'm going to leave it such, more or less.

[asavage]

Ports in the head were pretty clean.

The pics below are all "before" pics. I took about an hour and about eight cans of aerosol carb cleaner to clean the manifold -- and it wasn't really all that bad, compared to my LD28. Now you know why I paid a shop $40 five years ago to clean my LD28 manifold for me!

(click on any image for larger)



The chunks I had knocked into the runners were the biggest bits to be removed, and they just about fell out of the manifold, once I had it off.




A bit of carb cleaner and toothbrush, then shove a couple of paper towels waaaay in a couple of times



The intake is retained by around eight bolts. The topmost row of four are relatively simple to remove and replace. However, the lower row are not. It's not that you can't get a socket on them -- you can -- but there is no way to actually see the bolts directly. I used a 2" mirror-on-a-stick. If you have the radiator out, it is probably a lot easier, but it was possible to R&R the intake without removing the radiator. I think I used an 1-1/4" open-end wrench on the EGR tube nut.



After about three cans of aerosol carb cleaner and much toothbrush work, I was able to discover the original color of this reman alternator. Turns out that this is yet another variation of the LR150 (as used on the SD22), but this one is a three-wire plug like the LR160 on the Maxima LD28. Looks like a direct plug-in replacement could be done (LR160 upgrade).



I had the vacuum pump's oil pressure hose hanging out of the block, once the alternator was off. I literally grabbed it and yanked, and it ripped off the block fitting. A 12mm deep socket will not fit over the metal crimp, and there is insufficient room to use an end wrench. I suspect a 12mm crowsfoot might have worked, though the fitting was tight enough that it also might not have. Since I don't have a 12mm crowsfoot, much less a 12mm flare crowsfoot, I Dremeled the crimp section off, and then I could fit the 12mm deep socket, and removal was a snap from there.

Note that I didn't re-use the OEM drain line clamps. I like the OEM clamps, but the the old drain hose was in decent shape (I've cleaned, bagged and tagged it for future use) and the OEM clamps were at the end of their travel and still couldn't clamp the line very well. I used new Balkamp fuel injection line clamps (since I have a box of ten sitting on my desk). The 5/16"-3/8" range clamps fit extremely well on this hose.


EGR weirdness: I couldn't move the diaphragm lever on the intake throttle. Thought it was frozen. But when I pulled the assy. out of the air filter housing, and removed the air filter, it worked fine! Problem is the air filter stud is too long, fouling the butterfly.



My temporary solution was to add some flat washers under the wing nut. First pass was too many (wing nut would bottom in the housing). Second pic is "as installed". Now the intake vacuum diaphragm can move the throttle shut at idle, and the engine is perceptibly quieter with the valve shut (it does not shut completely, but probably 90%). It opens immediately when you touch the accelerator.



Not knowing what this part is supposed to look like, I'm not sure what's wrong. Take a look at the pic in FAST:

(click on image for larger)


Is this stud supposed to have a big plastic nut on the end? Do I have some (if you'll pardon the expression) bastard stud?

[leadpaw]

some good info here, thanks!
where did you get the new oil hose, my local dealership wasnt able to get it at all. I ordered one before and it stayed in backorder for a month and i just gotta refund.

Not knowing what this part is supposed to look like

the throttle butterfly still moves freely with the filter on.It looks like the filter you have has a little more dish on top making the stud sit lower.