For the love of a tractor engine: The life and times of the 18R-G

[3jcelica]

I bought one of these tensioners recently, I was not impressed with the casting of the thread nor the fact that there is nothing within the tensioner to seal oil pressure besides thread tolereance (generaly inadequate) and tolerances on the piston bore again inadequate, mine pisses oil every where. apologies for spelling I had a few

[The Witzl]

i've snapped an 18RG tensioner in exactly the same way before. Was royally pissed off.

Solution was - hammer and sacrificial chisel.
using the chisel and hammer, lighting tap the part left in the head to rotate it, trying to tap it from different angles to work it loose.
Eventually it will come loose, and you should be able to remove it using some pliers or vice grips.

In fact, looking at your pic you might even have enough meat there to get a set of vice grips onto it.

[o_man_ra23]

Don't forget to shove a rag in there to prevent getting debris in your timing gears/chains

[The Witzl]

or better yet - just weld an appropriate length both in place!!!


lol. dont do that.

[Sagluren]

i vote with the hammer chissel route. i think i have a spare tensioner someware in my random shit shelves, but im in sa so you would need to throw me some postage monies.

good luck, least you havent fucked the timing gear keyway in your r33 skyline like i have,

cheers sam

[cheviotrola]

Easy out didn't work, just kept fracturing so i pulled the head off, will get it out soon. Anyone that does have an original tensioner i will buy

[Rens]

Been preparing my new engine ( second hand 18rgeu from Adelaide/ Ebay) to put in over the holidays. I've noticed that the exhaust cam has a .60mm gap ( cold) between the cam and the shim/cap while the inlet gap is tight enough that i can't see light between them. Also noticed that the top chain guide is missing and the cams were about 90 degrees out of wack. I can borrow the one out of my old engine so no problem there.

Does that seem right or do i need to pull the cams out and have a look?

I have 210 cams in my other head, so if i end up pulling them out i will put those back in instead and set the gaps to suit.

I've put the Type T carbies that came with the 18rgeu onto my current motor to make sure they're ok before doing the swap

[o_man_ra23]

Not sure the metric gaps but 0.6mm seems about ok for exhaust. Intake should be marginally less, but still measurable.

[Willofan]

Nooohhh!
1.0mm is about 0.040" (40 thou) 0.5mm is 0.020" therefore 0.6mm is way too much.
Without refering to the book, I recall 0.008" is the valve/cam clearance for inlet and 0.012" for exhaust.

To Cheviotrolla, I have a spare tensioner if you need one. PM me

[RA35GT]

Clearance as per green book attached.

[Rens]

Pulled the cams out yesterday, there was no gap on inlet side at all ! I'm thinking maybe someone had it apart and put the buckets back onto the wrong side with the shims attached when reassembled.

Going to pull out my other engine soon and hopefully have the shims i need in that engine.

[airfireman1]

Could also be just a bit of valve seat recession, Clearances get smaller over time due to this type of wear. Would be a good idea to pull out a couple of valves and check the seats. you could also check this when you pull off the head and turn the cam to open a couple of valves.

[Rens]

According to the guy i bought it off , it was an 2nd hand import motor that was never put into a car once he bought it from the importer. He must of raided few bits off it for other people because the distributor and top chain guide were missing and the cams were 90 degrees out of wack. Lucky i pulled the cam cover off before chucking the engine in or it could of been nasty...

[o_man_ra23]

Sounds like you need to do a rather good inspection of this engine before running it. I would take the sump off and have a gecko inside. Look for pitting in the bores, corrosion, even take the bearing caps off and look for abnormal wear (and coat in moly grease before reassembly, better still put new bearings in)

[Rens]

Have the sump off but haven't taken any caps off yet.

No corrosion, everything has a nice layer of golden oil on it. Going to get the torch out and have a close look at the bores.