Replace rocker arms and cams or?

Hi all, new to this forum but been around Nissan and the SR20 motor for a while now. My GTiR swapped Primera has been going on strong for about 6 to 7 years.

It is a Stock Gtir motor with a Nistune ecu. The other night it popped out of 2nd gear around 4500 rpm and free revved and the rocker arms are done. 6 out of 8 rockers a busted up or out of placed, Funny thing is I did not notice any metal to metal noise when trying to start the motor up again.

So my question is should look at a full engine rebuild or can I just perform a top end rebuild?
I was thinking of performing a compression test and visual inspection with a borescope. All of the springs and retainers are in place.

What advice do you all have on this?

Thanks

You won't be doing a compression test in current state, quick look with bore scope and checking oil and filter for debris would be good, what you finally do will depend a bit on how far you want go if all looks good. Many times with rocker failure it simple top end cam/rocker rebuild and thorough engine flush.
If engine tired it would be good excuse for refresh, you do have consider bearing stressfrom over revving so if bottom end less than sweet prior to problem it would more wise do full build or at least  look bottom end ...

It might be good considering if this the time for a full rebuilt mate. You've had the car for a long time, so you're committed it might be a good to do the bottom end (even if it's ok for now) in one hit and save your self additional time/ problems down the track. Many of us have learnt that the hard way

Thanks guys, it is going to be hard not having the car for a while but I think that is the best way as well, taking another look at it and removing the pieces I am not confident that all the pieces were removed and ay have fallen into the oil tank. which would mean I would have to take of the entire pan any way.

I always wanted to take out the motor and refresh the hoses etc. on the back of the motor and tidy some things up in the engine bay. I will take some pics of the tear down just to get some advice from you all.

Can the stock rods be re-used with upgraded pistons? just refreshing bearings and bolts?

Stock rods can be used and have been for some big power builds people use them with forge pistons ....

Sounds like the stock ones have been ok considering how long you have been running the car. If you work out some sort of budget, then look at the areas that need the most attention or provide the best value for performance.

gtir_woody wrote:Sounds like the stock ones have been ok considering how long you have been running the car. If you work out some sort of budget, then look at the areas that need the most attention or provide the best value for performance.

I do change the oil very regularly, every 3 to 4 months sometimes less, and the motor has been spot on reliable other than a view old components needing replacing. I am going to pull apart what I can and determine full rebuild or perhaps just take the head off and replace head gasket, cams, rocker arms etc.

I do want to do a rebuild at some point but I would rather plan it out and have the parts ready to go in. I could just start collecting parts to rebuild over time and once everything is ready then do the rebuild.

Figured I would put this in here from when I removed the valve cover to inspect it.
You can see #1 intake cam lob is scratch up and #2 exhaust has some marks as well.

Going to put the car up this weekend and start to take off the oil pan and check for broken pieces in there,  Do you all use or would recommend to use the rocker arm stoppers?

Image not working for me ?

How about now?

Yes mate working now

Rocker stoppers not bad thing have and not expensive or hard fit. roller rocker kit for 54c would of been good along with solution to stop rocker being able slide back off pivot ball but it never got much attention .
Most important thing on these is have all good order rockers pivots valve springs and cams and clearances matched/set perfect (little less gap than factory spec) .
They can bounce off 8Krpm all day if in good order and put together well, miss shift different story though :-)
If bottom end pretty tidy it won't be too expensive for full refresh .

Mr B wrote:Rocker stoppers not bad thing have and not expensive or hard fit. roller rocker kit for 54c would of been good along with solution to stop rocker being able slide back off pivot ball but it never got much attention .
Most important thing on these is have all good order rockers pivots valve springs and cams and clearances matched/set perfect (little less gap than factory spec) .
They can bounce off 8Krpm all day if in good order and put together well, miss shift different story though :-)
If bottom end pretty tidy it won't be too expensive for full refresh .

I never had any problems with the motor until this and oil gets changed every ~3 months so bearings and surfaces should be ok like you said. I did want to rebuild the motor at the end of the year to come back 2018 with a fresh motor so this throws me a bit off. Engine is going to be apart this weekend if I get some time. I would rather have all the parts on hand before starting a rebuild.

Just figured I would update this here since you all helped me out.  Car is up and running with new cams and rocker arms.  Everything shimmed to spec and motor sounds quite, had a slight ticking before but nothing now.  Got some JWT s3 cams, changed oil twice and cleaned up oil pan and did some work to it while it was off. also tried to paint the valve cover wrinkle red but weather was not helping, started raining and wrinkling did not set as good as I would like.

Reinforced the oil pan with sheet metal welded on to the base and then riveted some heat sinks, not sure if the heat sinks will work that well but it should do something. but it does look cool

doesn't belong here but also put these together while I was working on the motor.  figured best time since it is up on stands and not going anywhere soon.  purchased the bearing housings and spherical bearings and welded it all up myself using a MIG welder.

Glad it's sorted and modded even better. Thanks for the update and keep us posted