Chorca

Hey everyone, new here, but just picked up a 2002 Maxima SE with HLSD. 135k on the clock, pretty clean but lacking maintenance other than oil changes. Was owned by a 62yo man before me, so got it for a deal. Bought it with a Cat efficiency code showing, thought i'd go ahead and replace the cat myself.

Drove it about 150mi home with no issues, ran great. Bought new plugs, air filter, cabin filter, etc to get things up to spec, and after swapping those things around I decided to give it the beans a bit, and took it out after it'd warmed up to around 6k RPM through a few gears. Friend riding with me noticed some smoke behind right after this, pulled over and was for sure smoking, smelled a bit like oil. Limped it home, was running rough.

Took a look at it next day, Bank 1 plugs are soaked in oil, like dripping, Bank 2 is dry. Blue smoke comes out of exhaust at startup and at any RPM greater than idle.. Now that I've been through these forums a bit more, found out about the pre-cat issue and it seems like this is what happened.

Instead of taking a loss on the deal, decided to go ahead and fix 'er up, so ordered a set of OBX headers and a new cat, and currently looking at a couple engines to swap it out with, one from an '06 maxima with 55k. I don't mind taking on a challenge, I have all the tools and I'm ready to get this rolling.

Big question is, I'm pretty sure the rings are shot and letting loads of oil by in Bank 1, is there anything I should try before hand to see if that's the issue? I want this car to be a reliable DD, so if swapping the engine is the best bet, then that's what I'll do.

Anyway, I'm going to do my best to do some writeups on these and take lots of photos, so there's plenty of documentation on how to do this stuff since these cars are getting up there in age.

Lots of great content here, and any helpful tips would be awesome!

Child_uv_KoRn

iTrader: (7)

Cancel the cat order. The cat has nothing to do with the codes (that's the precats) and is a monumental waste of money.

The only swap worth doing is the "hr" VQ.

And 5.6...wut

Cotozic

Yeah, the headers will take care of the "dreaded" pre-cats. Replacing the main cat couldn't hurt though...

Oil sitting in bank 1 is a common issue because of the way the motor sits in the car, being that it tilts backwards, towards the cabin when under load. The sparkplug gaskets in the VCs also tend to leak oil. It might just be worth checking the VCs for leaks, and replacing the headers before swapping a motor in.

I know people have swapped motors from other Maximas, Altimas, and Quests. I'm pretty sure the "5.6" swap would just be a regular 5.5, as the 6th gen had the same motor design, which wasn't changed until the 7th generation. If you want to take a step up, get those headers and do some fixes, then look into the 5.7 swap. Requires some parts and adapters, but people seem pretty satisfied with it.

Child_uv_KoRn

iTrader: (7)

I meant gut it

Chorca

Sounds like an easy test, i'll give that shot before getting a bit more drastic. It's putting out huge clouds of smoke, i'll get a video tomorrow of it, but it seems pretty bad. Didn't seem to do it before I revved it up higher than I had on the drive home.

NmexMAX

iTrader: (22)

Like VK56?

Chorca

Haha, sorry. I saw the '5.6' term somewhere during my travels and decided it would be appropriate, but I guess the 6th gen engines just aren't different enough to merit their own 'term'.

Anyway, did a quick video this morning of the smokiness.. didn't capture the color too well, but it's for sure blue and has some oil smell to it.

jjubert

iTrader: (2)

That's exactly what I was thinking lol...I have seen the VK56 swap in a G35 coupe, beast mode

Child_uv_KoRn

iTrader: (7)

Yeah... that motor looks very toasted. You'll burn a quart of oil per day LOL.

Chorca

Yeah, that's what I figured. Ordered a used engine, should be coming in next week.

The one i'm getting has 55k on it.. question here, should I be looking at replacing the timing components on this one, or wait until it starts to actually wear? I'm not sure how premature the wear is on the 6th gen engines for the timing chain guides, so just wondering if I should get all the stuff together and take care of it while the engine's out of the car, or if it isn't worth the trouble and wait until noises start.

Fakie J Farkerton

iTrader: (51)

Should've done the 07+ Altima or 09+ Maxima engine swap instead of another oil burner

Chorca

I read up a bit on these, and was considering it, but in the end I just didn't want to have to mess with the timing and fueling to get these guys running right, and so went for a more-or-less direct swap.

That's not to say I won't dive into this in the future.. I'm going to be Megasquirting a built Miata in the next year, and that'll be my project, but after that if the Max needs another transplant, I'll look into it. Just wanted to stay somewhat simple for now. Love all the dev work going into getting those engines swapped in though, it's really enticing....

NmexMAX

iTrader: (22)

07 Altima would have been direct, no timing, fuel/ECU change.

And both swaps mentioned do not mess with fuel requirements and can both be run on stock 02/3 ECU. The only reason we go the alternate route is because it nets more power. SurraTT has sold a handful of Maximas with stock ECU and no SES lights for cheap, so it can be done.

Chorca

Huh. I thought I had read that they run lean when run on an 02-03 ECU, but eh, suppose I just must have misunderstood. Either way, engine is already on the way, so perhaps the next one will be 07!

Child_uv_KoRn

iTrader: (7)

It doesn't affect driveability, really. It makes less power than it's capable of, but it runs and drives fine. Of course, you'd want to eventually correct that to take advantage of all the extra power available.
I have no tuning at all on mine (it runs leaner if anything since I have a TS ecu). I added 4" intake and ~550cc injectors.

NmexMAX

iTrader: (22)

Not sure where you read that.

Also, make sure you specify 07 Altima, because 07 Maxima wont do you much good. 02-08 Maximas are the same.

07+ Altima or 09+ Maxima are where it's at.

Chorca

I think I found it, was SurraTT's thread on the 5.7 swap he did, involved some stuff and mentioned it ran lean on the 02 ECU. Maybe I'm reading his post wrong though, and he meant lean for a performance-oriented setup or something..
http://www.nissanclub.com/forums/mem...xima-vq-2.html

Man.. I've read a few EFI books and everything I've read about running lean is scary. Plus I can always do a project with it a bit down the road, we'll see how quick I get bored and wanna do something else, though the idea is that this is my nice everyday DD and the fun car will be a built Miata.

Child_uv_KoRn

iTrader: (7)

Running a little lean N/A isn't that big of deal when you're not making big power, not revving high and using 93 octane. I never noticed any detonation when it was lean. In my experience, if I run super lean, it just starts to misfire, first. Stock timing isn't that high.

NmexMAX

iTrader: (22)

Very true and nothing you can't fix with some injectors and even just mild AFR conditioning, since most if not all stock cars run terribly AFR-wise from the factory.

Also as we all recall, his FP was actually dying just shortly after his swap and he found out that was the reason why he was running lean.

I’ve never read an EFI book, but have screwed with my AFC, injectors and MAF enough to know that it’s not that bad. In fact back in the 4th gen days, as we can all recall once again, the JWT ECU was crazy lean (14.0+ @ WOT) and that never hurt anything. I once ran a few WOT runs using no WB and no AFC using a 3” MAF, damn thing barely idled. Yeah won’t do that again.

Mine seems to run lean when WOT in first