hey everyone,

i'm new to the forums and if this topic is covered elsewhere, i apologize, the search function disability makes it kinda difficult to find stuff here. so if this thread is covered somewhere, please direct me there.

the max in question is an 90 se. it has 164k, and previous owners haven't been good about timely oil changes and tuneups. that in mind, i went to start her one day and she coughed and moaned and wouldn't start. at first she'd go for a few seconds but it was hurtin her. soon after i could smell exhaust.

my assumption is a blown head gasket cuz i've had it happen on a different vehicle in the past. my question is, can anyone estimate what a shop would charge me on this engine for a rebuild? and if you think it's not a head gasket, any ideas on what i could do to repair this? i am by no means a mechanic, so i wouldn't dare do this myself. my expertise is limited to oil changes and the like. any help and information is greatly appreciated.
and hopefully i haven't left anything out.

 

then I'll give you some advice:
Sell the car as it sits and buy another beater.
Yes I know the max is irreplaceable
but, you'll be out a min. of $1g if you have a headgasket done by a repair shop
BTW I sell head gaskets

 

Matt93SE might be able to help out, I would suggest you PMing him and asking.

 

shawn- matt's in texas now
not OK ,
OK?

 

lol...OR you could just buy my vg30e engine that I am about to :ahem: throw away. asking $200 obo...and it's plug n play / good to go

 

Donkey, I believe Matt still has family in Tulsa, I think he said it's a 8 hour drive, i dunno. I figured it never hurts to ask.

for you

 

check your oil for coolant and/or coolant for oil. can't remember which it'd be. what'd be best is to get someone to help you out. take the radiator cap off and have someone watch it while you crank the engine. if they see air bubbles you've most likely got a blown headgasket.

seems kind of odd having a blown headgasket though. i've not heard of many members having this problem. actually, none come to mind.

 

Didn't Matt graduated from one of the college in Tulsa cuz I'd remembered seeing one of his links from one of those schools?

 

the head gasket doesnt sound like your problem

if it was fine the last time you drove it and then you just went out and it wouldnt start its proboly somthing else maybe fuel pump or FP realy or FP fuse or one of the other milions of things that will not alow the car to start why dont you have it towed to a shop and have them look at it it could be somthing simple

 

holy crap. It costs that much? I guess I have no idea how much I saved by doinf the top end rebuild on my car this summer. geez.... It was all overkill but I learned a crapload. Now I have a car with a perfect valve train and all the major maintenance done. I'm guessing that the work I did saved me about $1500 - $2000.

Sorry for the OT post...

 

wow, thank you for all the quick replies, i love responsive forums

i was kinda hopin that someone would say that it might be something other than the headgasket. all i can say now is that it engages VERY roughly, and the last time i tried, it wouldn't come to life. still turns over and cranks but stays down.
so you recommend that i have it towed and looked into? anything i can look at myself to rule out?
thanks again everyone.

 

I don't think it is a blown headgasket, unless it had gone on forever and coolant fouled the plugs or destroyed the internal parts of the vehicle. You would have noticed some poor performance or major league overheating prior. So let's just review the problems of the car that won't start. We need to know exactly what happens/doesn't happen when you turn the key. Does the starter engage and start spinning the engine? Does it seem to spin at the usual verve, or is it barely spinning? Does it truly seem to "start" and then die immediately or does it never seem to start?Does it idle at all? Has it been really cold lately, is the battery new or old, are the spark plugs and wires new or old, fuel filter, fuel pump, etc. Do any check engine lights come on? When you turn the ignition to run (not start) do you hear a humming from the fuel pump in the rear of the vehicle? Has the timing belt been changed in the past? Take of the oil cap and look for a white paste-sign of headgasket leak-which I doubt you will find, but check it anyway.

 

for the first couple of days' worth of starts, the engine would completely engage and continue to run so long as i kept fluttering the gas. after a few of those, i could obviously tell that it was hurting the engine and i didn't have time to look into it deeper so i quit. then days later, it would crank but not completely start. again i noted exhaust smell.

it cranks fine, so i don't think it would be electrical like the battery or starter, but all of the things you listed in the way of replacements, i doubt any of them have been done:
plugs/wires
fuel filter/pump (but i can't hear any humming from the pump)
timing belt

i will check for white paste under the oil cap like you said.
yes, check engine lights come on, but they always did come on temporarily along with the seatbelt light, so i didn't think anything of it cuz they went off soon after the engine revved back down.

 

I was pleasantly surprised by the increase in performance after I changed my plugs/wire, fuel filter, and air filter on my '93 GXE this past summer at 120k miles. The only time, though, that I recall hearing my fuel pump hum is after I replaced the fuel filter, reinserted the fuse, and turned the ignition on to repressurize the fuel line.

Anyway, I thought 3rd Generation SE's had timing chains. Besides fouled plugs, wires, and air filters; could a small vacuum leak be a possibility?

 

that reminds me; i did recently replace the air filter and changed the oil and oil filter. i like the idea of the vacuum leak tho; something simple like that that could've gone wrong, i'm sure it'd still be really hard to find and fix but it's a start.

does anyone think i should start by replacing the plugs, wires, fuel filter and fuel pumps? or is there anything else i could check first?

 

Only 92-94 SEs had timing chains, because they came out with the VE engine..all 89-91 maximas had a VG30E that had a timing belt..

 

Here, try this:

On the right side of the engine between the air cleaner and the intake manifold is a black plastic tube with a wiring harness coming out of it. Remove this harness and try to start the car. The harness itself is a bit tricky because it has a retaining clip.

It's on the right in this pic too, right behind the left corner of the battery.
Your overall intake won't look like mine, but the Mass Airflow Meter is the same.

 

Refrenced by my post here:

One of my first 5 threads I think

Man I was such a noob!

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=132320

That thread doesn't really complete the story, but eventually I found that my junkyard MAF was bad, so they gave me another one. With that, the car ran for another 8 months before I sold it to get my SE.

 

i can't get to the car for another 12 hours or so but i'm very excited and crossing everything i have in hopes that the MAFS is bad on mine too.
man, where's a praying smiley when you need one?