Tools you will need : a full socket set but for the most part you will be using 10-14mm, extensions, and universal joints if you have them. Phillips and regular screw drivers, needle nose pliers, regular pliers, box wrenches (full set up to at least 22-23mm or large locking channel locks) hose pliers if you have them would be helpful. Torque wrench. (basically no special tools are needed if you have a decent set of tools youll get through this ok ! )

Materials you will need- 1) set of rebuilt vtc's, 2) upper engine gasket replacement set ( nissan can supply this for you), 3) high temp silicone for engine upper timing chain covers, 4) anything else you would like to replace along the way....

instructions- first remove your battery connection then the stock airbox (or aftermarket poop charger), now remove the hoses on the maf and them unplug the harness on the MAF then remove it from the car (if you are not going to remember where all the hoses go LABEL THEM !!!) your next job now is a bigger one - start removing the upperintake manifold.remember to stuff rags in any open holes so stuff dosent get in the intake.. Start with the coil packs and throtte cables then remove all the hoses and connectors attached to the throttle body, once all the hoses are out of your way.....wait you forgot the one on the back of the manifold double check the two behind it - while your doing that youll notice the four bolts that will have to be removed also on the back of the manifold. The other bolts holding this sucker on are on the top of the manifold while your taking the bolts and screws ( a few grounds are attached to the front) off the front you can unplug the fuel injector harness and move the coilpack, injector harness out of your way dont forget to remove the egr pipe and vaccum hose. your intake should be loose and should pretty much pull off at this point, if it dosent carefully check where its snagged remove it and label what you removed. now that the intake is off you can remove BOTH valve covers (dont drop the washers i lost two of mine on the ground somewhere) now that the covers are off BINGO theres your vtc's on the end of the intale camshaft (the big drum lookin things with a gear on the end of the camshafts closest to the intake) now all the belts must be loosened, after that the front timing chain covers must be taken off, to do this you will need to remove one of the belt pullies.

now comes the important part you MUST SET THE CAR TO Top Dead Center. all of these must align of you WILL BLOW YOUR VALVES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!

rotate the motor by hand until cylinder one is at tdc ( the rear bank of cylinders, the one on the passenger side is one) if you dont have a compression tool take the spark plug out and stick your finger in the hole while someone is turning the engine you will feel the piston hit the top of the stroke, also the timing marks on the crank pulley will alighn (if you standing at the front of the car looking at towards the rear the pin on the crank pulley will alighn with the top LINES also the two silver teeth in the timing chain will align with the divits in the vtc's. there is a gold tooth also this is supposed to line up with the bottom gear. i may have pics of this hang on.........once the car is at TDC and all is in harmony you may remove thetiming chain tensioners there are two bolts remove them and then you will see on them a small hook once they are out depress the tensioners and set it on the hook

now you can remove vtc's by placing a 23-24 mm wrench(i dont remember that size just see what fits) on the camshaft and a 22mm on the bolt holding the vtc in. remove the vtc's and install the new ones when you are installing the new ones line up the silver marks with the divits in the vtcs' !!! this is imperitive !!! once the new vtc's are installed you may put the timing chain tensioners back in, tighten them down and relesase the hook.

turn the motor by hand and make sure it turns freely. if it does then you can start the process of putting this mess back together the timing chain covers go back on ( with silicone) the pulley the belts, the valve covers, the intake, the airbox the radiator hoses, after geting it all together please turn the motor by hand 5-10 times by HAND after that, well, give her a shot with the key and cross yopur fingers....




THIS was a brief account of my experience and is to inform others on the process i am in no way an ase mechanic and take no liability for what you do to your car. hope this helped a bit !! i attached the FSM which will assist you in removal and install, this was given to me when i did mine !!

http://home.comcast.net/~93nissanmaxima/FSM.PDF

 

nice right up hopefully i dont need to use this for another 60000miles

hows your car run now that its fixed

 

i had a few things done to the car that were "extra" like porting and polishing, new knock sensor and a few more parts replaced due to age i also had the udp installed - so, fridays the day !!! i cant wait !!!!

 

well dang, I thought it was going to be:

1. Buy Parts
2. Drive to Mechanic
3. Come back to mechanic
4. Bend Over
5. Drive home


yaaay you get maxima back.

 

@MrGone

 

i was thinking the axact same thing

 

You forgot theses ones
a1. Try it yourself
a2 destroy engine
then proceede to step 1

 

ouch that was cold



but funny

 

cold?
it's 27*f outside (warmest day this week I think)

 

hey cant blame a guy for trying right ? i could do it now with no sweat - however its too damn cold out to work on my car - thats why its at the mechanic......first a pink cai now i have to bend over ?? hummmm think the line gets drawn there......

 

i have total respec for you becuase it does take ***** to try that wether or not you fixed it or made it worse in the process

i once took apart my laser printer because it would jam up every other page and when i put it back together it jamed every page and i have to feed the pages manualy now. although my mistake wasnt quite as costly you get the idea

 

yeah Nick, we joke around with you about it, but thats because we have to

takes ***** to dive into this stuff.