149K-Time For JDM Swap
 

Well Guys, for those who know me and how have seen my max, know how much i love this well crafted mechine. I was driving home form work on night on the LIE going to the BQE interchange, When a A$s*ole was nearing the yeild sign just to join the BQE going to the Kosikosko Bridge going toward Brooklyn, the driver did not yield. AT the same time i stomped on my brakes as i was about 55mph, down shifting to 2nd from 4th , popped the clutch, all this to 1- avoid the di(K infront who cut me off and 2- to avoid getting rear ended by a 18 wheeler. Needless to say my rev jumped from 2500->to above redline then when i upshifted, the noise came. My max has about 149,002 when i popped the engine, sounds/feels like its running on 3 cylinders. The noise sounds like its coming from the timing chain, left rear side of the engine. It sounds life metal filings are tossed into the gears/sprockets. and i think that with that done it make have messed the timing on the engine to make if misfire, backfire. All I know is that this is gonna cost me 2k to fix.


WEll Just like N34JZ, I got mines from www.enginereplacement.com . I went and they had all types of engines. Man how i wish those VG30DETT or sr20dett could fit, it would be fun. Man Those engines look beautiful in person , me want, me want.

Well I went and got a "JDM engine" an paid 980+ tax+delivery. 6 months unlimited mileage, blah blah.:yeah right Oh on a side note the engine did have japanese righting on it, the oil filter was bright organge w/ japanese characters on it. The engine was clean though. They are going to clean more of the gunk off before they deliver the motor to me.

Any ideas on what to do on the old engine? Rebuilt it for fun, ? or trash it? Any ways this is the most expensive thing i have ever baught for her... The max cost me about 3k when i got her at 116K., that was about 3 years ago.
Well thats the price you have to pay for a car that is your love and joy. now all i need is to get the maxima exterior redone, paint- rust- dings all taken out.

Anyways update will be added once i start to get this job running w/ my mechanic.

Quick question. Sould i use synthetic oil from know on, or should i wait like 2-3 oil changes to make sure everything works fine. and then go synthetic.

Also what sould be changed since the engine is going to be changed out?


http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g3...Picture007.jpg
My old ve w/ 149k on it
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g3...Picture008.jpg
oil leaking
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g3...Picture010.jpg
another shot
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g3...Picture046.jpg
Its really low in the back, my suspension setup tokicos/intrax front end high not too much weight w/o tranny
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g3...Picture047.jpg
Engine in Waiting for tranny

shifting from 4th-2ed is a very bad idea. unless your going less then 45 or so. thats a huge jump in rpm, and poping the clutch to do that stresses every thing, hence your broken motor.

GL on the new one. Id wait to make any plans about the old motor untill you actually look at and know what the damage is.

~Alex

Yeah, it probably depends on what happened to the old motor, but it doesn't sound good. Strip it for spare parts for yourself or sell the parts you don't use.

There are quite a few parts that you and/or your mechanic should replace or transfer over to your JDM. Do yourself a HUGE favor and look in the stickies for an exact guide.

You should swap intakes over, otherwise you lose your variable intake. That's only on 5-speed cars and almost all JDM engines are AT.

Here is a short list of "good idea" to replace or swap.

knock sensor
water pump
coolant temp sensor
IACV clean and swap (they are different)
manifold studs (use turbo ones)

I might be missing some things, that's why stickies are there.

good luck

Motors go bad. Shifting hard from 4th to 2nd isn't going to kill a motor, it'll kill a tranny though. I redline daily for 90,000 miles and I think my motor likes it.:arrow:

Sorry to hear that man. Goes to show that we should take it easy on these old motors. :rotz: Seems your from around here.. Can't believe I never seen a VE5 in that sweet color in my area.

Yo Cliff, so might you know what vehicle these JDM VEs are comin out of?

I believe most of the VEs that are "JDM" are warehoused from 91-94 Maximas that were recyled in Japan or at least in their market area (Asia/Australia). I don't think they put the VE engine in any other car. Also, since Nissan hasn't made these engines since the early 90s, I think most of them get painted with some kind of varnish so they don't get as much corrosion. In other words, the engines were probably pulled back around 1995-1998, the engines drained of fluids, they were varnished and put in a container, then shipped over here.

If you buy a JDM it is just a crapshoot as to how many miles are on it, how long it has been sitting and how well it was maintained.

Mine looked great, but now the VTCs are ticking, so I assuming it had more than the "40-60k" that the engine place claimed. It's pretty rare to have VTCs tick with that low of miles.

Yeah, very good info. Thanks Cliff. ;)

One thing though, lemme see if I got this down.. When you say they recycled them, you mean they were pulled out of cars here(US) with "low" miles, shipped to their market area, drained of fluids, varnished, wrapped up, and sent back here to warehouses? Couldn't they have just done that here? :confused:

He means they recycled them (engines)in mass amounts in foreign countries where more of them were produced. But recycling is a good way of saying that the cars are in a big junkyard in it's current state and if you need something then you can go pull it from the donor or order to have it pulled for a price.

Yes they could have recycled the engine here but look how long it may have taken to import the engines here shipping wise. They are in a hot container for weeks as they are delivered by ship unless the engine is from japan where shipping may be a little less than two weeks but from deep asia or austrailia you are looking at 6-8 weeks of shipping and the temps within the container will easily hit 100+ on a given summer day on the ocean. Oil will break down and it will sludge so the best bet is to avoid this from happening is to preserve it first. Also engine coolant can also sludge from sitting within the galleys (sp?) and it can look nasty so. When you have fluids sitting like this for a long time they will begin to break up and as a whole they may be safe but once the break down process begins it may cause much more harm than good. Would you want an engine that had coolant sitting in it for xx amount of weeks/months/years where water has the tendancy to rust metals? Now that rust is inside of the engine so unless you broke it down and inspected it you don't know what the internals look like. Thus early preservation prevents all of this.

I am pretty sure all of the JDM VE engines came from Japan, or at least Asia or Australia. They are different than the USDM versions. Coil packs, cam position sensor, IACV are all different from the USDM.

I think the VE engines are pulled directly in Japan. There are some cars that have the whole front clip sent over here. I have never seen a rhd Maxima front clip listed at any of the parts places on the west coast.

So Far I have yet to get anything started in the process to exchange engines. Hopefully wednesday willl start the work details. I look at my max everyday and I wonder if I am doing the right thing. She isnt as tight as a new car, and i have been spoiled by new car-i-tus, where you drive a new car and everything is tight and smooth. But there is alot of work to be done to her. A/c has to be repaired. the window regulators have to be replaced. Paint and dings and rust need to be attended to. *sigh* now is it all worth it.? I mean I love her too much to get rid off, and she is what i want and need. *sigh* it just sucks. N34JZ has his g35 and his 3rd gen, which he is pleased with, but its nice to have a new car, just cant afford it, just in the mean time anyways. Just a lil rant. guess the gas prices makes me go nutz. *Sigh* I am thinking about getting a bike, dont know anything about our 2 wheel counterpart

Just always remember the new car payments and higher insurance. Plus our cars are cooler then the majority of the new sporty sedans out there.

Bad luck of mines. WEll got the call from the mechanic. Turns out all is going according to plan but turns out i need a new tranny aswell. Well my tranny is ok just the bell housing. I need to find a housing, and transfere what i can salvage. Look s like the tranny has been the culprit(sp?) to my mystery oil leak. Now i just spent 1200 on my eng, not including labor, and have to shell out another 300+ to find just a housing for my max... Question is that can i use a non-lsd casing and transfere out the parts or dod i have to find one that is already lsd. My thoughts that they are not interchangable. I have already serarch the net to find a bell housing, anyone have one locally ? time to search the f/s logs.

there not interchangable dif bearings/seals are bigger

have you tried?

My parents bought my old blue VE auto back in the mid-90's with right at 50k miles or something like that. A week later it started making a horrible clacking noise so they took it in under warranty and turns out it was the VTC's. They replaced them with brand new ones and by 130k (right before I sold it) they were clacking again

yeah for about 3 months. doesnt work.


Good luck with the new engine Izzy and enjoy the "silver bullet" I lent you tonight.

:laugh:

that's just bad luck. I didn't say it never happens, but it seems pretty rare to occur before it gets close to 100k. By comparison, my first VE (92 5-speed) I drove to 160k and it never made a peep. It was the quietest VE I have ever heard. I wish I never would have traded it in!

use the old engine as a coffee table

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g3...Picture001.jpg

here is the pic of the hole in the spindle... notice where it is.. that is where the fork/though out bearing would more from.. the bearing and fork broke in peices

thats why you shouldnt downshift from 5th to 1st:wall:

engine and tranny as a coffe table, that's awesome!