CapedCadaver

iTrader: (8)

So today is me and my GXE's 2nd anniversary (traditionally the 'cotton' anniversary). I picked her up just after graduating high school back in 2006. I guess you can say we've been through a lot.... almost 25k miles, a few gallons of oil, a few hundred gallons of gas, a handful of close calls, a trouble-free trip to the dragstrip, a trip to the mountains, a trip to Chicago, a few sad tiems of sitting on jackstands for longer than we'd have liked, and one particularly rare ride on the hitch of a tow truck. I even got her some friends to play with, a blue 89SE for parts and a white 89SE to fix and sell to my friend as a replacement for his "**** Probe".

I've even patched her up a little bit too. Fixed the washer pump, window regulator, tbelt/wpump, power antenna, radiator, installed phenolic spacers, fabricated a polyurethane motor mount, fixed my O2 sensor harness (wasn't sending any signal b/c no gnd), fixed a fuel leak, fixed a power steering leak, installed new r&p insulators (omg what a difference!!!), and performed (albeit at a slow pace) a 5-speed swap when the automatic shat itself (hence the tow truck).

But i've also done her wrong a few times as well... i was careless and exploded a wheel cylinder, tried to put in new exhaust studs but ended up breaking more than were broken to begin with, broke the poly mount during installation so it never actually worked like it was supposed to, rebuilt my slave cylinder but somehow it ended up all stiff (maybe piston is too big), ruined the paint while repairing other things, cracked a corner lamp, burned a hole in my CHMSL casing, broke some vents on the inside and cracked my dash on the seatbelt carrier, and bubbled up my carpet when i jacked the car up wrong.

But there's still some work to be done... over the course of the next year I'm going to put in a better-running motor with well-balanced injectors, put in some sort of a custom-geared transmission (still got to see if this will actually be possible). Also doing struts, springs, bushings, drums->mild bbk (HUGE difference... which is good b/c my brakes SUCK), some 'new shoes', cosmetic touchup, custom one-of-a-kind lighting all over, and a fresh coat of metallic navy blue paint to replace my aged pearl white, and to set it apart from other 3rd gens.

So here's to many more years of the rubber meeting the road with my Maxima.

BenStoked

iTrader: (7)

so, since its the cotton anniversary, are you gonna get new seat covers?

CapedCadaver

iTrader: (8)

hmm, not sure yet. what i wanna know is... what's my Maxima gonna get me?

disgruntled

iTrader: (7)

some failed injectors, more rust to the wheel well, and possibly electronic gremlins?


I kid, I kid!

have fun.

internetautomar

iTrader: (30)

a VE5 for $750?

maximal

iTrader: (4)

i'm curious how you broke more exhaust studs and your poly mounts.

sleepyvg30e

iTrader: (1)

holy **** this guy picked out a lemon
ive got my 2yr anniversary in september and ive never had any of those problems (except for the plastic regulators of course) ive had it for 20k miles and all i did was a couple pothole repairs on the axles cv shafts and ball joints (i love ny)
but hey wats with the engine swap dont go for the quick fix a VG deserves its place build that baby and leave these VQ swap guys in the dust

BenStoked

iTrader: (7)

lemon? hell, all the problems he has fixed are typical of a 15+ year old car. I dont recall dead boys () mileage, but I think it was over 200K

as for the engine swap, he went from old vg with automatic, to same vg with a vg5 speed, and will be doing a fresh, rebuilt vg with a ve5 speed.

CapedCadaver

iTrader: (8)

my "old" engine is a warranty replacement or previous-owner replacement... it's out of a 93-94 and the harness was swapped from the 93-94 as well. cali engine in fed car, with different years' emission regulations and parts and sensors.

taking the parts car's engine... not rebuilding it, just reconditioning it as best i can assuming compression turns out to be OK, and cleaning it up and putting a good set of injectors on it, new gaskets and assorted items, and installing it with a modified VE5 tranny. i may go for a truly rebuilt motor later in life but the time and money aren't in the cards right now... i'm about to move out of a house and into an apartment so i'm just not going to be able to do that sort of car-down-for-long-time stuff anymore.

CapedCadaver

iTrader: (8)

so what happened was, there was this other stud, and it was already weak, and when i turned the nut with a wrench, it all just came off in the wrench. but it was already blackened so it had cracked, just not fully severed, far beforehand.

the poly mount's center sleeve was off-center ... i molded it sticking too far out one side. mount was, of course, centered onto the member. top shell of the mount came down as engine was lowered.... one side of the shell hit the jutting-out edge of the sleeve, pulled down, down, down, until the engine pushed so far that the poly stress-fractured. finally it went down so far that it just sprang back into place, a few more adjustments and the bolt made it through.... but the damage was already done. i used the weaker compound.. i'm making another one, this time, with a stronger compound and more precise measurements.

CapedCadaver

iTrader: (8)

it's past midnight on the 1st now, but it would be all-too-appropriate for my car to have gotten me a speeding ticket, printed in cotton-blend paper. funny until it came time to pay it, anyhow. but i don't rly speed so it's not a worry for me.

internetautomar

iTrader: (30)

say what?
actually, now it's a non-running VE5 for $500.

CapedCadaver

iTrader: (8)

you mean you found one near you of that description? Or that my car is mad at me now and won't get me the same sort of gift?

internetautomar

iTrader: (30)

I found one by me of that description.

Why do I keep finding all these VE5s but no VE A/Ts

CapedCadaver

iTrader: (8)

ionno... send it down here then.

internetautomar

iTrader: (30)

lols, it would cost more in gas than the cars cost.

BenStoked

iTrader: (7)

I cant find any ve5's here. and definitely not in the j/y. if I found a white ve5, I would almost switch my car in an instant.

sleepyvg30e

iTrader: (1)

If you guys are looking for cheap 3rd gens check out police auctions beleive it or not this was a popular drug dealers car when it came out (still is) i was able to hsop through a couple of them before pickin mine out but cant find **** for jy parts

3g94MaxGXE

I actually know that from living around ghettos in FL. Black Maxima = drug dealer car. Usually the white, tan and red ones end up being abused by white people with the exception of that one wrecked one I found in a junk yard which smelled and looked like it had been owned by Bob Marley himself....in other words the car smelled like smoke and had lots of Jamaica crap inside the car.

sleepyvg30e

iTrader: (1)

If you get a little time undo the back seats and clean up the dozens of empty dimebags that have probably found their way in back of your seats (im still hopin to find a full one) funny story when i first got my pearl max almost everyone who saw it repeated some rhyme saying "92 max same color as crack" even though mine was a 93? so yeah definitely as much of a dealers car as a 64' cadillac
Thank god dealers take care of their cars mine came with upgraded cd player and speakers as well as a chopped antenna

so if ur lookin for quality 3rd gens forget the junkyard take a trip to the closest police auction an see wat u come up with!