The last month, when I drive the car, it smells like burning oil. All the fluids are topped off, so I've been worried. I just saw today it is now leaking oil, and it looks like it has coated the underside of the engine in grime, right under the intake manifold/throttle body.
I attached some pics:








Any idea's what I should check, or just start pulling everything apart?

 

valve cover gasket

 

Awesome, thanks! I found a write-up on instructables on changing it for a saturn- One question though, can you just buy the gasket for the whole thing, or do you have to use the gasket goo for part of it?

Thanks!

 

its common, replace the valve cover gasket and make sure you torque it to spec in the right order.

If I were you I would take a rag, or a few, and wipe all the crap off you can. Drive it around the block. Jack it up and look underneath to see if oil is coming from another possible spot. just to be sure, It looks like most likely valve gasket is the cause.

 

I had this when I bought my car, I washed it off with a high pressure hose and drive it nicely, about every 2 weeks a little bit leaks out and I just wash it again until I get around to replacing the gaskets.
Drive it nicely and keep an eye on it and you can probably let it slide for a while, but something you'll definately need to get around to.

 

yea if oil is coming from both gaskets and the oil pan change your pcv valve as well

 

This was the next question i had for the org because it seems like everytime i clean it off it just comes back but i saw a whole set of gaskets on ebay should i just get that and replace all of them?

 

It is relatively easy to change the gaskets, but remember to do an oil change right afterwards (before you drive it). This is a good way to ensure no contaminants found their way into the lubrication system while you had the top of the motor exposed.

In the mean time you can just tighten down the screws...

 

What do you do about the one screw thats beneath the distribution cap? I tried taking the distributer out, but thus have found no luck- it just rotates after you take out the main screw. Any ideas?

 

pull up firmly?

 

pull up on it while rotating the rotor with your hand to help it up.

 

Nope, still can't get it out. The base rotates back and forth, the actual rotor doesn't wiggle back and forth more that just a very tiny bit, but nothing is working.

It looks like it's just the one screw- but rotating the base and pulling as hard as I can doesn't seem to do anything! Even the FSM just says "remove distributer"- can't figure out how to pull it out for the last screw!

 

the screw on the neck of the rotor is just to release the rotor. the 14mm-headed bolt at the base of the distribtor is what you remove to get the disty off. but if the base can rotate back and forth then it really should just come up. pics or video of you trying to remove it and what you have already removed?

 

Here is a picture far away showing the bolt below the distributor:


Here's it up close with it rotated to th left:



To the right:


and the screw hidden under the distributor:

 

cant u get a small wrench in there?

 

he doesn't need to... he already removed the bolt that holds it in place. it SHOULD come right out. those 'hidden screws' are for other stuff (cam angle sensor wire cover)

 

Awesome, it worked!!! I just pulled up as hard as I could a couple times- hood fell on me, but it pulled out.


Anything I should know when putting it back together aside from try to have distributor rotor pointed in the same direction? Only the front seal is leaking- just save the back seal until/if it goes too?

 

Alright, new question- what is the best way to take the valve cover off? It's stuck on like glue- I tried using a rubber mallet to knock it slightly, but didn't even slightly unstick it. Can I use brake cleaner on it to remove some of the grime? Or something else to clean off the caked on oil?

 

did you line the engine up right before taking it off? what you're supposed to do is line the engine up at TDC for cylinder 1 on its compression stroke. That way the notches on the gear-end of the disty's shaft and sheath will be relevant for re-installation.

you can tap a putty knife in from the radiator side.. be careful you don't bend the lip of the cover but the putty knife should be thin and wide enough to help.

 

Ok, it finally came off- after everything, I also just kept hitting it with a mallet everywhere, and although it didn't seem like it was doing anything, it finally came loose.

I didn't do that- what should I do? Where do you find out how to do this stuff aside from the pictures in the FSM?

I rented the torque wrench from autozone- but it is huge. The valve cover only had normal Philips screws, and the throttle body had hex- do I just need to find adapters for the torqe wrench for both of them, and torque them to what the FSM says? (.1-.3kg-m, .7-2.2ft-lb for valve cover, 1.8-2.2kg-m, 13-16ft-lb for throttle body)

 

what you really need is a 1/4" drive torque wrench... it should be pretty small. the MINIMUM setting on my 1/2" drive is 10 lb/ft but you can't hardly feel it click at any setting below 20-25. and the min on my 3/8" drive is 5 lb/ft but it's still hard to feel anything under 10 lb/ft on it. according to matt93se, 'turn the screws on the valve covers about 1/3 as tight as you CAN tighten them'

to tighten allen bolts like that you can pick up a set of metric allen attachments from harbor freight for about $10.

for the distributor, based on how the rotor was turned when you took it off it seems you were pretty close to having it in the right spot. if the notches on yoru crank pulley are close to the arrow on the timing cover, then just go ahead and line it up with the last mark. but only turn it clockwise.. so if you are already past them, turn the engine 2 turns to get it back on the mark. that way you can use the mark on the distributor to realign it.

 

based on the pictures on the distributor cap the engine is no where near TDC. 2 ways of finding this is by what CapedCadaver stated by lining up the notches on the crank pulley to the little metal arrow sticking out of the lower timing cover just above the crank pulley, or go to cylinder 1 and take out the spark plug and then get a long phillips and rotate crank clockwise until piston 1 is up top. once its on top then you will know its on TDC and then look at the notches on the crank pulley to make sure. then go here: http://boredmder.com/FSM/Nissan/Maxima/1994/em.pdf and scroll to page 32 so that you'll know how to put the distributor back on once you have the engine at TDC.

 

I don't understand completely- I can't put the distributor back in the way it was(or slightly off since it doesn't seem to want to align with the lines I drew)?

What would happen if I put it back close to what it was? Would it just need timing adjusted, or total destruction?

 

where did you draw "these" lines you speak of? if you attempt to install this as close as possible to where it originally was you will either retard or advance the timing. it won't get harmed but it might not start but just crank or it will start and run like straight a$$. did you read the page of the link i posted in my previous post about the distributor?

 

i was under the impression that one tooth on the disty gear was more than they adjusibility of the disty once installed. ie, if it's one tooth off in either direction you have no hope of getting it to time right. at least that's what we ran into... it was off one tooth and the most advanced we could get it was 5*atdc

anyhow doomtoo, what you have to compensate for is the fact that the rotor is gonna twist as you install the disty, because the gear is cut as a spiral. so once it is sitting down in there it is gonna be a little bit off so you have to compensate before you put it in.

 

What I had done was use a permanent marker to mark where the rotor was on the distributor below it- so if the rotor wound up moving when I pulled it out, I could put it back where it had been before(it should rotate back into the seated position if nothing internally moved).

The thing is when I put the distributor on, it twists so it either ends up slightly before my marks or after...

I wasn't sure what you guys had meant with:
I should be able to see which pulley it is on the side of the engine near the distributor, and there should be two notches to line up(one on pulley one above it)? How do I move the pulley?

And I don't understand yet why I would need to if I can put it back where it was, and nothing inside had moved?

 

well if you marked it before you removed it then you can just put it back so that it lines up with that mark again and you will be fine. just get it as close as you can before tightening back that bolt, and your timing shouldn't be affected at all.

 

another thing is that once you install it back in and the rotor still doesn't line up to the disty then try twisting the disty while installed until it lines up with the rotor. remember the rotor stays in place but you can still turn the disty from left to right before securing it with the bolt.

 

and once the rotor lines up with the line you should be so close to your original timing that you shouldn't have to bother re-timing it... it will be within 1 degree if you line it up straight.

 

Ok, I put it all back together - I go distributor rotor as close as I could, but it wouldn't line up. I started it up- and it runs- but rough. I want to get a timing gun from autozone and test it, but would this be the best videos to follow?:

http://forums.maxima.org/3rd-generat...nt-videos.html

Or is there a better resource?

(and adjust idle first to around 800, then do timing?)

Would it be okay to run down to autozone with bad timing?

 

Oy, it's kind of hard, but it seemed drivable. Every time I put it into drive the car dies though... also revving up to like 1.5-2k, it like jumps around like crazy....

Just the timing or possibly something else?

 

how far off was it? it's too late now.. you already started the engine so the line you mad is now irrelevant... wish you'd told us it didn't line up before you started it. now you have to go redo the timing yourself. Depending how bad the timing is off, i wouldn't recommend driving it if you have friends/family that can take you to get a timing light.