I did another first for the 3.5!!!
#41
The best thing to do is probably a leak down test with a leak-down guage to determine if the rings or the heads are where the seal is being lost. Do this BEFORE you dissamble the engine. It will be much easier to access the spark plug holes with the extra room. You should be able to rotate the engine with a breaker bar off the crank bolt to get each cylinder to compression stroke. Then just take your readings. You will need at least a small air compressor to provide the compressed air. It will be much easier to determine where the hissing sounds of escaping air are coming from (intake manifold or exhaust manifold or after removing the oil pan, the crank case). Don't forget to record your readings from each cylinder. Most new engines have 2-5% leakdown, most worn-out engines have readings of 10% or more. Let us know what you find!
#42
i think my oil loss is coming for a bad valve cover seal, because when i changed my spark plugs about 10k miles ago, one of the spark plugs were covered in oil. but if you guys find something else let me know so i can take a look at that to see if that is another cause of the oil burning problem.
#43
Originally Posted by MaxKlinger
Maybe I'll just look for another 4th gen in good condition - the VQ30DE was, IMHO, one of the best engines ever made, period.
(and the better looks )
#45
Banned
Thread Starter
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Wash. DC
Posts: 132,420
Originally Posted by MaxSE-R
i think my oil loss is coming for a bad valve cover seal, because when i changed my spark plugs about 10k miles ago, one of the spark plugs were covered in oil. but if you guys find something else let me know so i can take a look at that to see if that is another cause of the oil burning problem.
the valve cover gasket failure is very, very common, but it doesn't typically leak bad enough to notice.
#46
Banned
Thread Starter
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Wash. DC
Posts: 132,420
Originally Posted by BewstAdd1ct
$5 on scored cylinder walls.
take plenty of pics, number **** and mark for position as you disassemble.
leakdown readings might be nice too.
take plenty of pics, number **** and mark for position as you disassemble.
leakdown readings might be nice too.
#47
Banned
Thread Starter
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Wash. DC
Posts: 132,420
Another update: I should be getting the car back today (minus headers, udp and the IM gaskets...... at least the salvaged engine has good pre-cats for the time being). Unless the engine is already torn down by redline, I'll try to play with it and my camera today if there's enough room for me at the shop. I'll throw down $500 on the cylinder walls being scored.
#48
Yeah, my 2cents: If you were getting smoke, its most definately something relating to the piston rings/cylinder walls. The only real way to burn oil is to push it past the rings, or drip down into the engine through your valve stem seals. You might consider looking into aftermarket piston rings and doing a quick rebuild on the old motor. Thats if it wasn't injured too bad when it "blew". (or is redline paying you for the old one?) Have it bored out .30 over or so to fix the inconsistancies in the cylinder walls. At that point you're going to need .30 over pistons or you'll be burning even more on the rebuild. Be sure to watch the allignment of the gaps in the rings on install. I personally think if you got a high quality crosshatch finish from a good machinist doing your boreing, along with a good set of rings, they should seat well, and give you a 250k+ engine. You KNOW it would be a fun project.
My bet is that nissan's issue here is just shortcutting on the piston ring material and/or a weird surfacing procedure on the bore.
I figure it could be even simpler than that....perhaps the rings simply don't seat well if the car isn't broken in properly when its new.....
If you can't find anything to put the old motor in, consider building a small formula car or something.....
Best of luck man, hope the swap goes well! Props for doing it yourself!
J
My bet is that nissan's issue here is just shortcutting on the piston ring material and/or a weird surfacing procedure on the bore.
I figure it could be even simpler than that....perhaps the rings simply don't seat well if the car isn't broken in properly when its new.....
If you can't find anything to put the old motor in, consider building a small formula car or something.....
Best of luck man, hope the swap goes well! Props for doing it yourself!
J
#49
Originally Posted by GBAUER
Actually, there was quite a bit of smoke at WOT for the last 60k miles. I first noticed it at around 75k though. The real consumption didn't start to happen until 100k. At around 130k, it started sounding funny at 6,000+ rpms (a rattle?). At 150k, it wouldn't rev over 6k. At 160k it wouldn't rev over 5,500 rpms. It really started losing power at around 80k or so, but I didn't really notice it until 130k. I broke the car in using standard oil per Nissan's recommendations and then switched over to Mobile 1 at 6,000 miles. Used Mobile 1 unitl around 100k miles when I started burning so much oil that I switched to a high-milage oil. At 130k miles, I stopped caring what kind of oil I put in it because I was going through so much.
#51
Banned
Thread Starter
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Wash. DC
Posts: 132,420
Originally Posted by BewstAdd1ct
speaking of the old engine...
what ARE you gonna do with it?
what ARE you gonna do with it?
Got the car back today. I haven't had power like this for a good year! Played cat and mouse with a IS350, but we won't talk about that....
It's obvious to me that the pre-cats were failing for a long, long, long time. I'm guessing around 100k miles (I have 165,000 on it now). The headers, UDP, urethane motor mounts and plenum spacers weren't ready yet, so we used the pre-cats from the salvaged engine which were fine. Hopefully within a month or so we'll do the headers and the rest. Corey (Redmax) and I will be tearing down the old engine soon, but we want to take our time testing it and documenting everything for everyone's use. I still think we're going to find out that the chicken indeed came before the egg in that the pre-cats caused the oil consumption.
#52
Originally Posted by GBAUER
I'm (or we...) am/are rebuilding it and doing some little internal things I don't want to talk about yet...
Got the car back today. I haven't had power like this for a good year! Played cat and mouse with a IS350, but we won't talk about that....
It's obvious to me that the pre-cats were failing for a long, long, long time. I'm guessing around 100k miles (I have 165,000 on it now). The headers, UDP, urethane motor mounts and plenum spacers weren't ready yet, so we used the pre-cats from the salvaged engine which were fine. Hopefully within a month or so we'll do the headers and the rest. Corey (Redmax) and I will be tearing down the old engine soon, but we want to take our time testing it and documenting everything for everyone's use. I still think we're going to find out that the chicken indeed came before the egg in that the pre-cats caused the oil consumption.
Got the car back today. I haven't had power like this for a good year! Played cat and mouse with a IS350, but we won't talk about that....
It's obvious to me that the pre-cats were failing for a long, long, long time. I'm guessing around 100k miles (I have 165,000 on it now). The headers, UDP, urethane motor mounts and plenum spacers weren't ready yet, so we used the pre-cats from the salvaged engine which were fine. Hopefully within a month or so we'll do the headers and the rest. Corey (Redmax) and I will be tearing down the old engine soon, but we want to take our time testing it and documenting everything for everyone's use. I still think we're going to find out that the chicken indeed came before the egg in that the pre-cats caused the oil consumption.
#54
Banned
Thread Starter
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Wash. DC
Posts: 132,420
Originally Posted by soonerfan
well hurry up!!! i only have 6K left on my warranty and want to take the dealership some proof so they dont keep blowing me off
BTW: I thought you had headers? If you do, are you still using oil? If so, that shoots my theory in the head and kills it with a dull spoon.
#55
Banned
Thread Starter
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Wash. DC
Posts: 132,420
Originally Posted by NmexMAX
What are pre-cats? Headers FTMFW...Looking foward to see your progress...
Having trouble finding headers now. We might have to make our own.
#56
Originally Posted by Jasovanni
My bet is that nissan's issue here is just shortcutting on the piston ring material and/or a weird surfacing procedure on the bore.
#57
Originally Posted by GBAUER
I'm (or we...) am/are rebuilding it and doing some little internal things I don't want to talk about yet...
okay, so then youre throwing the old engine back in?
what about the new one, after it comes out?
#58
Originally Posted by GBAUER
I still think we're going to find out that the chicken indeed came before the egg in that the pre-cats caused the oil consumption.
#59
Originally Posted by Y2K2Driver
Excuse my ignorance, but how do pre-cats cause oil consumption?
#60
Banned
Thread Starter
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Wash. DC
Posts: 132,420
Originally Posted by BewstAdd1ct
okay, so then youre throwing the old engine back in?
what about the new one, after it comes out?
what about the new one, after it comes out?
Actually I'll probably keep it as a spare since I'll be pushing the other so hard.
#61
After you do your initial visual/leakdown investigation it would be interesting to bring the block to a quality machinist to have them measure each bore diameter and also check bore runout or taper. This might help to determine if piston rock via detonation could be a factor. You could also due the same to the pistons to see what your overall piston to bore clearances were.
#62
Banned
Thread Starter
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Wash. DC
Posts: 132,420
Originally Posted by Tommy Boy
After you do your initial visual/leakdown investigation it would be interesting to bring the block to a quality machinist to have them measure each bore diameter and also check bore runout or taper. This might help to determine if piston rock via detonation could be a factor. You could also due the same to the pistons to see what your overall piston to bore clearances were.
#63
Originally Posted by GBAUER
Do you have a dipstick? Do you put oil in your car? What other proof do you need? If you have consumption, go to another dealership if they won't help you out. Come up to Fredneck and we can go over there. Some of the guys are getting to know me (or at least my car) and we can explain the situation together. They can do a consumption test and see the oil level.
BTW: I thought you had headers? If you do, are you still using oil? If so, that shoots my theory in the head and kills it with a dull spoon.
BTW: I thought you had headers? If you do, are you still using oil? If so, that shoots my theory in the head and kills it with a dull spoon.
and i dont have headers...im another one of the people that should have got them when they were easier to get
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
zzznightmarezz
Maximas for Sale / Wanted
0
09-21-2015 06:32 PM
MaxRPM6
New Member Introductions
0
09-11-2015 06:56 PM