My car uses amazing amounts of oil, its runs fine and everything but it obviously has sucked up some of the materiel from the precats because it has that issue. So im planning on gutting the precats soon and i was wondering if there was anyone here that has redone the rings on their VQ without taking the engine out? Is it even possible on this car, or is there even a point?

Rings and the gaskets kits are cheap so i was just wonering if it would be worth the time.

 

you're gonna have a hell of a time getting the timing chain cover off with the engine in the car. It isn't impossible, but it's going to be a PITA.

 

You'll have to drop the upper and lower pans, so the crossmember has got to go, as does the front engine mount. You'll have to have it supported at least for a period of time, so why not take the extra 30 minutes to just pull the thing out?

As said, it's doable to tear it down while in the car. It's just a major PITA.

 

So much easier when the engine is out of the car.. I couldnt even imagine doing it while in the bay........

 

It would certainly be worth your time to do a leak down test to determine what, if any, the problem is.

How does the engine suck material from an exhaust componant?

 

You've never heard of the VQ/QR pre-cat issues?

 

Welcome to Nissan.

+1 what Steve said on the leak down test.

 

yea i was going to, just seems most likely at this point being the history of these cars. What i find most surprising is it uses huge amounts of oil but doesn't smoke and passed its last etest, but doesn't leak either anywhere i can see.

Has anyone done the rings in a VQ just the rings re-honing the cylinders and the gaskets without doing everything else?