I have a 2002 pathfinder and it's the same 3.5 engine that's in the maxima. currently it's consuming oil 1 liter for every 1000 km. pissing me off becuz there's no blue smoke coming out the tail pipe and there's no oil burning smell. I'm planning to do a valver cover swap and was wondering if the diy would be applicable to the pathfinder. I know the engine is the same and is placed not sideways like the maxima because it's rear wheel drive so it's placed long in the engine bay.

 

I'm doing a motor on an '02 pathy as we speak. I am hesitant to believe that valve cover issue, but it's worth a shot. This one needs a motor because of the butterfly issue, you MUST MUST MUST loctite your butterfly screws. This motor had 175k and when I pulled it apart I found 5 of the 6 butterfly valves gone, the only one left on the rod was pretty loose as well. Of the 5 I found 4 of them sitting in the intake port for the number six cylinder and I found 1/2 of one sitting in the number three intake port all chewed up, as for the other 1/2 and the screws I have no idea where they went, but the motor was toast, lots of metal shavings in the oil.

 

Any valve cover info for a maxima will be a little different, the intake manifold is far different, but it's the same general idea. You can get the FSM on Boredmder.com

 

Luckily they swapped to the 4.0. I was a little worried when we got our '08 Pathfinder thinking it had the 3.5.

 

thanks kkrz350 I'll give it a shot