Pinging? You mean ticking?

What is an issue? The burning or the leaking

 

Some 3.5 's will burn oil, some won't. Mine doesn't, and never has. (knock on wood)

Unless you count the oil loss from a cracked rear valve cover. Besides that repair, everything is good. Well, I am afflicted with the 3rd gear crunch, and I've blown 2 original ignition coils, 3 sets of rear rotors, and my throttle body valve is about to get replaced...

Karma is a bi.tch.

 

what does this third gear crunch sounds like? when does it usually happen? wot or just normal shifting

 

cmax1, there are a million threads on that. Give it a search if you want to research it deeper.

It's a crunch that you feel more than you hear, but like any miss-shift, it can sound nasty if you catch it wrong. A hard shift would grind into 3rd gear, and WOT from 2rd gear redline is pretty much a lost cause.

Some claim minor improvement with better tranny fluid (like MT-90), but that' more of a placebo. I've personally improved things lately by installing ES bushings underneath the shifter assembly. And since that helped (go figure), then I'm thinking the NWP torque link would help, too... anything to make the shift less sloppy, I suppose.

But in the end, it's still a mechanical problem. The 3rd gear syncros have a design flaw, and some people are afflicted by it more than others.

 

on the OLD L series 6 cylinder motors, they will kinda go through oil like that too, just as you described. on these it's actually the valve-stem seals that leak and let a little oil into the intake valve and exhaust valves. I've even seen a L18 head where the little rubber seal itself slid up the valve stem and was just flowing oil into that cylinder like crazy, talk about the james bond smoke-screen!! when the motor is cold, it does have a very very light smoke to it, but once up to temp it doesn't smoke.. and with the colder weather coming, I've already started to notice a difference. just something to think about......

 

I checked the fronts and they are clean but the rear plugs have oil..

So if the plugs have oil its the valve covers? and if the plugs dont have oil and you are losing oil its probably the piston rings??

 

Not entirely. It may also be leaking externally. I've ssen it happen before, although not very common. Oil usually makes its way past the tube seals.

 

It burn oil... nothing you can do to fix it without spending some $$$$

 

And, you can burn a LOT of oil for the same $$$$.

 

definitely check the rear valve cover gasket. could be the front as-well . the problem is the gaskets are sealed in the cover to replace the gaskets you have to buy the whole cover about 150 dealer part only. your problem is the o rings around each plug, oil wont leak outside of the cover so you have to remove each coil pack to see which is wet with oil. its a long and tedious job took me about 2.5 hours on a saturday. the entire intake has to come off to replace the rear coils, plugs or valve cover gaskets

 

Use the '04 valve covers. Much cheaper and the design pretty much eliminates future leaks.

 

Mine's always burned oil. Around a quart every 1k miles. It doesn't care if it's warm or cold out, it just loves to eat that oil! It doesn't really bother me too much, but it is the first Maxima I've had that burns oil. What does bother me is I bought it used from a woman. Let's just say I don't think she paid a lot of attention to the oil level.

Why do I think this? The first night I had the car I was going through the glovebox and noticed she had purchased a 100k mile/6 year extended warranty from Nissan on it. I called her to notify her I was sending up the transfer paperwork to her. She told me she had no idea the car had an extended warranty!

 

Wow thats funny . I wasn't as lucky as you...

 

Check the following, Valve Cover, PCV Valve could be clogged or stuck open.

 

Not the case with my 3.0

 

I bought my valve covers and will be replacing them soon. I will be doing spark plugs and PCV valve aswell.

Should I buy an intake manifold gasket and replace that too after I take it off?

 

It wouldn't hurt, but you can re-use it if you're careful with it.

 

I think the rear valve cover comes with the PCV already connected. Which seems odd, since you have to buy gaskets separately. Anyway, you might want to check on that before you spend $10 on an extra PCV.

I could be wrong, but it's worth a quick call.

 

Ya you might be right..but i already ordered everything

But i didnt get the UIM gasket and was wondering if i should?
I have heard its better to replace it wheb you take it off. Which is the smart thing to do with most gaskets

 

I can't say for sure, but planning on a new UIM gasket means you don't have to worry about tearing or breaking the original one. So there's that.

You've probably heard this before, but now would be an opportune time for intake spacers.

 

Actually I havent.....what will intake spacers do for me?

 

In 2002, Nissan started using an aluminum intake manifold for their new 3.5 liter engine, which has the side-effect of acting as a huge heat sink over the engine. Try touching your IM after the engine gets to temperature. You'll burn yourself.

A few years ago, NWP Engineering designed replacements for the IM gaskets made out of Phenolic, which is a very poor conductor of heat. When installed properly, they reduce the temperature of your intake manifold by 40 degrees Fahrenheit, which thereby reduces the temperature of your filtered air. A general rule of thumb is that for every 10 degrees drop in temperature, you see approximately 1% increase in HP. That translates into about a 12 hp increase on our cars, give or take a few points depending on the power curve.

That's the Readers Digest summary. There's lots and lots of information about phenolic intake spacers here on the forum.

 

I just checked out NWp webiste....very cool design.

I would have to do upper and lower intake right??

 

For optimal effect, yes. Go ahead and write to Aaron at NWP with your questions. He's incredibly gracious and helpful.

 

The 6th gen rear valve cover I put on my 2002 came with a new PCV already in it.