I'm fixing up a 2001 and discovered this gem too late.

I thought it was the typical 2 piece pile of crap failing, so I replaced it with an UDP. It feels a little better (much less mass wobbling), but sure enough, it's wobbling at idle when I look at it and by the same amount. I would say it's about 1-2 mm of wobble.
The old crank seal didn't leak a drop if that matters and I know the car hasn't been touched in that area for at least the last 33k miles.

I googled and apparently this means some piece of **** torqued the hell out of the bolt and bent the snout. The key looks fine. I don't think the bearing is shot.

Thoughts?

 

I have seen people (or should I say idiots) put a jack stand under the crankshaft pulley to support the car!

I would suggest that you remove the crankshaft pulley, get a run-out gauge and check the end of the crankshaft.

 

I won't be spending any more money/time on it. It's not for me and if the crank goes in 50k miles, then I'll just replace the engine. There's only 123k on it.

I haven't heard of this issue on VQs (plenty on the VG/VE), so I found it very odd.

 

if the crank shaft pulley is wobbles then it not seated correctly, otherwise, like DennisMik said, people put jackstand on the crank pulley which is bad, possibly bend the crankshaft, not something you can seek by the naked eye. I have seen morons come in my store asking for a new harmonic balancer, replacing it under warranty within a week, and turned out the guy crankshaft was bent, which ripped apart the pulley.

 

VQ is not as common, VG usually get it around the 400,000km mark. at that point my VG had a wobble, replaced the pulley and the wobble quit for a few months then it started again. turned out to be the crank itself, i drove it wobbling like mad for 10,000km before the engine started knocking

 

Since you replaced the pulley, it now sounds like a case of crank walk to me.

 

173k on my 300zx...so far so good

make that 176k

 

I figured that would cause the seal to leak and everything looked original.

Perhaps related is that a previous owner was blind and it looks like they drove down a mountain slope filled with boulders. Maybe it hit one of the rocks and bent it.
Not sure how it could be crank walk, though. It's not a DSM

Only on thing to do: drive it until it blows up