as you may or may not know i have had nothing but problems with my maxima the past few months, havnt really cared much as i have been riding the gsxr but now that its getting cold i need to get this thing back on the road.


i had precat failure, instead of paying 3300 to nissan i baught some 3.5 altima obx headers and had them modified to work on the maxima, also had the shop that did the install do a compression test, asked for a leakdown test but he said he dosnt have the adaptor for the vq, will order it if i want though.


compression is with in 2 pts of eachother all across the board

but this thing burns oil like crazy, like smokes like no ones business, fouls out plugs faster than anyone could imagine, looking down into the motor the pistons are covered in oil as are the plugs (dripping oil after they were removed)

the car bogs, 50% of the time but drives fine the other 50? idk wtf could be wrong with this thing, i kinda think the dealership put to much oil in the last oilchange (400-500 miles before the precat failure and all this bs) and the more i think about it the car ran a little worse after that oil change, looking at the dipstick (you know what a ***** these can be) it reads way high, or almost nothing...


im letting all the oil drain out and about to do an oil change/sea foam it to see if that helps


anyone else have ideas?

 

I don't know if the Maxima is vulnerable to oil churn or not. Many cars are. Oil churn happens when too much oil is put in the engine, and the level of the oil reaches moving parts high in the engine, and gets churned into a froth which cannot be directed in a stream onto the parts that need lubrication. This can easily lead to enging failure.

I know that when my dealer changes my oil, he never fills it to the 'full' mark; he puts it at about 3/4ths of the way between 'add' and 'full'. That is fine with me, because the oil is still at virtually the same level when I change it 3750 miles later. The only time someone changing my oil overfilled it (about 15 years ago), I immediately took it back and made him remove some. I knew overfilling could cause major problems.

I'm not an 'engine man', but from your description, you may have serious problems with yours. I will hang up and let some of the engine folks here address your situation.

 

If compression is is within 2 psi of each other but its low overall, it could indicate worn psiton bores and/or rings, leaky valve seals, among other things. The overall compression has to be within certain specs. I know that Kam (on the org) suffered pre cat failure and had or is having his motor replaced. If the pre cat material gets sucked in the motor, then ur bores are likely scored. Just my 2 cents

 

Deus is right, the precats were oil soaked, fell apart and got pulsed back into the motor causing massive internal damage. Motor was replaced under warranty

Best bet is to grab a new motor from Ebay and Install it.

Kamski