BTW this is a great thread. Pioneering folk like you eng92 are the ones who make great leaps and bounds as to what is possible with these cars.

you make it seem like he is the only one that does things like this. lets not forget about other people as well

Wich one your using ?? Is this on a 3.5 or a 3.0,,,,,,,,,
sorry, i'm lasy to search. But , i'm also french, so there's about 60% non-unstandable things for me on maxima.org . JClaw is on a french nissan board but he like's more this one .....
I'm VERY familar on mx-3, but for maxima...... I'm trying to...



Lookin forward on a standalone system, for the 3.5 swap on a 4th gen. right after selling my pathfinder 3.5 2001 ( 3.5 on a 4200 lbs )

There hasn't been much progress in the last few weeks. I received an email from Brian Catts yesterday saying that he is currently waiting on a call from the US-based company that is building up a prototype of his headers. He will then be checking fitment and dyno testing. I imagine production units are still atleast 4-6 weeks away.

My engine is on a stand partially dismantled in the garage. I removed both oil pans to make sure there was nothing unusual going on in the bottom end. I found the plastic nozzle off of an aerosol can when I removed the lower oil pan. It was not chewed up at all so I suspect it got in there when the engine was originally assembled.

I was going to do a complete teardown until I saw the price on a complete engine gasket/seal kit.
In the top end, I am just replacing the valve cover gaskets.

Last night I removed the fuel pump pickup baffle and its mounts from an 03 tank that I have. I will be installing it into my 98 tank so I can use the 03 fuel pump assembly. That will be in a week or so whenever my tank fuel level is low enough that I can work. I have a plan to do this without removing the tank from the vehicle.

I am hitting the wrecking yard tomorrow to grab a couple of underhood relays that are needed for the swap. 1 single pole for the throttle motor and 1 double pole for the ecm.

I will be using my stock 5-spd VLSD tranny.

He's the only one that that simplified the wiring to this extent, at least to my knowledge. I haven't seen you making any good informative posts such as this, and this is not the only post of eng92's I'm referring to. Every single thing he posts is chock full of great info.

Don't go fishing for compliments with me because you won't find any unless you are deserving of them.

eng92, you found a plastic nozzle i nthe pan? doesnt sound good. and any pics on the baffles of the fuel tank?

and nealoc187, i am not looking for compliments. thats the last thing i want.

hey im not trying to knock u at all but im with neal on this one...of all the threads i have read up on this he is the only one that has given so much info on this subject. when u said u did the swap u never really gave out any info on how u did other then just saying u did it. u seem to only say things ater someone else has already done it to their car.

and that is where you are wrong. the people that attempted to do the swap got alot of info from me. they just never posted it and you guys never saw or heard it. plus what would be the point of all the info when nobody would use it. plus the whole swap was plug and play. and i said that if anybody needs help, feel free to ask.

but anyways lets not ***** this thread anymore with this bs which repeats iteslf over time again.

eng92 any progress so far? today i took the 3.5 fuel pump out but what was wondering how you took the baffles out? any pics? also did you leave your pump in gas? i put mine in gas so there wouldnt be a risk of it sitting in the open.

The fuel pump pickup baffle is clamped between two mounting plates that are spot-welded to the bottom of the tank. It is installed prior to the top and bottom tank halves being assembled. To remove, just drill out the spot-welds

IMPORTANT NOTE: ALL FUEL (LIQUID & VAPOR) MUST BE PURGED FROM THE FUEL TANK BEFORE CARRYING OUT ANY OPERATION THAT MAY PROVIDE AN IGNITION SOURCE (IE. DRILLING, GRINDING, CUTTING, WELDING, ETC.)

I ASSUME NO LIABILITY FOR PERSONAL INJURY AND/OR DEATH OR PROPERTY DAMAGE OCCURING AS A RESULT OF UNSAFE WORK PRACTICES BEING CARRIED OUT.

and i am guessing you didnt remove the 3.0 baffle yet?

good work ..

i am having small question ...

i found an engine for altima 3.5 , so can i swap my 95 max to 3.5 ??
can i use my 3.0 trenny with 3.5 or not ?

please give me curing answer .. thanks

The stock 4th gen fuel baffle is mounted in the tank in a similar fashion as the 02/03 except its shape and position is completely different. The mounting brackets are very light gauge metal and can be pried up easily to remove it.

im guessint its not possible to just replace the 4th gen tank with a 5th gen one?

That was my original plan. After a few quick measurements and a visual comparison of the bottoms of the two tanks, I changed my mind.

If you are good with a hammer, you might be able to get the 5.5 gen tank profile to suit the 4th gen underbody. I prefer my approach as I should not even have to drop the tank.

what a mess of cables

eng92 - Why hassle with the VQ35 fuel pump/baffle assembly vs. just running the VQ30 pump or Walbro replacement?

I only paid $90 CDN for a complete 03 fuel pump assembly. (from a wrecker)

There really isn't much aftermarket support for imports where I live. For an inline fuel pump and fpr, I would be looking at about $250 cdn + shipping.

I didn't find out about the tank baffles beiing different until I opened up my tank and compared the two pump/sending unit assemblies.

I don't really find it much of a hassle. I "putter" around with this project an hour here and there as a method of "de-stressing" at the end of the day.

IMO car related work only becomes a hassle when you have to get it running for the next day and something breaks and all the parts stores are closed.

is there any new info on this profect that you have running....im holding my breath for u to finish so i can follow in your foot steps in this swap

I am still waiting on headers. Looks like this is going to be a fall project now.
Last night I put the upper and lower oil pans back on. Prior to that I have not done anything with this in almost a month.
With the nice weather here, there are just too many other higher priority home projects that can be worked on.

Nice to have a fellow Canadian doing this as well.

a fall profect huh.....i really was hoping u would have been done by the end of the summer so i can see if its better to follow u or jclaws route or just go boost.

i really like the whole 3.5 idea and having the 3.5 ecu was goign to be a positive for me, but ill wait n see

you get your 2k3 fuel pump assembly in yet?

I am delaying the pump install until I put the engine in. I need to keep the return style fuel system for my 3.0 and I didn't feel like adding an extra hole into my tank for a temporary fuel dump.

With a little luck, I hope to see some headers in late August so I can finally get this project rolling.

Yeah I am also waiting for Cattman to make their next batch of headers so I can get some for my vq35. Keep us updated on this project though.

you know you can also use a modified 300z fuel pump in the 3.0 tank? I dont know how far your into it at this point but something you might want to think about, I dont have a price handy at the moment but I could get it.

Will Greddy Emanage Ultimate or another piggy-back system allow the 3.0 ECU to control the vct on a VQ35 swap?

Tried their website and google and found some things that looked promising like the VTTC and VTEC support but I want to make sure.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...spagename=WDVW

Looks like Greddy Emanage Ultimate Supports Nissans NVCS (VTC) so it looks like this could be another option for those looking for a 3.5 swap with VTC without the rewire job of the 3.5 ECU. The route JClaws is taking with the 300zx ECU seems pretty interesting too, I hope he keeps us posted.

For more info on NVCS see this post

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=262261

so is there any update on this?

According to Mr. Catts, I may see my headers as early as the end of next week.

If I have time this weekend, I will be pulling out the old engine and tranny.

For anyone using wrecking yard motors, save yourself some grief and do a leakdown test while the engine is still under warranty. Do not believe the compression test results that the wrecker gives you.

I performed a leakdown test on mine and found I was getting terrible leakage (~60% on some cyls.) A lot of this was through the exhaust valves. You will get considerable leakage past the rings, but that is normal on a cold engine.

I ended up tearing the engine down to the bare block and crank. There was a lot of burnt oil on the top of the pistons and in the combustion chamber. The head gaskets were fine so the oil would have either come up past the rings or through the intake system as blow-by. It may have been a combination of the two as both compression rings had a lot of caked oil in the grooves and the inside of the manifold and plenum were very "oily".

The cylinder walls and con rod bearings were all in pristine condition so I just replaced all the rings and lapped all the valves. Now, I only have 10-15% leakage on all the cylinders with no detectable leakage at the intake or exhaust ports at 100psi.

Be careful though... the EU supports NVCS, yes but not CVTC. My understanding is that the NVCS is an ON/OFF setting that switches intake cam phasing between 2 settings only. The CVTC on the other hand is continuously variable, and I kinda doubt the EU can drive it properly.

Did you hone the cylinder walls before reinstalling the pistons?

The walls were not glazed at all. The original x-hatched honing pattern was still very intact and held the oil just fine.

so i gather your still going along with the full 3.5 swap? i really cant wait for you to put this all together to see if it will work.
i wish u well

Well, the headers are still atleast a week away as they have not shipped yet, but I decided to get this project started anyways.

I removed the engine and transmission last night.

I am retaining my stock VLSD 5 spd tranny so the next step is to get a spacer ring machined so that I can use the 3.5 crankshaft timing ring on my 3.0 flywheel. I can get laser cutting done pretty cheap through my work so I will get the basic ring profile cut and clearance holes for the bolts made that way. The process is not accurate enough for the dowel pin holes, so I will just use the original bolt-on 3.0 timing ring as a template and match drill them.

When the spacer ring is finished, I will have a local T&D shop centre, degree-index and weld the 3.5 timing ring to it. The weldment will then be balanced.

Hopefully by the time that comes back, my headers will be installed and the engine will be back in the car.

Over the next week or so I will be installing the "pruned" 02 dash harness I made several months ago. I only get 1-2 hours a night to work on it, so it will be a bit of a drawn-out process.

I will keep you all updated and post any noteworthy pics as I go.

keep it up dave, this i wanna see.

good idea, make future motor swaps easier!

I could probably count the number of people that actually go through with the swap this way on one hand and still have a few fingers left over.

For the additional parts costs involved and the incredible amount of extra labor required, it simply would not be worth it for the majority of people.

This is more of a hobby for me and I enjoy the challenge. If it takes four weeks or four months to finish, it really doesn't matter to me. I would like to get it done before the snow flies though, so I can get it dynoed or I will have to wait till spring.

Quick Update:
With a little bit of luck, the headers should be arriving tomorrow.

The interior wiring is about 90% complete.
Here is a before and after shot of the trimmed down dash wiring harness from an 02/03.


The main harness has been reduced down to 11 connectors. 7 of them are original and the the other four were added so I could make the harness a plug&play affair.

One note for anyone who is going to carry out the swap this way. When you buy your 02/03 ecu, try and get the mounting bracket with it. I have received ecus from wreckers both with and without it. The A33 ecu is considerably smaller than the one for the A32 and the A33 bracket will not fit in the mounting location for the A32.

My solution was just to cut all the unnecessay material off the A33 bracket and rivet it into the A32 bracket.

left - stock 96 bracket------------right - 98 bracket with 02/03 insert



I have one connector left to add in to the stock 98 main harness in order to complete the interior wiring.

The under hood wiring will be next. It consists mainly of adding some fuses and relays to the existing boxes.

keep us updated.

i can't wait to see this completed

keep up the great work and keep on tuning!