I'm about to pick up my 3.5 today and i'm not really sure how and where i use the cherry picker as far as connecting it to the engine. But most importantly what bolts do i need to connect the engine stand to the engine itself? I need to pick these up within the next couple hours so quick responses are appreciated!

 

well the block is reinforced at several places. The 4 motor mount bolts on each side, all tranny bellhousing bolts, and the 2-3 long bolts for the pass side mount on the timing chain cover. Pick any of those and ya cant go wrong.

 

i think im gonna go with the transmission bell housing bolts but the problem is I dont know what size or thread those bolts are and then they have to be the right length to go through the engine stand arms and thread enough or not too much into the bell housing.

 

I bought longer bolts so they would go into the block a full 1 inch.

 

yeah but my question is, what was the size and thread of the bolt?

 

Alright well mdeezy had told me he bought his engine stand from harbor freight. I bought mine from harbor freight as well which seems to sell this generic "american" brand. And apparently the bolts that connect the stand arms to the plate are coincidentally the same thread and width of the tranny bell housing bolts.
So I took mine off, went to ACE hardware. Bought 4 of the bolts but twice the length.
I know its a long shot but hopefully these work.
The bolts are m12-1.75x80

 

Double post.

 

Its 17 mm or 19 mm (not sure).

 

alright i bought the correct bolts (Whew)

the engine is on a wooden pallet and its resting on some sensor on the bell housing on the left of the flywheel...lame. It looks like the sensor was cracked. I havent had time to lift the engine off the pallet yet, i'll do it tomorrow and put it on the stand.

 

Just use the bolts that came out of the transmission. They are plenty long enough when the trans is removed because the housing is over 1/2" thick.

 

I couldn't do that because then I'd be driving around with 4 missing bolts. I'm not doing the swap right now, just getting the engine on the stand so I can prep it.

 

Understood. After you have done a couple more you will have plenty of spare bolts, I think I have around 50-75lbs of them now, its a wonder the car runs.

 

Haha I hear ya. You have any advice for me with this swap? I'm swappin it to my auto heh...

 

my advice is to get a 5sp tranny for like 500 bucks lol

 

ha, we'll see.
alright the engine is on the engine stand. I was skeptical about it holding but i guess it does.
I was getting scared because one of the bellhousing's threaded holes felt stripped, but i messed with it and think its okay now. I dont know what i'd do if it was stripped.
Here's a picture of how the engine was sitting on the wood and that sensor connector that cracked.
There's also some sitting water puddles on the LIM around the knock sensor...

 

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=503935

 

i guess theirs (2) 3.5 swaps happening in(TEXAS) 07, you(chillin) and I, im buying a 3.5 from dubbya, next week. 05 motor w/ 3k miles

 

Oh is that so? Are you buying that motor with bent valves? How much did you pay? Mines a 2002 with 68k on it.

 

yea, thats the one, and it isnt the bent valves its the camshafts i think. im going to pay 300 bones.

 

Ah that's cool. I think I saw someone selling cams jclaw, or jime, I forget. I think they were from a 3.0 though.