Well I bought DEK timing equipment and covers from 98SEblackmax for the swap this time out because I wanted fresh stuff (2001 engine with 40k on it) and when I put the coolant in the car after assembling the engine and letting the sillicone dry there was a SUPER QUICK coolant leak. So I tore down the whole thing and am about to reassemble it and let it dry overnight.

Upon closer inspection it seems theres a coolant passage on the rear DEK cover (by the water pump) thats not there on the 95-99. This is the first time Ive used 00-01 stuff on a 02-03 motor for the swap and its the first time Ive encountered the problem. Ive NEVER had any leaks before after doing the swap. Not one bit.

I find that weird that they would introduce this coolant passage on the DEK but resort back to not having it like the 95-99s when they did the 3.5. Weird. Anywho I am glad its fixed (I filled the stupid hole), and I guess it proves that there really are coolant passage differences between the VQ30DE and VQ30DE-K.

2000 and 2001 owners doing the 3.5 swap, WATCH OUT for that stupid coolant passage. In my 240 its not bad because I can go from a fully assembled engine to a simple long block in less than an hour, but in a maxima it is a major pain in the @ss.

 

Any pictures of it ???

 

i have the dek timing covers on my 3.5 ,tilley never said anything about that

 

Well theres definately a hole. If you let it be on a VQ35 block you will get coolant pissing. Within 12-15 seconds of me dropping the coolant in the radiator, it was leaking freely underneath. Everywhere else the sealing was perfect.

 

Well i will be tearing my broken DEK for the timing covers to swap to my 3.5. Good thing this came up. I will take some pics also for reference, maybe you can point it out for us using those picss since your engine is put back together already. Give me a few days...

 

Okay here are some pics I took tonight of the my DEK rear timing cover... can you tell us if yours was different? Same?




There are 6 holes around the water pump that are for bolts that go into the block and 3 for the water pump. I'm surprised how clean the inside of the timing cover is, even this was the DEK I got from the junk yard that was bad. It only had like 30k miles on it supposedly.

 

If others can confirm this i'll add it to the sticky.

 

Yes that looks right on. But I was wrong about the coolant passage - it turns out there was a plug missing on the block. Its the first time Ive been sold a VQ35 that didnt come with this plug. On the other swaps Ive done Ive never had a problem with it.