In March, Nismo3112 and I put a 3.5L in my 96 Maxima. This motor had been dropped out of the back of the Xterra and hit my blacktop driveway, shattering the front valve cover. We installed it anyway and it ran fine. A few weeks ago, I noticed an oil drip between the motor and transmission so I figured the new RMS that we put in had failed.

This afternoon, BlackBIRDVQ and I pulled the upper and lower oil pans off so we could replace the RMS. As we drained the oil out of the lower oil pan, we found a "chunk" of metal. My motor hasn't made any strange noises and just yesterday, it pulled from 80-100mph with ease. We looked at the pans and what we could see inside the motor but nothing looked busted.

Any thoughts, oh brain-trust of maxima.org?

 

Is it ferrous?

 

Find a magnet & test it. IMO, it 'looks' like a soft metal, if that's possible.

 

Nope, wasn't drawn to a magnet. Feels like aluminum.

 

Looks like it doesn't belong in our motor

 

It looks like somebody didn't thoroughly clean out all the rtv when installing the timing cover bolts.............just a geuss mind you..........

 

I believe its a piece of aluminum from the timing cover. Thats what happens when someone puts too long a bolt in the cover. It pushes the end right out of the cover. Depending on its position it doesn't normally cause a leak because the threads still seal it.

 

It's funny but I thought the same thing since I stripped one bolt when putting the timing case back together.

 

I will admit, we didn't do that step, but then again neither did I when I swapped my 3.5 into my old car. As of today my engine has no issues. But how would old RTV cause the piece of timing cover to crack like that?



I'm 99.9% positive that we reused the timing cover bolts. We had them labeled. Correct me if i'm wrong, but all of the bolts securing the inner cover thread into the block/heads itself, whereas the outer cover bolts thread into/onto the inner cover. If it were a bolt that caused this I can't seem to picture which bolt it would be.

 

It is aluminum, looks like a timing cover bolt was too long, exactly as Jime said.

 

If it is in fact from the timing chain cover, I'm shocked that it didn't get caught in the chain.

 

having to much rtv in the hole from having a $lutbag timing cover that's been on and off a few times will do the same thing as to long of a bolt.

 

WEIGHT REDUCTION!!!

 

I'll admit it as well, that's how I came up with that geuss, I didn't do it the 1st time, then when I had the cover off a 2nd time I didn't do it either, and I cracked a little part of the front head on 1 bolt, no biggie, like Jime said it usually doesn't leak, mine hasn't, I can sorta see it past the knock sensor I think and no oil, plus the hole will have new rtv pushed out it, plugging it and sealing the threads.

EDIT:hahaha tavarish, that's one of the funniest post's I've ever seen on here.