I know they were different HP in differentcars/years...G35? Maxima? Etc.?? Whats the best, second nbest choice, etc. thansk!

Read the stickies.

But to answer your question... a Maxima, Altima, or Quest.

I prefer a quest, because chances are it wasn't beaten on, and it's an auto, so It's almost never been redlined.

Any Z33 would suffice...........

Research the differences. It depends on how far you want to go, if you're going to try to purchase an entire wrecked vehicle, and whether or not you are doing a full swap. Internal engine wise they are pretty much the same (pathfinder aside, I'm not going to go mention that)

02-03 (02-04 I35) & ??quests?? Good for full or partial swap, comes with crappy 2-layer head gaskets that you might want to change out, and an easily useable intake manifold.

04+ Good for partial swap, has egr, comes with that damn two-layer head gasket, and an easily useable intake manifold. You would be a pioneer if you did the full swap with this, and it would be bad-***, but I doubt you're capable. Don't take that the wrong way.

Z33 ((For simplicity, I'm going to keep this simple and not include RU & HR engines, you can search on your own for that stuff.)) Full swap aspect is similiar to 04+, ecu set-up near identical and would be pretty cool, but again, yeah, good luck buddy. For partial swap, has 3-layer head gasket, that's about it for internal differences. The intake manifold requires some hardcore modification, and actually, to be completely honest I am just basing this on assumption that you can bolt up fwd mounts.

So basically, '02-03 is probably your best bet for full or partial swap, price would be best also.

02's suck with the oil problems....get an 03 or 04.

03-04 quest or maxima it is then...doing the full swap. thansk!

Which you cannot.
You could run an 04+ engine on an 02-03 ECU like someone I know is going to do. There's no particular advantage to running the A34 ECU that I know of and it would be SUBSTANTIALLY more difficult than installing an A33B ECU.



To the original poster: Anything from a quest, murano, pre-07 altima, 02-06 (at least) maxima will work. I wouldn't use anything from the murano though since the CVT likes to keep revs high for extended periods unlike conventional autos.

And like has already been mentioned, this stuff has been mentioned (to a certain extent) in the stickies.

02-07 maxima engines all have the same ring set part number.

But the 02's are notorious for burning oil. I may be wrong here, but I thought Nissan still hasn't fully figured out the vq35 burning oil issue.

I was always under the impression that the 02's were horrible with oil consumption, and they helped fix the problem in the later years (03+). Well, I guess you learn something new everyday.

any vq35 from a fwd application.

Weird thing is the block is a different part number for the A34 than it is for the A33B. Altima also changed, first revision being 08/01-08/02 (same as A33B), and second revision being 08/02+ :

A33B - 11000-8J100
L31 (08/01-08/02) - 11000-8J100

A34 - 11000-7Y000
L31 (08/02+) - 11000-9J000

Haven't seen this mentioned around here, though I'm probably just blind to it.

thanks guys.


If you were going to do the swap and $$$ and time to fing the engine was no object what would donor car would you look for first?

Just so nobody gets any wrong ideas: Have you seen the CVT transmission case? Last time I was at a junkyard I saw a 2004 Quest engine+trans sitting on a pallet. I was stoked because I was hoping that the 5AT or CVT would fit in my A32. But it was quite obvious that the trans case on the Quest (5AT? or is it CVT?) would not fit in the A32 or A33 chassis. Why? Because the trans was much bigger, and the area where the 4AT trans mount bolts up is totally different and the mount appeared to bolt onto the side of the trans case, as oposed to the top like the 4AT. Although I did not measure anything, my best guess would be that the CVT or 5AT into an A32/33 would not be drop in. It would be more work.

I could be wrong, but I have not heard of anyone getting the latest 5AT or CVT into the older Max's.

I wasn't referring to swapping a CVT in. I was talking about the extra strain CVT's put on engines they are mated to.

. . . .
Only that any tuning device for the Z33 would work. Of course it depends on your future plans, but if you're going as far as swapping, might as well do it right and leave your options wide open (i.e. 'tuning').

so I should look for an A34 ECU then? why is it so much harder to install? How about a JWT ECU from the get go?

You have got a few FSM's to DL and even more reading to do. I would explain, but unless you equip yourself with an FSM or 2 or 3 actually, it would be useless at this point.

so JWT is out then, A34 it is. I downloaded the 97 Maxima FSM the other day.

If you really want to know the differences, DL an A33B & A34 FSM. JWT doesn't have to be out, it will only be out if you choose an A33B or A34 ECU.

I already took that into consideration. The UTEC can be used with an A33B ECU (as proven by Jime), it just won't be plug and play. If they want something beyond the UTEC the Z33 guys usually go with standalones, which makes swapping to an A34 ECU even more pointless.

Ya, but for simplicity I meant. Can’t UTEC be used as an SA?

02's are notorious for burning oil because they're older. In time, the newer engines will have this problem. The problem isn't really the rings, it the ring lands on the pistons.

What about them?