cardana24's 3.5 swap
 

I have been putting together parts for over a year now. I have an engine from a 2004-5 maxima, and I am putting it in my 1998 maxima, with fourth gen timing parts. The vq30 in the car currently is supercharged, when I first swap in the vq35 I am going to set it up n/a and then boost it once everything is running properly. I wanted to start a thread for a place for me to document my swap and to ask questions as I go.

Here is what I started with.
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...p/DSC_0736.jpg

Here is the engine that is going in the car.
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...p/DSC_0738.jpg

Here are boxes of parts waiting to go on the car.
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...p/DSC_0739.jpg

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...p/DSC_0737.jpg

I finally got my garage cleaned up a little bit and I actually had enough room to get started working. I put in a few hours tonight. I got the fluids drained, pulled the radiator/fans, battery/tray,starter, un hooked the the shift rod and stabalizer, and I pulled the wiring harness off of the engine. I hope to pull the axles and tranny in a few days. Hopefully I can make some good progress this weekend.
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...p/DSC_0740.jpg

I just bought an engine leveler today to use with my engine hoist. I have taken out a bunch of engines but I have never used one of these. For those of you that have used them on VQ's where do you bolt them on each side of the engine?

I am hoping to make some progress today. I have two questions.

For those of you that have used an engine leveler when pulling a vq where are you bolting them to?

Also, do you guys think I should pull the engine with the supercharger and plate still in place then remove it when it's out of the car or should I take the blower off first, then take the engine out?

I have a mockup motor with the tranny bolted to it and I have the lever bolted to the heads. It's been like that for months and no problems. When I did my swap it was bolted to the heads also or you can bolt it to the lim and put the tranny in later

if it were me id remove the blower first, and then pull the engine and tranny out together. it would save so much time...

Nice Carson! Hey are you going to build the new motor any or are you going to just drop in the stock block?

I have always taken the tranny off of the engine before I yank the engine. I will take a look and see if I think it would be easier. It may create a problem because the car is inside of my garage, and I am not sure will the tranny hanging down I would be able to lift the engine high enough to clear the radiator support.


I'm going to use everything I told you I had a while ago. I'll post more details in the thread once i actually have the engine out of the car.

I have put a few hours into it today and I hope to work the rest of the day on it. I will update later on this weekend with the pictures of my progress.

sweeeet carson, glad to see its underway. Personally I would take the blower off first and just keep it safe and out of the way.

Id suggest dropping the tranny first as you said you always do. This is how I usually do it too. But the one time we tried to take it out all together it was a pain in the ***. For re-instalation, put the motor in alone and have someone bench press the tranny underneath while another person puts the bolts in from above.

I've never done a motor with a SC, but I would suggest taking it off first also to prevent any risks of damaging the unit.

I ended up dropping my 3.5 back in with the tranny bolted up. I think its easier to just get it already on there while its easy to get at. Just had to drop the whole thing in at an angle (tranny side down) and then level it out in place. You would definitely have to have the blower off for that though.

y would u suggest something that takes longer and is inefficient? just because youve always done it inefficiently and the long way....:D

in fact, theres no need to even remove the driver side axle, it can all come out together very easily. and its a heck of a lot easier to seperate the tranny from the engine if its sitting on the garage floor rather than under the car.

ragardless, its a moot point now, if the car is in the garage youre right OP, its not gonna be possible cuz the hoist will have to go up as high as possible.

When I did mine, it does save alot more time and probably easier in most aspects to remove the motor and install it with the tranny attached. It is best if you have another friend there to help when going this route. However, since clearance is an issue with the height of your garage, the other way might be better. You could also try to lift the motor and tranny as high as you can at the required angle, and then lift the car and lower it as much as you can to see if that helps with clearance.

Looking forward to this one.

By looking at this pic, it's close but I think it might possibly clear the garage. Maybe slide the car back some if possible. Shorten the chains on the cherry picker helped me too.

I put in a lot of work today, I was a little bit surprised how much I got done by my self.

I ended up pulling the blower and transmission before I pulled the engine. I also now remember why I hate the vq30 power steering pump:laugh: The other fun part was taking off the hex head flush bolt under the idler pulley...lame. Here are a few pictures. I hope to pick up another engine stand tomorrow to start taking parts off the vq30. Any advice is appreciated.

blower and tranny are out

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...p/DSC_0748.jpg

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...p/DSC_0747.jpg

what is all of this crap in the bell housing? Hahahahah. This housing was cleaned out when I put the clutch in the car...probably about 10k miles ago. I reached in though the started hole to pull the transmission out and my hand slipped off right away, it is coated!

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...p/DSC_0746.jpg

finding everything I forgot to un hook
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...p/DSC_0749.jpg

it's out!
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...p/DSC_0750.jpg


What pulley puller do you guys recomend for the crank pulley on the vq30 and vq35?

I wouldnt say its longer and less efficient. The engine and tranny together has to be at a really awkward angle for it to come out together and the engine hoist has to be able to go super high. When I pull motors im usually in a garage also. So pulling motor and tranny together means taking the car off the jackstands and lowering it till the tranny clears which is lower than the minimum height of the jack stands making them unusable for this step. And having already been almost killed because of not using stands, I'll opt against this. :laugh:

I understand why pulling the tranny first might seem like it takes longer and is less efficient, but dropping/instaling the tranny only takes me about 15 minutes. And with all that extra space to work with while pulling and instaling the motor, you'll save atleast 15 minutes both ways.

But bottom line, as long as the motor is out and goes back in, who cares how its done. ;)

I used a impact gun on the bolt and just wiggled the pulley off it's not like a pulling a balancer on a ford or chevy

btw, nice garage

agreed on the garage carson :spin:

and yes impact gun.. it can be a PITA too

love that color man love that color

I agree with this. The amount of room you have once the tranny is out is worth it, and as long as you have a jack under the tranny it is really not that hard to take once (once you remember there is another bolt coming from the right hand side of the bell housing:laugh:) Plus, like I said before I don't have room to pull it that high. I only had a few more inches of clearance once the engine was high enough to clear the radiator support.

Cool. I will try that today once I get this engine on a stand. I don't have much time to work on it today but hopefully I can get a few things done.

The garage is just a small two bay...I really want a bigger one, but I am thankful for what I have.

Hopefully it will come off.

Thanks. Holy sig dude, you may want to do a little resizing:laugh:

I picked up another engine stand today and I got the vq30 on a stand and did a little cleaning up. My air gun is not strong enough to take off the crank pulley. Other ideas?

Trying to get all of my tools organized again.
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...p/DSC_0757.jpg

Both engines on stands and a little cleaner.
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...p/DSC_0758.jpg

Nice work, are you going with stock cast iron manifolds again?

No. I have headers. Once I get the crank pulley off and can start moving parts over, I make up a parts list of what I have and what will be going on the new engine.

I got the crank pulley off of the vq30 tonight. I used a 2' breaker bar and a jack handle extension. To stop the engine from turning I put one of the flywheel bolts back in put a 14mm wrench on that and wedged the other end into one of the post on the engine stand. When I crack the bolt loose several tablespoons of oil cam out from the bolt area. I hope to have some time to work on it tomorrow. I will try to update with some pictures tomorrow.

thats normal don't forget to put oil on the bolt when you put it back in and drill out a drain hole on the inner timing cover

Where is this drain hole normally drilled? I did not see any mention of that before.

search secondtonone swap thread I told him about it there and think there is a pic. the 3.5 heads have a drain hole that goes into the inner cover for the cam noids, just look for a small o-rings near the top half of both heads. the front head drain hole lines up pretty good with the front hole on the inner 3.0 cover but not the rear and you'll need to drill/elongate out a hole or it will leak alittle under boost and high rpms.

It's one of those things people don't talk about or just don't know till it's too late. Just take the inner cover and put it on the block and you'll seen what I am talking about

^^I'll check out his thread.


This may be a stupid question but I am not close to the car right now. Can I mix and match outer timing chain bolts from the 3.0 and the 3.5? the reason I ask is because I do not have all of the stock bolts on the 3.0 since some of them have been changed or altered for the supercharger.

Im pretty sure I did.

Keep up the work Carson, this is a great read. Thanks for sharing.

Im pretty sure I did as well Carson.

Does it even matter if your putting the blower back on

Good deal. I did not want to make a junkyard run just for some bolts.

Thanks man. You owe me a run after I get this put together:eek:

Cool Grant

I am going to set it up n/a first, and once I get that well tuned I am going to put the blower back on. I have all of the parts to set it up n/a and boosted, I just want to take it slow, so I can figure out one problem at at time.

I do have a question about the seals on the timing cover. I have read that there are several oring seals that you should replace while the timing cover is off. Does anyone have the part numbers or a diagram? I would love to be able to get those picked up from the dealership before the labor day weekend. Also do you guys recomend replacing the timing chain tensioner while the covers are off?

I don't know the part # but it can be found on couresty nissan's site. If you can't get o-rings and they are soft shouldnt be a problem but for the cost I would replace them. I would also replace the water pump o-rings too along with the main tensioner as it was revised.

I ordered everything from Dave B eventhou, also forgot you'll need something to plug the egr port on the rear header and the coolant passage on the block if you don't have it already, I ordered those from Dave B also

can you identify the parts I need from this picture?
http://www.courtesyparts.com/maxima-...1785_1795.html

also I have a new water pump so that should come with a new gasket too.

and is 13070 tensioner you are saying I should get?

http://www.courtesyparts.com/maxima-...1785_1794.html

13070 is correct for the tensioner.

I don't remember the exact part numbers for the o-rings. I got mine in my engine rebuilt kit. If I find the part number, I'll post as well.

Thanks for that info^^.

Are the orings that people replace the two shown behind the inner timing cover? Are there just two of them 13035HA and 13035H?

All the o-rings required are the ones with "X" in the illustration. Replace the ones you remove any of the components attached to them.


http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1283443076

Also, if you are planning on using the upper oil pan from the VQ30 like myself and many others, replace the 2 o-rings on the oil passages between the pan and the block. It might be overkill but they are cheap.

Thanks Paramy, I'll take that with me tomorrow. I had the tensioner overnighted, and the two orings that I mentioned and the crank seal was in stock. Do most people replace the crank seal during the swap if it is not leaking? I don't see any mention of it in peoples threads.

Also is it fine to reuse the exhaust gaskets or should I get new ones? I have read different opinions about this. I would obviously like to use the old ones since new ones will cost me around $70.

I just ordered two 11012G from this diagram
http://www.courtesyparts.com/maxima-...1785_1788.html

http://www.courtesyparts.com/images/a34/a34_110-1.gif

They are the 2 with p/n: 11012G.

As for the crank seal, again, I replaced mine because it was cheap but, if it is not leaking, i see no reason to replace it.

You should also replace the front and rear oil pan gasket 11121 & 11121+A.

you were probably typing that while I was editing my post. Cool, that is what I already ordered, and I had already placed an order for the front a rear oil pan seals too. Thanks for the advice.