Alright i have a 91 maxima with fried ring. I bought a 87 to put in my 91 and come to find out the heads are a little different so my 91 manifold wont bolt on at one of the flanges and 1 of the sets of bolts for the rear manifold. the flanges on the 91 go like \ / \ and the 87 needs them like / / \. The top and bottom are where the bolts go. If that makes any sense. So does anyone have any ideas to make this work? would any other v6 nissan engine exhaust manifold work on a 87 engine? Oh and my money is next to null so the cheaper the better.

 

have you considered swapping the heads over?
not sure if it would work though.

 

i wish i could swap heads than the problem would be fixed but my gheads need to be redone by a shop which i dont have the money for (but boy do i wish i did). i was thinking of get the flange on the 91 rear manifold rotated but the guys at almost everyshop i went to said the cast iron is to weak from the heating and cooling of the engine. oh and by my reply you can tell yes the heads are swapable.

 

return the 87 and buy the right engine. you'll be better off in the long run.

 

If ran into the same problem. I would cut off that flange and reweld it. Also look at your head on a few ports you will have 4 bolt holes for either / or \ I had a stud break off on the back and couldnt get to it without pulling motor. So when I made a new set of headers I just turned the flange to use the other holes. If that makes any sense to you or I can just get a pic.

 

what matt said... but if you don't want to aren't there extra holes where you can take those wrongly-oriented studs out and put them in different holes? i know there's a few ports on the LH head with 4 holes around the ports so you can do just that.

 

there would be some differences in the water jackets but irrc you can put W block heads on a A-B block by modifying the head gasket or it could be the other way around but I would look into moving the studs first

 

Correct me if im wrong thought the W series came out 4/87?

 

yea something like that but doesn't mean that every 87 has a W series block due to using the A-B blocks that they had I think the best way to know what you have is check the casting #

 

head swapping should not be necessary. i'm pretty sure the stud relocation is all you have to do..... i may be wrong but i think that will work.

 

 

but please let us know for sure

 

it'll work on a w block's heads. i'd have to look at his heads and exhaust manifolds to know if it'll work on his non-W-block.

 

yea I'm sure it will cuz they were set up to work in everything from a 300z to a Pathfinder

 

ok i have been doing a lot of studying at the JY. i have looked at almost all the nissan V6 engines and not luck finding a manifold to fit the studs i have on the 87. so i was thinking of having the flange rotated as stated before. besides what i stated anyone else see a problem with re welding the flange on the right way?

 

did you check to see if the studs can be rearranged first?

http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/IMG_0338.jpg
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/IMG_0339.jpg

notice that cyl6 has multiple possible stud arrangements? same thing on the rear bank, there's probably a few studs you can move around.

 

You only need to worry about the heads and type block if you are replacing heads or head gaskets, then you will need to know what you have because of interchangability problems of mixing "A" versus "W" block peices. See this:
http://www.xenonz31.com/wseriesinterchange.html

Nissan designed the heads to be used in various applications between Maxima and 300z (N/A and turbo). The only difference in the Pathfinder heads I've found is that the exhaust manifold studs and holes are actually larger than for the cars. However, I do not mean to add confustion to this issue.

Simply put, if it has not been clear before, let me make it clear. SWAP THE EXHAUST MANIFOLD STUDS!

As far as anything else in this swap, I would just pay attention to your sensors to make sure they match. Ex: Water temp sensor, knock sensor, etc.

 

i understand where u r coming from. the only thing is that its cyl2 im having the problem with. its been just a headache i was thinking of just waiting to buy some headers (like some pacesetters or something) and mod the flange.

 

how will that help? a) pacesetters don't fit the proper engine and b) the flange will STILL be wrong meaning you're going to have to cut it and swap it around. so you're screwing yourself twice.

honestly it can't be THAT hard to find W-block VG in running condition at the JY...