That's the intake cam and sprocket damaged at the dowel pin. For a new cam and sprocket I'm looking at another $500 on top of the $600 I spent for timing chains, guides, & tensioners OUCH! I hope I don't find anything else. Does anyone know of someone on here that has done aftermarket cams that might hook me up with a stock intake cam? For the sprocket I don't see any way around paying $350 from the dealer.

 

On the plus side I got my NWP spacers today lol

 

did you open up the rest of the engine? i dont see how that could even happen

 

assuming this is for your 2003, check craigslist, i've seen someone selling a used long block for 02-03 for $150 and it had only 50-60 miles, too bad i didn't pick it up in time, by the time i thought of it, it was sold.

you might also try posting in the all motor section as those guys might have these parts lying around.

did you figure out what caused that? you don't want to replace those just to have to do it again in a few weeks/months.

 

Sorry forgot to mention the rattling I found out was a bad tensioner I think the cam/sprocket is a separate issue I don't think this was causing the noise. The car ran perfectly fine, plenty of power, no hickups whatsoever before I pulled the engine so I'm sure there is no internal damage. The reason I suspected the timing chain is because the rattling on startup that happened every once in a while when oil was low started happening more often and even when oil level was full.

The only thing I can think of is when removing the cam bolt it was so tight I had to use (2) 5 ft cheater bars (one to hold the crescent-wrench/cam-shaft solid while a friend used another on the breaker-bar/bolt) that might have caused the damage? That sucker was not coming off any other way tho

 

you noticed this after the cam bolt issue? if so, after what you just said i would keep looking for the rattle. on the flip side, if the cam shifted enough to do that to the dowel, i can see it being very difficult to get the bolts out

 

No I found the tensioner was bad before i pulled the cam sprockets

 

tensioner isnt the point i dont feel. did you notice if the dowel was stretched before the bolt issue?

 

There's no way too see that until it is pulled off

 

if you stopped there, i would keep looking to make sure there isnt something that caused this or that nothing else was affected

 

Ok I'm at work but I have someone at my house looking at it. Question: What direction does the motor turn when running?

 

When you are looking at the crankshaft, it turns clockwise.

 

Did you do that damage while trying to remove it?

http://forums.maxima.org/5th-generat...ket-no-go.html

 

That's what I'm thinking it's the only thing that makes sense