I got a 3.5 from a car involved in a rollover and the metal coolant line that bolts to both heads and runs to the radiator on the driver side of the engine was busted in the accident. Does anyone know if this is swappable from a 3.0 to a 3.5? Figured this was the best place to post this since this part of the forum has had the most access to both engines.

If not I need this part if anyone has it.....i also need the front valve cover, cause this was broken too.

Thanks,
Paul

 

Long time no see. Me and Mark were wondering what happened to you.

Anyways that big pipe is swappable with VQ30DE's but not so much with the VQ30DEK pipe. The DEK's pipe have that 2nd thermostat in them. Unless you are willing to open the coolant passages on the VQ35 block and connect the DEK pipes it would not be worth the effort.

However I have found that those two smaller lines in between the engine and radiator fans im not sure if they are swappable. You might have to use all of the hard coolant lines off of the VQ30 to get everything to line up right. I was in a similar situation where I swapped an '06 Maxima engine into a '02 Maxima. The big coolant pipe off of the accident '06 donor engine was cracked or didn't fit right with the '02 engine's smaller hard pipes. I had to reuse the big coolant pipe and the two hard lines from the '02 engine. But re using those lines made everything line up properly and the engine was installed into the car.

Also make sure to double check all the other coolant hard lines for cracks and replace any gaskets if you remove the pipes. The guy was so cheap he wouldn't spend the extra 10 bucks for new coolant gaskets and the old ones we re-used all leaked. Luckily I put 100% distilled water at first so it was just water leaking out. After a day I got new gaskets and that fixed all the leaks. When the car was running fine with no leaks he drained out half the DI water and added coolant.