So i'm on the brink of going ahead and doing the 3.5 swap in my 5th gen. I told someone of my ambitions and he mentioned reliability issues and that it will 'never be right'. I can say that what he said is believable, coming from a honda scene where alot of guys failed to have a reliable swap, so i can see where he's coming from.

My question is, to those who have done the swap, how reliable has it been for you. Do you have any gripes about it? I will have a beater so its not like i'm going to be daily driving my car like i once was. But i do plan to drive it, of course...probably a weekend/out of town car more or less is what it will be.

INPUT = WELCOME

*edit*

Link within a link with the How-to so incase anyone stumbles across this with questions on how to do this:

http://forums.maxima.org/all-motor/3...-write-up.html

 

Copied and pasted from what I wrote in the other thread.

What reliability issues did you hear about? If the swap is done right, it will start up, drive and be just as reliable as stock if you keep up with regular maintinence just like you would with a 3.0.

4 of the 3.5 swaps in my area are all daily driven cars that see WOT on a regular basis. They have atleast 20k miles on them since the swaps and the see big shots of nitrous every so often.

 

ill copy and paste what was mentioned..

i'm already used to the SES light...but the other things that he didnt mention i guess had/has me worried about it, enough to bring it up. i read it this morning and was thinking if i should go through it or not. but your post and Ike Turner's post kinda forced my hand to go ahead and do it lol.

 

lol. Well, as far as what he said, you dont need aftermarket cams.

You already know the deal with the PFTB

Sure, a clutch that will hold the extra power the 3.5 has is a good idea, but in the post you quoted, he mentioned that he went with a SC and leaves a bolt on 5.5 by 2 cars, you think a stock clutch would hold that amount of power? So the clutch argument is invalid in his case. No matter how you look at it, if you want more hp/tq, you need a clutch to match.

CEL is a way of life down here in FL. lol

And it looks like he couldnt even finish the swap based on that post...

 

LOL ok sounds cool...

SN: i do have a stage 1 clutch and a 10.26lb flywheel to switch over to the 5.5...i figure thats sufficient enough to hold the power the 3.5 puts out even w/ some add ons. I figure the power holding this way...if i threw headers on my current max w/ a tune i would getting close to 3.5 power stock...so i should be good..amirite?!

 

Word! Very very informative I have put a lot of thought into this as well. I need to start a check list.

 

first on mine is a beater so i wont be so stressed driving someone elses. but yes i need to do the same. first on the list is stephen max's cam adapters

 

So over all a 3.5 swap in a 4th generation is worth the time and money?????

 

That's a question you need to ask and answer yourself.

HP yes, TQ, no.

And that is a freakin light FW.

 

you mean because of the weight of my FW the TQ goes down? i'm ok w/ that...the acceleration makes up for it..believe me...feels so much better...ESPECIALLY in 3rd...oh gawd...my DE-k loves 3rd gear now

 

read that link that goes to nycmaximas.org. his input is, yes it is worth it

 

No.

I was making a general statement regarding this:

I was also just making a general comment on the weight of your FW.

 

The swap is going to be as reliable as you make it.. buy a GOOD low mileage motor, dont take shortcuts when going through the write-up, double check yourself on everything (working with a friend helps alot, the whole "two sets of eyes are better than one"). I finished my swap last summer with help from Mad-Max_SE and had no problems driving it since. The car has been out of commission for a few months now bc I did a 6 spd swap in the midst of being a full time employee AND student (which sucked) and didnt have any time to work on it. But the car runs fine now. During the 6 months following the swap I had zero problems, just needs a tune badly bc my AFRs were in the 10s at WOT..

But again, it can be a completely reliable swap if you take your time and research adequately beforehand.

Grant

 

This...

And another thing, even at equal peak HP levels, a 3.5 motor WILL make more TQ than a 3.0. The flywheel will work. But the clutch most likely wont last long if you beat on it. You can do the swap, and drive it easy for the most part until you can afford a better one.

 

alright cool. lets me know what i'm dealing with. i need to find out the specs on my clutch i forgot what the specs of what its capable of holding.

you're in Raleigh, closer than the 10hr trip to FL...would yall be interested in helping me do this the course of a wkend?

i appreciate the build of confidence makes me more comfortable going this route

 

Look for something thats rated to hold atleast 300wtq





This I would recomend if possible vs. coming all the way down here so if you have any minor issues in the future, you have someone close to you to help troubleshoot.

 

x2 ima PM her and see if she can shoot me the specs, i didnt see it on their website

 

I unfortunately would not be able to bc Im still full time student/employee with zero free time. You might PM Mad-Max_SE dunno what his schedule is like or if hes able to but he definitely knows his **** if you have a question. Hes actually lives around Greensboro area tho (High Point)

I used the exedy stage 1 clutch from my 3.0 which held up just fine but I wasnt making a whole lot of power on no tune.

 

ill definitely hit him up, thanks for the heads up. GL with school and all too, i know how that is, no free time

 

no problem wish I could help, I enjoy turning wrenches and such. If I can stress anything like I said, do your research before and find out everything you can to save yourself some headaches. Either he or I would be happy to answer any questions.

 

Yes hands down.

 

i wish i had a house w/ a garage or at least a garage bay at my apartment complex, at least i would have a place here to do it. the how-to isnt too bad...i guess w/ the timing part of it i would need the chilton/haynes/fsm manual to succeed. i'd just love to have this done within a wkend worth of time.

but yea..part of this thread was for questioning regarding reliability. that other thread im going to read a couple of more times, but its pretty concise and lets me know what i need to do. very well put together thread i must say

 

Check my thread also. The first time I did my swap we did it in my GF's backyard in the grass and the second time was in the parking lot of my complex. The second time we pulled the motor on friday, tore down and reset the timing on saturday and dropped the motor back in on sunday and the car was good to go.

 

But you're insane ...

 

lol

 

wish you were in the carolinas or at the least VA. i looked at yours a couple times too...ill recheck that as well

 

We're in the process of tearing the motor down now and might be doing some live working sessions soon so lookout for them soon.

 

will does

 

Granted mine didnt last long since i over revved it i still dont have any regrets and yes it was very fun car.

 

no one in the GA, VA, NC, SC area that wants to do this swap?

 

from my personal experience it has been such a headache having a 4th gen with a 3.5 swap. i dont know if i got the bad motor out of the bunch or what but 6 days after havinga ~30k mile 3.5 it sounded like this



and i dont have a job right now and so a 3.0 is going back into it for now until i get back on my feet. im assuming its nothing MAJOR with the motor since it starts right up. i've been told its either a spun bearing or thrown rod

 

That almost sounds like the timing is off. How does it run while drive? Are you getting spark off all the coils?

 

Do you already have an engine? Will the 3.5 engine be stock other than de-k timing? Are you capeable of doing a direct engine swap on your maxima?

 

i dont have an engine and i'm not capable of doing the engine swap. im looking to find someone to do it for me, yes i would love to help w/ the swap, would be a big jump for me to at the least learn how to pull an engine. but other than de-k timing and headers...for the time being yes it would be stock.

i'm looking at one right now thats pretty much ready to drop in and go (not having to worry about swapping over all the 3.0 timing components, but i'm searching vigorously to find a cheap daily while i have my car down.

 

If you are interested in leaving your car in VA for a few weeks, then I may be able to help you out for a price. If you would want to do that then PM me and we can talk details.

 

Dropping a 3.5 in the hole is the best part of the swap

I learned quite a bit from swapping mine out.

Defently a experince id never pass up.

 

yea id like to be there to pull and to drop in a motor as well. if my car continues to run as well as it has been ill have no 2nd thoughts about making that 10hr run for a one day swap of an engine, know what i mean

 

Did this after work today. Started at 4 finished at 8 lol.

 

you got one last time to give us teaser shots and we're banning you LOL. whats the process looking like you updating your thread soon i hope