Bought a 2011 maxima with 2000 miles on it. I drove the car gently for another 4000 miles, and now I have a blown head gasket. Since I now have it in our shop with all the guts torn out and the heads sent over to the machine shop, I'm wondering what tweaks I should make as we put the engine back together? Remember it only has 6K miles on it, so no need to change timing chains and that type of thing. No apparent damage found to internals and everything still looks new, so this may be my one opportunity build from scratch. Any thoughts?

 

maybe cams?

 

how did you manage blown head gasket?

 

factory warranty?

 

Blown H/G at 6K? Man, sounds like a poorly assembled motor to me.

Regardless, since it's already gutted, why not throw in some hotter cams, forged higher compression pistons, forged con-rods and a shot-peened forged crank?

 

Isn't Nissan covering this under warr?
Also upgrading All internals I would assume would blow the Cvt trans

 

This should be a warranty repair.

 

warranty???? dont cry be happy!!

 

yes, the warranty would cover that. If you are not going thru the dealership to fix your crazy

 

See link below for interesting reading regarding head gaskets.

http://www.nissanmurano.org/forums/6...kets-09-a.html

 

Clearly a warranty issue, pulling this apart yourself is nuts

 

if the engine is already taken apart, i think its past the warranty claiming phase...

 

Exactly, not a smart move if its not at a dealership...
Was it some how a salavage car which would have negated the warranty?

 

And putting other parts would void the warranty right?

 

Yes, but from the sounds of it if the OP either he or friends/coworkers have mechanical skills. since they got it apart and he's looking at building the motor, as long as its done by people who know their stuff he'll end up with a better strong VQ and warranty wont matter.

 

Gotcha!

 

i'm hoping, anyway

 

Don't know. Drove car sensible most of the time to break it in well. One day I smelled antifreeze and three days later lost power. No help from Nissan because I bought the car with 1.5k after it had been in a slight accident. Heads just got back from machine shop and they did get hot, but no other wear or tear found in whole engine. Would love for someone to let me know if they had a similar problem on a new max.

 

I bought the car at dealer auction and since it had been involved in a accident @ 1.5k I could not get any nissan dealer to touch it. Bitter pill to swallow, but since we have a family automotive business I can get parts wholesale and my mechanics cut their shop rates to help. Still expensive though because this is not something I can get reimbursed for. I could have been dishonest and washed the car fax, but that's just not my style.

 

Yeah, having a family car business helps a lot, but because of a fender bender @ 1.5k Nissan wont touch it. This problem has nothing to do with the previous accident, but was just enough to let them slip the hook.

 

I can't believe your not taking pictures and posting them here

 

Good idea, but since I'm new to this forum I will have to figure out how to post pics of both the car (awesome) and the buildup. I've been too heartbroken to do much more than cry about my great deal gone sour. Time to man up though and bring this thing back so rad that the same dealers that would not warranty the repairs will say Daaaam____! Will try to add pics soon.

 

Looks like a dirty version of my teardown. Thanks for your post. It may be too late to help me but this might raise a flag for other gen 7 owners. My mechanic is saying he wants helpers when he puts this thing back together. I dont want to reassemble it until I have a good idea what happened in the first place.

 

I think this may be the first blown head gasket on a 7th gen Maxima I have seen here, and, having bought an '09 about 3 1/3 years ago, I have tried to keep up with all the problems posted here.

I would bet dollars to doughnuts that this car was abused during the 2K miles before you bought it. We have had posters here on the ORG who were doing 0-60 time trials on their new Maxima with as little as 300 miles on the odo. Ignorant people do stupid things.

 

I ALWAYS smell coolant on my 2010 model. But with 43,700 miles, no coolant in oil or power loss. I have refilled reservoir once since owning. It's going somewhere very slowly.

Late,
Trav

 

I do but it's almost always during the summer months and after some good up-hill pulls on the way home from work maneuvering around the mini van creepers, or the occasional TL victim.
Seemed to do it more when new, not so much now.

 

I'm not sure as I haven't studied the VQ's very much....
Would a crank/rod change be a viable option in this case to bump it to a 3.7L?
Possible engine deck height/piston config could very well be a problem with that. Just thinking.
But as they say "there's nothing like cubic liters" in making HP!

 

Thought about changing rods, etc. but I opted out after I shaved the heads to get a true surface. Putting it all back together this weekend with a few minor tweaks. Wish me luck, and for all those who wondered about the warranty, you would be surprised how quick they shun you when you buy a vehicle dealer direct.

 

My car had 13 miles i drove it hard ever since and i got 40k miles no problems nothing what so ever and my car drive and feels faster then all the maximas i have driven from my dealer i have driven over 100 7th gen. That break in period is all crap people who baby there cars day in day out are the ones with all the problems

 

And to answer to ur head gasket its not a common problem but we get them from time to time in service

 

Same thing here too with a 2010 with 26000km on it... Never had to put coolant but I told the dealership most of the time I've been there and they never found anything. But i swear, the coolant smell, I've owned a 2000 pontiac montana before... I know what it smells, mostly on hot days

 

Ummm. Get back to me when you pass the 200K mark with no problems. I have not only put over 200K on a Maxima, but then saw it still tooling around town four years after I let it go. Breaking a car in gently, and then taking good care of it guarantees nothing. But putting a car through maximum stress before it has been properly broken in greatly increases the chance of later problems.

You have been lucky so far, but using one example of any postulation proves nothing. Records of hundreds of thousands of cars over many decades gives us evidence that proper breakin and care tends to extend the life of cars.

There is a reason ALL MANUFACTURERS of ALL CARS suggest a break-in period so all the moving parts which were made on different machines and then mated together can mesh to a perfect match before maximum stress and pressure are applied.

 

All motors are broken and put thru there paces before getting put into cara

 

Manufacturers have been building engines for many years with construction tolerances that have almost eliminated the need for engine break-in.

 

Break in period is a myth but hey i have owned 3 brand new cars and they all have been driven hard from day one.. Alot people i know who baby there cars are the ones with all the issues

 

I was a tech/mechanic for several years, I saw more then a few cars with blow engines, that never made it past 100k, and all the owners drove them extremely hard, ridiculous premature wear

 

They'll do whatever they believe in Light. I have assembled numerous engines and have always taken the time to let the engine components establish the required wear in and seating. The engine is producing more debris from initial operation and should never be exposed to undue extreme stresses and heat. That first factory oil fill is to nicely collect the breakin garbage from the engine and be changed out before you start abusing the car like we all like to do from time to time.