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Some may have remembered me talking about a 2k Nissan Maxima that I was doing an engine swap for a friend (VQ30DE to VQ30DE due to front impact accident). The car hit something very low and very solid- so much so that the crossmember that ran front to back was shortened by 6" and the car required a new core support and some frame tube straitening on the passenger side. Whatever the person hit that previously owned the car had also hit the A/C compressor and ripped it right off of the front of the engine before hitting the cast aluminum oil pan and ripping a hole in that and bending the small stamped steel portion of the pan into a pile of scrap.
At any rate, my friend let me keep the engine to do with what ever I wanted to, be it rebuild or scrap. I'm opting for the short and sweet and cheap route and scrapping it. I've got it down to a bare block and all I can say is Nissan engineers are no idiots. So far the biggest differences I've noticed are as follows:
Aluminum block.
I pulled the block with the crank and flywheel off of my stand and those pieces weighed less than 40lbs if I had to estimate. Needless to say, this is the main thing I'm after in this engine- the aluminum for scrap.
Crankshaft.
From the machining marks I've seen on the 3500 forged crank at Ben's house, this crank appears to be forged steel. I also noticed it looks like they machined the oil feeds all the way through the side of the counter weights and then it looks like they've pressed a steel ball through the hole to plug the end to avoid a huge oil leak internally. The crank does have small journals for my taste though.
Bearings.
Rod bearings look like standard bearings. Main bearings are grooved (not what I would pick), but all 4 mains are standard bearings... To make one bearing a thrust bearing they've grooved the cap and installed inserts with tangs at the 90 degree position that stay put by way of the tang resting in the groove in the cap. I thought this was pretty clever.
Rods.
The rods do not look like broken caps on powdered metal. I'm not sure if they are standard cast units, but they look like normal rods to me with the exception of piston squirters built in and the fully floating pins.
Pistons.
I have not determined what kind of pistons other than they look like hypers to me. I'm not sure who made them, either.
Main caps.
This is a 4 bolt main with what looks like cast iron caps and an aluminum girdle. No wonder these engines seem to be able to handle abuse. I'm actually pretty impressed with this thing so far.
DOHC Timing.
This engine has a timing chain. One large chain to run each intake cam, and then two smaller ones- one coming off of each intake cam running the exhaust cams (so 3 chains in total). This version of this engine is not VVT.
DOHC Bucket style lifters.
The lifter skirts are longer than the skirts on our DOHC lifters. They also have a small button in the center on the bottom, but the really neat thing is the pad that the cam rides on... The pad has a strange hole in it (I'm assuming to feed the cam lobe oil in operation), and the pads actually rotate independently of the lifter itself. You could actually rotate the lifter itself clockwise and the pad counter clockwise at the same time.
Intake runners.
This engine has a "variable intake" by way of butterflies in the runners. The only thing weird about the butterflies is they are the full size of the runner with about 1/4 of it cut off, so when the butterflies are closed the runner is closed off to 1/4 of its original size at the butterfly. It seems like a really cheap and lousy way for a "variable intake" to me, hence the " " marks.
Engine position sensors.
There was a cam position sensor in the front of the timing cover, and there were position indicators on the face of the intake cams at each quarter of its face. There were also position indicators on the rear of the balancer pulley around each quarter, but the really really neat one was the flexplate. I haven't counted the teeth, and I'm not going to, but this thing was a really high resolution crank sensor. I'm guessing there is at least over 100 teeth on the flexplate- minimum.
Knock sensor.
One centrally located on top of the engine in between the cylinder banks where the lifters would be on our pushrod engines.
Head gaskets.
MLS, from the factory with oil restrictors in place on the oil passages. It's also an open deck with siamesed cylinder configuration.
Over all, I think this is a really cool engine and think it's got a ton of potential. No wonder the Maximas, Ultimas and 350z's are pretty decent on power from the factory and respond well to mods. I wish I had a camera that worked though. I'm sure you guys would find this thing cool too.
At any rate, my friend let me keep the engine to do with what ever I wanted to, be it rebuild or scrap. I'm opting for the short and sweet and cheap route and scrapping it. I've got it down to a bare block and all I can say is Nissan engineers are no idiots. So far the biggest differences I've noticed are as follows:
Aluminum block.
I pulled the block with the crank and flywheel off of my stand and those pieces weighed less than 40lbs if I had to estimate. Needless to say, this is the main thing I'm after in this engine- the aluminum for scrap.
Crankshaft.
From the machining marks I've seen on the 3500 forged crank at Ben's house, this crank appears to be forged steel. I also noticed it looks like they machined the oil feeds all the way through the side of the counter weights and then it looks like they've pressed a steel ball through the hole to plug the end to avoid a huge oil leak internally. The crank does have small journals for my taste though.
Bearings.
Rod bearings look like standard bearings. Main bearings are grooved (not what I would pick), but all 4 mains are standard bearings... To make one bearing a thrust bearing they've grooved the cap and installed inserts with tangs at the 90 degree position that stay put by way of the tang resting in the groove in the cap. I thought this was pretty clever.
Rods.
The rods do not look like broken caps on powdered metal. I'm not sure if they are standard cast units, but they look like normal rods to me with the exception of piston squirters built in and the fully floating pins.
Pistons.
I have not determined what kind of pistons other than they look like hypers to me. I'm not sure who made them, either.
Main caps.
This is a 4 bolt main with what looks like cast iron caps and an aluminum girdle. No wonder these engines seem to be able to handle abuse. I'm actually pretty impressed with this thing so far.
DOHC Timing.
This engine has a timing chain. One large chain to run each intake cam, and then two smaller ones- one coming off of each intake cam running the exhaust cams (so 3 chains in total). This version of this engine is not VVT.
DOHC Bucket style lifters.
The lifter skirts are longer than the skirts on our DOHC lifters. They also have a small button in the center on the bottom, but the really neat thing is the pad that the cam rides on... The pad has a strange hole in it (I'm assuming to feed the cam lobe oil in operation), and the pads actually rotate independently of the lifter itself. You could actually rotate the lifter itself clockwise and the pad counter clockwise at the same time.
Intake runners.
This engine has a "variable intake" by way of butterflies in the runners. The only thing weird about the butterflies is they are the full size of the runner with about 1/4 of it cut off, so when the butterflies are closed the runner is closed off to 1/4 of its original size at the butterfly. It seems like a really cheap and lousy way for a "variable intake" to me, hence the " " marks.
Engine position sensors.
There was a cam position sensor in the front of the timing cover, and there were position indicators on the face of the intake cams at each quarter of its face. There were also position indicators on the rear of the balancer pulley around each quarter, but the really really neat one was the flexplate. I haven't counted the teeth, and I'm not going to, but this thing was a really high resolution crank sensor. I'm guessing there is at least over 100 teeth on the flexplate- minimum.
Knock sensor.
One centrally located on top of the engine in between the cylinder banks where the lifters would be on our pushrod engines.
Head gaskets.
MLS, from the factory with oil restrictors in place on the oil passages. It's also an open deck with siamesed cylinder configuration.
Over all, I think this is a really cool engine and think it's got a ton of potential. No wonder the Maximas, Ultimas and 350z's are pretty decent on power from the factory and respond well to mods. I wish I had a camera that worked though. I'm sure you guys would find this thing cool too.
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