Hello all,

I am preparing to pick up a '99 Q-45 4.1 L engine with ~50,000 to change out the one I now have with a rod knock. Has anyone done this engine swap? Are there any pitfalls with this job? Are there any tips, or tricks or short cuts I could do to get this done without screwing the job up?

My wife will take lots of picture of the job and I will post them including any comments, suggestions, learned experiences to share with the group.

Ralph

I changed my '00 motor a few years ago on my sloped, gravel driveway. It only took about 15 hours from start to finish and that was learning as I went as I have only done a few in my life.

Getting the vehicle high off the ground is important. We had to stop a few times and shimmy higher and higher. Before removing the motor you are going to remove the tranny. This requires exhaust and driveshaft, and those pesky 19mm bolts can ONLY BE HAD with 3 12" extensions and a flex head. Infiniti did a great job making them seemingly difficult but when approached from over 3' away at the perfect angle over the exhaust pipe each can be reached. They were also very tight and hard to get off. Having 2 people was imperative so that one could guide the socket on from above the motor. One person would be very, very, frustrating!

Other than that it was pretty easy. I really can't remember any huge headaches other than the tranny access and lifting it into place with new mounts. It's good you have her taking pics but video is great too. There were DEFINITEY a few very important times I had to refer back to photo or video and having it saved me tons of time and more.

Let me know if you have any questions it's been years but I might remember.

Good morning paraniodjack and the list,

Thank you very kindly for taking the time in telling me this news. I will most certainly watch for theses issues. And, I have since arrived back home with the replacement motor from Canada. (I am happy to say that t's very clean, by the way). I also happen to have a wrecker at my disposal so, I may lift the car off the ground with the truck. This is an older wrecker with a boom but also has a wheel lift.
And in saying that, I see that I will be dropping the motor down through the bottom after the transmission is pulled. Okay.
We are currently back out of town and have to hold off on this job for a few days but will still have Internet to keep in touch.

Thanks again.

Ralph

Hi There:

I saw your post and wanted to give my experience. I actually had a company (same place I got my replacement engine) install the engine and was able to get the rack replaced for only $100 since they already had the engine out of the way. If your steering rack is leaking or if it has some miles on it, I recommend doing the replacement along with the engine swap especially if you are going to keep the car, which after replacing the engine I would say the rest of your car is a keeper. Not sure about the issues with the manifold bolts breaking off in the heads, but my engine came with the manifolds attached, so I had them just spray the convertor pipe bolts and nuts and then heat them up to remove them. the worst is when you snap a bolt off right in the middle of your swap and it take 4 hours to remove the broken piece.

If I had to do the swap myself, I would probably keep the trans bolted to the engine and pull everything as one. The only other thing to keep an eye out for are the egr lines that bolt to the exhaust pipes. I removed the larger pipe from the egr to clean it after I got the car back and it kept throwing a code (ended up being the MAF). When I tried to rethread that nut, the angle was not straight and I spend almost a 1/2 hour trying to get the nut started before I realized I had to jack up the rear of the engine to get the right angle to prevent cross threading.

Hope this info helps and best of luck!!

Ted