New (used) Motor and Transmission Installed!

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maxhopper
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Car: 02 Maxima SE 6spd
Location: Kentucky

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I've been nursing my leaking head gasket for about 300 miles now, and the transmission has been slipping for ages.

I had been checking out my options on http://www.car-parts.com, but everything was either too high priced, too high mileage, or just too far away. So I checked out this company that Garret (big thanks!)suggested, LKQ. Turns out the have a location in Indiana. I checked their inventory, and found a motor with 64k miles and a transmission with 65k miles.

I called them today to ask a few questions about the items and to check on shipping. The only thing wrong with the motor is that it's missing the crank pulley, which is no big deal since I have a UDP anyway. Nothing wrong with the transmission. They said they would ship for free to the dealership where I work. Both the motor and trans come with a 6 month warranty as well.

I'd have loved to do a 3.5 and 5spd swap, but that just wasn't in the cards at this point in time. But I'm totally stoked to have found this stuff with such low miles. My Max had 120k miles on it when I bought it, so I hope that when it's all said and done, that she'll feel like new again.


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MinisterofDOOM
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Awesome!

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Beancooker
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That is way cool bro. The 3.5 is a lot of work, but I can't believe you didn't do the 5 speed swap.

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maxhopper
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Car: 02 Maxima SE 6spd
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The plain and simple fact is that I don't have the time to do it. I've got a problem with the G20 being a cylinder down (either a bad cylinder ring or a stuck valve), so I don't have a dependable daily driver other than the Max. As it stands right now, I'm going to have to rent a car while I've got the Max down. Luckily I've done multiple engine swaps on other A32s, so I feel confident it should only take me 2 full days to get it done. But with me working every other Saturday, and working noon to 8pm during the week, it's all just a matter of finding the time. That's why I just figured swapping stock to stock at this point would be the easiest thing to do.

Believe me, I'd love to have swapped to a 5spd; but if I was going to go that route, I'd have gotten an LSD tranny. Unfortunately LKQ didn't have any available, and there are none to be found regionally. I had even gone so far as to look for a new 4th gen I30t with the 5spd and swap all my mods, but again couldn't find any at a reasonable price (under 6k).

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A.Tech
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Car: 1998 Nissan Maxima SE Black on Black 5-speed, and yes. I know my avatar is a Gen 5... lol

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sick

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maxhopper
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Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2003 10:43 am
Car: 02 Maxima SE 6spd
Location: Kentucky

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Just a quick update....

I installed the new motor and transmission this past weekend. Many thanks to Shawn (sdot82) for all his help on Sunday!

I have to say that when I dropped the pan on my old transmission, the two magnets looked like they had large mushrooms growing from them with all the metal that had accumulated.

The removal of the wiring and accessories went rather smoothly. The first problem arose on Sunday when we were installing the new transmission axle seals. The passenger side went fine, but when it came time to install the driver side seal, we noticed a problem. The yard had actually sent me a VLSD auto trans, so the seal and axle were different.

We proceeded to install the new motor and trans into the car, and get the wiring and hoses all hooked up.

Monday morning I called the two biggest Nissan dealers in town, and neither had the correct axle seal in stock. So I called the local Infiniti dealer (thinking that there are more I30t's than Maximas with VLSD); just my luck they had one in stock! I then called all the parts stores in town looking for the axle I needed...only one place in town had it in stock. At this point I figure the Gods must surely be smiling upon me.

Ehhhh, not so much.

I got the seal and axle installed ok. But that was only the beginning of my ordeal.

I soon got a code for the front crank position sensor (Ref sensor). I replace it with the one from my old engine. The code still came back. I inspected the harness to the sensor and gave it a slight tug...the SOB split right in half. I then proceeded to replace the sub harness for the crank sensor. That entailed removing the intake manifold to gain access to the rear injectors, and fishing the remaining harness down to the oil pressure sending unit and the crank sensor.

During that process I managed to land a big piece of oily dirt directly into my right eye. ALWAYS WEAR EYE PROTECTION!!!!!!!!

So I finally got the crank sensor squared away, but what do you know...I started getting codes for the MAP sensor, and other various sensors.

I ended up replacing almost every sensor on the new motor with the ones off my old motor.

The new motor runs great and the transmission pulls tremendously. The only problem I'm having now is on start up. For some reason the motor will cough and backfire (sometimes through the intake, sometimes through the exhaust). But once it starts, it idles and runs beautifully.

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95prmax
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Car: 1999 Nissan Maxima SE-L

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dude very happy you got that thing running again about that problem ima look into it because one of my boys down here had that problem after he swapped out his 3.0 for another 3.0 let mesee what he says on what it was and i will get back at you today

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MinisterofDOOM
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Glad to hear you've kept another Max on the road.

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maxhopper
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Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2003 10:43 am
Car: 02 Maxima SE 6spd
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95prmax wrote:dude very happy you got that thing running again about that problem ima look into it because one of my boys down here had that problem after he swapped out his 3.0 for another 3.0 let mesee what he says on what it was and i will get back at you today
I appreciate it. I'm thinking it may be fuel system related, but I'm not sure.

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95prmax
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maxhopper97 wrote:I appreciate it. I'm thinking it may be fuel system related, but I'm not sure.
quesrtion did you use the fuel injectors from the new motor you pu in or your old motor

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maxhopper
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Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2003 10:43 am
Car: 02 Maxima SE 6spd
Location: Kentucky

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I used the ones that came in the new motor. I checked the front three, and all were within spec.

jmeister
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Now you have a spare 3.0 with timing equipment to do the 3.5 swap.

Shawn take you for a ride btw?

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maxhopper
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Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2003 10:43 am
Car: 02 Maxima SE 6spd
Location: Kentucky

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Not yet, I'm trying to get him to go to Nashville for the meet.


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