started w/ the valve covers b/c they would be the easiest. Thankfully, the gaskets weren't too hard and came out in one piece. It royally sucks when they're so hard they've become one w/ the valve covers and just break when you pull/chisel them out. No troubles there.
Motor upside down w/ oil pan off. The pickup is rather short and the dent in the pan would have made no difference, other than perhaps in draining oil.
before shot of the oil pan. You can kinda see it bent up in the center of the sump.
dented in the center of the pan and around the drain plug.
a rubber mallet will do absolutely nothing. A rubber mallet cannot really even make it into the sump to hit at the pan. Hitting a rubber handled hammer against the pan does nothing either. So, a good sized hammer, and an extension w/ a good sized socket (think i used a 17mm) at various high points of the pan. Sissy hits do nothing. that pan is tough as hell. If the motor didn't weigh so much, I'd wonder how the hell it got dented in the first place.
basically, the finished product. The baffle made it difficult to get at the area by the drain pain, though I think i did get it a little better after taking the picture. I wasn't able to even budge the drain plug area. It's reinforced w/ a block of metal maybe an inch in either direction from the drain plug.
So then w/ the pan off, i managed to take the rear main seal housing off (not really sure if i actually needed to do this to get the seal out and put the new one in, but oh well. I bought the gasket for the housing, so i might as well use it.
Next the waterpump/thermostatwhy you replace the water pump when getting a used motor thats probably been sitting for a while almost dry.
kinda gross, but i believe it to be just tap water used for the cooling system rather than clean, mineral free distilled water. Either way, the water pump was completely covered in this rusty sludge stuff.
then came the timing belt. Not bad, got the belt off, took the idler and tensioner off, then the cam gears and replaced the seals. Then came the timing cog on the crankshaft. what a pain in the *** that was. Like many others, it was rusted to the crankshaft, and was a subborn little ******. Tried prying it off, the upgraded screwdrivers, then tried hammering down behind the cog and prying it off (got a nice welt in my head from when the screwdriver came loose before the cog did). Then came the really wide chisel (3 inches?). still nothing. I soaked it in rust penetrator and let it sit for a while, still nothing. Tried tapping it w/ a hammer while prying off, still nothing. Tried hammering it while prying, still didn't jar loose. So, after having magled the back, top, sides of the teeth, i figured it was a hopeless cause and decided that i was forced to buy a new one anyways, so out came the die grinder.
cut out a section, then took a chisel and took out more and eventually lodged the chisel in far enough to get it to crack. then it almost slide right off.
so, now I have to order a new cog and backing plate before i can move on. Took out the sparkplugs to check them and they looked good, HKS plugs made by denso. The wear on the electrode's a little off w/ them all, so I'm gonna regap em and let it run before I put in the new OEM plugs. Next on the list of things to do is either finish up the timing belt service, or extract broken stud from turbine housing. Just enough to grip the bolt one time w/ a pair of vice grips
can't be too easy.Thanks for reading.
Chris
I too work as an apprentice tech at Nissan (while in school for engineering :pface, but oh well... lol), and yeah, those good deals rock!