Hello, I just joined the forums today as I have purchased a -in need of work- 94 Q45 off Ebay. I am not a stranger to Nissans, as I have worked for Nissan as a tech few years back and own a few Nissans. I'm actually a Acura technician - for a living.

Anyways, anyone ever had a head gasket blow on them ? This car has a blown head gasket, from what I suspect the radiator that eighter blew or leaked out coolant. Previous owner had the radiator repleaced at Infiniti for 800 dollars and a month later hes had some serious issues with the car overheating etc.

I've worked on a few G50s in the past, but nothing this extenssive. http://www.blumhardt.net/pictures/Infinity/ - this is the car I bought, cost me 960 dollars.

I'm going to restore it somewhat and plan on putting a large shot of NOS, and other goodies on it to make it run some decent times down the 1/4 mile.

Welcome to NICO, and this is defintely the place to find out about all things Q! Sure you'll get a ton of responses, but from what I know a blown head is a big fix, and very hard to do correctly. being an all aluminum engine it is vital that it is not overheated and from what i understand it is very hard to rebuild,,,the tolerances are crazy!! they're r much better experts here than me which i'm sure will give you a more detailed answer. good luck and welcome to nico!!!

Welcome Blackbird! Just curious, is the overheating the only symptom? I've got a suspected bad HG, but few symptoms, and heads in work. The rebuild IS scary. Tolerances are tighter than most, but probably not any better/worse than Acura. Biggest difference is you're looking at 32 valves. John Dixon is cooking up something racy.

Congratulations. It looks like a good buy. The interior looks fairly good. I have never seen that much rust on a Q before. It must have been driven in the winter a lot.

I would suggest getting your hands on a JDM take-out engine, to get things started. It would probably be the least expensive way to get the car on the road. Then you can "build" the original engine to whatever specs you want to. There is not much in aftermarket pistons, crank, or cams, though.

Be sure to read some of the older posts here, in Infiniti General, and the Infiniti Online Mechanic secions. There are a lot of Q's being parted out, and you might get your hands on some great deals in the Classified section. A lot of 300ZX parts will bolt on the Q, too.

Welcome!

I second the JDM engine replacement, just because it seems like it'd be easier than a rebuild.

Although personally, I vote for an RB25DET or VG30DETT, muhahaha! Especially if the car only cost $1000.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ZWDVW

... there was another eBay (and member on this board) selling new-in-the-crate longblocks too.

Heath

Head gasket failures are extremely rare. Everything on the cooling system is due for replacement: WP, t-stat, hoses, etc.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ZWDVW

That car was in barrington i think or somewhere around there. I saw it on ebay too. If i had the room i would have bought it as a parts car. But yeah definately go with a crate engine or JDM becuase once you get into the rebuild and start taking the thing apart you will start to go oh while im in here i might as well do this. THe cost will add up fast.

I am not affraid of a engine repair, I do performance work on Nissans and other cars on the side so --- see my page. http://www.cardomain.com/id/blackbirdvq

I bought a 91 Legend 4 door with cloth interior (base model 2nd gen) with 122K miles on it from original owners last April for 600 dollars- it needed head gaskets also. I restored it to all original specs- (trying to retrofit a RL AC system into it now) and the car runs beautifully, I even took it on a 1000 mile road trip Labor Day weekend, cause my Maxima can't leave the asphalt since it sits soo low and suspension would make my woman fairly upset.

I priced out a engine gasket kit, 350 dollars through Nissan. I have abundance of VH45/SR20 370cc injectors laying around that I can use- if I need em.

If I where to do an engine on it, I would try to get my hands on a VK56DE and tranny from a 2WD Titan.

Thanx for all the info and suggestions guys !

BTW- I have been looking for a certain Q45 that was here on NICO years back that some guy was spraying huge amounts of NOS on, and runing some NASTY 1/4 times. I even seen the front end lifing off the ground a little bit, anyone know where I can find info on that car ?

http://www.q45.org/bad

did miniman [Corey] ever sell the crate motor he had in storage?his should be pickedup before bidding on e-bay......

BlackBirdVQ - Welcome! From what I've seen this is the most active Q forum on the web. Please post pics of your car. I think you will find the support you're seeking here and it sounds like you have a lot of knowledge to share as well. Also be sure to post pics & write up your DIYs!

tkd_q45 wrote:BlackBirdVQ - Welcome! From what I've seen this is the most active Q forum on the web. Please post pics of your car. I think you will find the support you're seeking here and it sounds like you have a lot of knowledge to share as well. Also be sure to post pics & write up your DIYs!

Well I got the car last nite, I do not have any pictures as it was raining on and off all day- plus I had customer cars to work on 1st.

I did a tune up on the car today, and found working on the car very eassy with the right tools, just kinda time consuming (I'm used to the eassy to work on Acura V6s and 4 cylinders with lots of access at the plugs).

I am in need of a ignition switch, electrical portion seems to be going bad- I need to jiggle the key around in the ignition switch sometimes to make it fire up.

She is still dog slow, but I'm going to run Consult on it tomorrow to see exacly whats causing my car to run like that

It runs hotter than normal, I suspect someone didn't bleed the coolant right and there is a air bubble in the system and possibly a bad T-stat.

Interior just needs 2 things, detail, and sunroof switch (which I got from Infiniti of Lisle).

Exterior needs new wheels ( I am not into bling chrome that aint even big, 16"), fix up the rust- which I'm going to do myself, and I would like to lower it.

Oil pan is seeping, and so are the valve cover gaskets- but I am not going to fix that right now as it looks like it has been leaking for a LONG time now.

If anyone has any recomendations or anything, I am open to suggestions on performance. This is my 1st Q and my 9th Nissan overall. I bought this with intention of fixing and selling but I can't ever sell a car, I grow too attached to it. I currently road race my 01 Maxima, and the suspension on that car is VERY stiff- (EVO actually feels luxurious in terms of ride comfort) so naturally I'm planing on making the Q my little fast daily driver, and take the Maxima out on track days and for just fun. If anyone needs any Maxima help, I have owned a few of them and a few Sentra SE-Rs powered by the SR engine.