NE OHIO: i need a mechanic

[WHE90Q45]

my q started overheating, i pulled over and popped the hood steam coming from the intake.... i shut it down got some more coolant let it sit put some more coolant in fired it up engine seemed ok i don't think i fried it temp went back to normal steam still coming from the intake side of engine so shut it down had it towed to my friends shop.

friend says that its a hose that is underneath the intake, the labor to get to the hose is 7 hours or so, but the part isn't expensive. he is pricing the job for me, but i expect it to be um.. 8-900 dollars or so.

if there is anyone on this board in NE ohio who could do the repair for, oh, half of that (350-450) please get in touch with me. otherwise this car could be headed for the scrap heap, and that's a shame. it's a 90 with 103,xxx miles, grey ext, grey int perfect. i know it's not the most practical car in the world, but it was my grandfathers, and its kind of my way of preserving his memory.

any help at all would be appreciated.chris

[maxnix]

Man, talk about a fried engine!

You need to do the whole under plenum hoses, KS 7 harness, cleaning and gaskets.

Spend some time reading here to realize what you need to do. Do a compression test first to see if your engine is worth saving.

If you towed your car with teh rear wheels on the ground, your transmission might as well be jello. Always flatbed!

[qship96]

Like Brian said, do the complete under plenum job while you have the intake off the car and you will be good for another 100,000 miles- there are about 35-40 old brittle water/air/fuel goses under there that will split and crack once you remove the intake-along with gaskets/knock sensors{total about $900 in parts for the kit} and about 6-8 hours labor-----$1500-2000 total investment and you are good to go! Sounds expensive, but the alternatives{new car} are WAY more expensive, especially if you want to replace the Q with a similar quality vehicle.Might as well do sparkplugs and valvecover gaskets while it is opened up and easy to get at to save future duplicate labor charges.

[Infinitiguy19]

And no offense but besides the possibly toast engine, Are the chain guides metal or plastic? If unsure then buy metal guides from Infiniti Of Scottsdale and have a pro do the job.

What was the temp gauge at when the steam came out?

[WHE90Q45]

temp gauge was almost pegged. car was towed front wheels on the pavement, rear on the hook.

yeah i have the plastic guides, i know they need replaced. could that be done when the plenum is off too?

my mechanic is going to look at all of the hoses, etc, and replace what needs replaced. he priced it between 650 - 800 to get it all done. he's a real good dude. he'll do a comp test and we'll go from there, but i'm pretty sure i didn't cook the engine. i've overheated engines before, but i think the 30 degree weather plus my temp gauge vigilance saved it....

thanks for the advice!

[maxnix]

Temperature gauge has such a lag it could be 2010 before you know what temperature (mostly metaphorically) your engine reached.

As far as the hoses go, you replace them all and the KS and harness as you don't want to pay to go back after your next catastrophic hose failure.

VC gaskets and plugs are best done now also.

Timing chain gudes must be inspected and verified to be the metal backed ones, with hopefully new tensioners and oil pump chain drive. If broken, reconstructtheold guides so you can determine if any is in sump.

But first, compression test your cylinders to ensure you didn't blow a gasket or warp the heads. Aluminum fails suddenly and terminally.


Modified by maxnix at 10:38 AM 11/28/2008

[96Qowner]

It's decision time.

I don't ever recall hearing about an overheated VH45 that turned out well. You're either going to drop a couple grand into this engine's hoses and guides, or invest it in another car.

Now's the time to decide. You have nice low miles, but you have no idea how stressed this engine got from the overheat. The dash gauge lags WAY behind actual temps. By the time is starts to rise, you're already overheated.

I haven't heard of any good Q45 techs in your area, but we'll do our best to find you one if you decide to go ahead.

[elwesso]

Im located in Angola, IN and would be happy to look at your car. please contact me using methods on Q45.org