what to do with Q?
what to do with Q?
My 91 Q45a may be down for the count. If the shop that has it is correct it has bad rod bearing. I just bought the car and like it but i have too many projects . the question is what to do with it if i decide not to put a motor in it. the car is in incredible condition it's met. sand , new michelin pilots on bbs, 10 cd changer, leather looks great (very slight wear on drivers seat) transmission has cooler, had a complete new ac installed at the dealer 3 or 4 years ago, remote start , keyless entry, no dents, the only problems (besides engine) very slow leak (add a little fluid every 6 months)on the active pump, the climate control display is intermitant. had recent headgasket, valve job, cam chains and guides. previous owner was not a hard driver and had the car for over 100,000 miles .should i try to sell complete or part it out on ebay?
Wow tough question.
Its hard to find "a"'s these days that work well, kinda unusual if these guides are done to have mechnical problems and we have no indication of poor oil change habits..
I would start keeping an eye out for a good engine and installer while I was trying to decide.
If it was me, I would likely keep it, but I can understand if some one wanted to not deal with the risk and expense of a used engine install.
Fred..
Its hard to find "a"'s these days that work well, kinda unusual if these guides are done to have mechnical problems and we have no indication of poor oil change habits..
I would start keeping an eye out for a good engine and installer while I was trying to decide.
If it was me, I would likely keep it, but I can understand if some one wanted to not deal with the risk and expense of a used engine install.
Fred..
Dang Joe, you're 18 months too soon or I'd be interested in buying it. But good luck with whatever you decide. I think Fred gave the best explanation on what to do. By the way, Dennis, aka Q45Tech, says that T-3 has never had an engine swap cost more than $6100 (price of engine included). Only would be more expensive if you needed new injectors.
Nick
Nick
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SOCAL91Q45a
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SOCAL91Q45a
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there was a pretty nice motor on ebay a couple weeks ago, that looked real clean and stated as low miles - that was the one to have I think. If it were me, I'd ask Q45Tech how to get the motors they get for $1300 warrantied ... maybe it'd be worth it to buy it from them or have it shipped from their source to them, so they [T3] could inspect and either accept or reject it then send it to you via http://www.forwardair.com cost me less than $200 to ship my Q motor from Utah to CA.
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SOCAL91Q45a
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SOCAL91Q45a
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Q451990
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Re: what to do with Q?
joe dirt wrote:If the shop that has it is correct it has bad rod bearing.
That's a big "if" - It wouldn't be the first time someone has mis-diagnosed a Q engine. What happened to this Q to require a new head gaskets? Guide failure with valve damage?? I'd seriously consider limping or towing it to Atlanta for diagnosis, or finding someone nearby at a dealership or otherwise who knows the Q inside and out...
Heath
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Jeff Williams
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The initial tip-off, is that fact that there are pre-cats in the exhaust headers. JDM engines do not have these, and USDM do (Dennis told me this). I don't know of any other differences. The pic in the auction, shows pre-catsSOCAL91Q45a wrote:Whats the tip off that its not JDM ... and JDM stands for ?
yeah i'm not convinced,so it will get another opinion. no valve damage , valve job and cam chains & guides were a perventative measure. I talked to the local dealer but ran into a typical service writer. "5 hours to put it on their computer" gonna try to bypass the service desk for a better answer. the scan at the shop it's at now showed a knock sensor error so that could have been part of my performance problem (according to replies to earlier post) . even though there is a knocking sound ,it kind of changes to ticking sound . sure seems like it's coming from top end to me. just wondering if they didn't get something right with guides or tensioner??
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Q451990
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Could be... or a really nasty lazy lifter. I can't imagine doing a valve job as preventive maintenence - sounds like more of a story here than you're getting.
I think a lot of the JDM engines are coming in with the Infiniti symbol on the plenum - only sure way to tell is the pre-cats assuming someone hasn't swapped the exhaust manifolds. If you look at the Japan Yahoo auctions, you'll see a lot of JDM Q45s as well as the President...
Heath
I think a lot of the JDM engines are coming in with the Infiniti symbol on the plenum - only sure way to tell is the pre-cats assuming someone hasn't swapped the exhaust manifolds. If you look at the Japan Yahoo auctions, you'll see a lot of JDM Q45s as well as the President...
Heath
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Q45tech
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- Car: 1990 Q45 342,400 miles 22 years ownership with original engine
1995 G20t 5 speed 334,000 miles 16" 2002 wheels - 205/50/16 Sr20ve vvl
The rod bearings are the first to go. The bearing failure scores the crankshaft and the sloppy fit stresses the rod bolts which stretch and break [slinging a rod].Oil analysis [looking for copper] tells you if the bearings are worn thru the tin outer layer into the copper FINAL layer.
We have repaired a few rods and bearing. The engine must be pulled and disassembled on an engine stand........quickly the labor exceeds that of just replacing the engine because of the necessity of measuring every part and selecting and securing.
If the crank is damaged the cost goes thru the roof.
A $1300-$1500 JDM take out becomes a $3,500 engine after R&R [a full days work] new guides, new hoses.
If you really did it right [new injectors and harness, new knock sensors and harness, every hose replaced, new intake o rings, new gaskets.............you would add $3500 [new parts] to the $1500 [engine cost][$500 markup for handling, warranty profit,etc] plus the $1500 in R&R labor plus the $1750 in swap labor =$8750.
NObody pays this so we do the best we can for $5500 obviously we pick what appears to be the best parts from both engines to reuse and just assume the parts are ok.
We don't warranty what we don't replace other than the internals of the engine unless some unreplaced part fails and takes that out.So far we have been lucky and no JDM engine has failed.
If the hot idle oil pressure is above 14 psi [say 16 psi] with new 10w/30 oil and filter that means is the crank bearing are probably good [not totally worn out yet].The oil pressure tells you nothing about the rod bearings or wrist pins or pistons. Visual inspection of the upper heads [the cams and followers [amount of varnish] etc gives you an idea.
We haven't replaced a 90-93Q engine in a year [no one feels $5500 is worth investing], however 3- [94-95] Q engines this year and 6 [ES300-V6/GS300-I6] engines [they run around $4500] plus misc G20/J30.
We have repaired a few rods and bearing. The engine must be pulled and disassembled on an engine stand........quickly the labor exceeds that of just replacing the engine because of the necessity of measuring every part and selecting and securing.
If the crank is damaged the cost goes thru the roof.
A $1300-$1500 JDM take out becomes a $3,500 engine after R&R [a full days work] new guides, new hoses.
If you really did it right [new injectors and harness, new knock sensors and harness, every hose replaced, new intake o rings, new gaskets.............you would add $3500 [new parts] to the $1500 [engine cost][$500 markup for handling, warranty profit,etc] plus the $1500 in R&R labor plus the $1750 in swap labor =$8750.
NObody pays this so we do the best we can for $5500 obviously we pick what appears to be the best parts from both engines to reuse and just assume the parts are ok.
We don't warranty what we don't replace other than the internals of the engine unless some unreplaced part fails and takes that out.So far we have been lucky and no JDM engine has failed.
If the hot idle oil pressure is above 14 psi [say 16 psi] with new 10w/30 oil and filter that means is the crank bearing are probably good [not totally worn out yet].The oil pressure tells you nothing about the rod bearings or wrist pins or pistons. Visual inspection of the upper heads [the cams and followers [amount of varnish] etc gives you an idea.
We haven't replaced a 90-93Q engine in a year [no one feels $5500 is worth investing], however 3- [94-95] Q engines this year and 6 [ES300-V6/GS300-I6] engines [they run around $4500] plus misc G20/J30.
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Jeff Williams
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question for Q45tech, i know you will cringe when i say this but is it possible to get the pan off (seems like i read on here somewhere that getting the pan off is a beatch) and get to the rod caps to remove and "SLAP" new bearings in and hope for the best? this is provided we can determine which rod bearing it is? These guys work pretty cheap ( for a business) and are not afraid to get into it,they do alot of jap rebuilds. but they smoke so much pot they would never get everything right pulling and reinstalling a Q motor. again this car had an infiniti 100k milage extended warr. and was very well cared for ,no hard driving,regular synthetic oil changes. the only reason they did the valve job was b/c it was at the machine shop already to be decked to make sure it wasn't warped after the h.gasket failure. I talked the previous owner into buying this car off lease (from a friend) with less than 20k miles on it in 93 b/c they were such a good value. so i'm very familiar with its' history. I like it but i'm not willing to put anywhere near the $ your talking about, just looking for a bandaid . don't really have anything to lose at this point.
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Q45tech
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Head gaskets only fail from overheats! We have never changed one other than when valves bend, a seriously overheated motor is trash!
Nothing to lose by pulling the pan and looking [other than the 8 hours of labor].........guess you could change the bearings, if the crank shows NO damage......unlikely. You have to measure things and order the correct offset size.Replace the caps and bolts.
Selecting the correct bearing size is difficult, getting the correct bolt torque is difficult.
If a bearing is bad, lots of others are almost as bad.
A bad bearing is proof of bad oil changes, no matter what previous owner's promised.
For $5500 we try to make sure the new used engine lasts 3o-100k more.Many people ask if we can just fix [bearing replacement] the sound so that they can sell them, we decline.......everything we do has to last a year or 12k and that is too risky.
Why we always have 6-7 old Q on death row waiting to become parts cars.
Nothing to lose by pulling the pan and looking [other than the 8 hours of labor].........guess you could change the bearings, if the crank shows NO damage......unlikely. You have to measure things and order the correct offset size.Replace the caps and bolts.
Selecting the correct bearing size is difficult, getting the correct bolt torque is difficult.
If a bearing is bad, lots of others are almost as bad.
A bad bearing is proof of bad oil changes, no matter what previous owner's promised.
For $5500 we try to make sure the new used engine lasts 3o-100k more.Many people ask if we can just fix [bearing replacement] the sound so that they can sell them, we decline.......everything we do has to last a year or 12k and that is too risky.
Why we always have 6-7 old Q on death row waiting to become parts cars.
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SOCAL91Q45a
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joe dirt - the transplant surgery of trying to insert new bearing in a motor like the Q - seems futile. Odds seem stacked against you that this would work for more than 10k miles.
There are from time to time deals on ebay - if labor costs is not the big expense for you.
Q45Tech .... know anyone who might be interested in a et of new never ran 1994 Q45 heads off that factory crate motor I got?
I found a buddy who bulds motors on the NASCAR Truck circuit who has easy access to a 5 axis CNC machine with the software for my existing 91 heads - so I feel safe in letting these 1994 heads go to a good home.
If anyone knows of anyone ..... let me know.
There are from time to time deals on ebay - if labor costs is not the big expense for you.
Q45Tech .... know anyone who might be interested in a et of new never ran 1994 Q45 heads off that factory crate motor I got?
I found a buddy who bulds motors on the NASCAR Truck circuit who has easy access to a 5 axis CNC machine with the software for my existing 91 heads - so I feel safe in letting these 1994 heads go to a good home.
If anyone knows of anyone ..... let me know.