I have a 1998 Nissan Altima that the timing chain guides broke and had to be replaced. I ended up having to take the engine cylinder head and intake manifold to check if pistons were damaged. To do so, as you can imagine, I took a lot of parts out around the engine to be able to access everything. I've been doing this on and off in the last 2 years. so... I can't quite remember where some parts go so maybe you can help. Before embarking in this dismantling adventure all my experience was doing my oil changes and replacing brakes. Surprisingly I have almost everything back together and wanted to finish it all in the next couple of days.

Where does this metal guard go? I suspect somewhere near one of the idle pulleys?




This is a small spring. Does it go somewhere near the throttle?



What goes in these 2 bolts? The 1st image is view from the top, left corner of the engine (when facing the car). 2nd image is a straight down view so you can see the 2 bolt holes.





Lastly, is what bolt goes in this hole right beneath the distributor? My trouble is that once you put the part that sits under the distributor (don't know the name) then it will completely block the bolt hole. That puzzles me what can possible go there then.

Hi there and welcome to the NicoClub. This reminds me of a TV show I saw as a kid, the characters go to get their car back from the mechanic, he shows them the car, hands them the keys and hands them a box. They say, what's this? and he says it's all the extra parts the car came with!

I don't know where those parts go. You can look at the factory service manual. Here's a link to the PDF and you can save it to your computer.
http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/Altima/1998/

It might not be a bad time to make friends with someone who has the same car, then do a little side by side comparison. Online searches for photos might work as well. Just search for your car by year, make, model and add an engine area to the description (i.e. 1998 Nissan Altima throttle body or 1998 Nissan Altima distributor)

First picture: alternator bracket or may be upper power steering bracket, (but if you got that off, you got real superpowers!)

Nothing goes in the extra bolt hole under the distributor.

The two bolts on the passenger back corner of the head hold a bracket that holds the two throttle cables.

Thanks for the link and the location. Yes, I think the bracket goes on the idle pulley right next to the alternator but I'll have to take the engine mounts to get that back in.

All that is left is the Spring! Any ideas?

The spring looks like it's from the rear drum brakes, I can't think of anything in the engine that uses a spring like that except maybe the trans shift linkage.