Hey Guys,

My apologies in advance for this novel!

Been a lurker on the site for awhile and finally pulled the trigger on an '05 Coupe 6MT. I knew I wanted an '05 or newer because of the increased output of the Revup. I finally had enough of my hard earned cash saved up so when this one hit kijiji I jumped on it!



Bought it from a guy who worked as the service manager at a reputable import dealership. Young guy, very smart, and is a Z/G enthusiast (also has a 700 rwhp 300ZX)

Everything was right as rain until I booked my flights to go get the car. He informed we it had just started running rough at idle and was now throwing a P0300 multiple cylinder misfire code. A good friend of his is a journeyman mechanic at an Infiniti dealer so he took the car over there and after two weeks of trouble shooting they supposedly tried all the common fixes aside from replacing potentially fouled cats.

He then informed me that the problem was fixed and it turned out to be the ECU. He said they got it running perfectly and the only thing was that the CEL was on because the ECU was from a newer VQ35 and it was looking for Cam position sensors that did not exist.

At this point I didn't know a whole lot of the in depth technical differences between the different iterations of the VQ35 and after he took another chunk of cash off the purchase price I agreed to take it after an extensive test drive.

Drove the car home 1,100 km and to this date I have not had any issues at all other than the CEL.

Until I did some digging into my first mods and realized that every picture of a Revup motor had much different castings at the front of the heads to accommodate the VVT solenoids VS Non-revup

Upon further investigation this evening I took the engine cover off and noticed the Non-revup timing cover, two connectors tucked away that aren't plugged into anything. Also, a connector at the back of each head that aren't plugged in....

The big questions is............. Am I correct in saying I just got screwed???

ie: I was just sold an 05' G35 6MT that has had the engine replaced with a non-revup





















Thank you all in advance for all your help!

 

Tranny swap maybe?

 

Not unless they swapped the speedo as well. Looks like they pulled a fast one.

 

That's a non-Rev up motor. You can tell by the engine front cover since it looks a lot different on the Rev-up vs non-Rev up.

Non-Rev up on the left, rev up on the right.

They are different because of the variable intake and exhaust timing on the rev-up vs only intake timing on the non-rev.

Look at the motor in this Ebay listing to see what the front of a fully assembled Rev-Up VQ35DE looks like:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2007-Infinit...xUf5gh&vxp=mtr


That car's suspension has also been lowered... possibly just by cutting the springs.

 

VIN shows it was a 6MT, so no tranny swap, which means it had to have been a rev-up (VIN also shows 298 HP and 260 lb/ft). So looks like they swapped to motor to the non-rev up for whatever reason. Also I'd check the suspension as mentioned above, to make sure it's not cut springs.

 

Wow, yup that engine has been replaced with a non-revup engine. Do you have a bluetooth OBD2 dongle? If so, we can get the ECU part number. My money is that the ECU is actually the correct/stock ECU and they had to replace the engine for whatever reason (ie oil consumption, spun bearing, etc). I've been looking for a used revup for my car, and they are really hard to find and cost, on average, $1,500 more than the regular VQ35s.

I'd be mad.

 

First of all thanks to everyone who has taken the time to chime in. I am pretty upset about it... Saved my hard earned cash, did the research, and knew '05 was the model year I was after because if offered best bang for the buck (HP / $$$)

It's kind of heart breaking to know I'm starting off with an engine that is 18hp down from what I thought I was getting. Getting those ponies back N/A isn't going to be cheap or easy.

I don't have an OBDII dongle but I think we all know that you are correct in saying the ECU is going to be correct for the car and the engine of course is not. Hence the cam position sensor error codes.. The ECU is looking for signals from the sensors responsible for VVT on the exhaust side which of course don't exist on this non-rev up VQ35DE. Hence the loose factory connectors tucked under the intake plenum and hanging at the back of the non-revup heads.

The good news in all this I suppose is that I don't have to worry about that pesky oil consumption problem with the revup ...... Who am i kidding.... **** me..... This sucks

I don't even know how many km / miles are on this ****ing engine

 

First of all, you are not losing any HP. The way HP was rated changed in 05. There's a big debate about anything changing at all HP wise. In fact, the DE claims to have 10 more ft/lb TQ, and TQ is what you should actually be concerned with, but again, there is no proof that there were and gains/losses whatsoever. There are advantages to having a DE too, such as better plenum design and less chance of getting a severe oil burner.

The real concern should stem from the fact that if they didn't swap it right, you could be in for a lot of real problems in the future. The Rev and the DE use different ECU's and harnesses. I would NOT be OK with a constant CEL illumination. You need to ask them to take the car back or threaten to sue. What they did is illegal. Completely misrepresented the car (knowingly I'm sure). Get rid of that thing.

 

Yes he is losing peak HP by not having the Rev-Up motor. There is no debate about whether or not the Rev-Up has more peak power or not. That's a fact that it does, on average, produce a consistently measurable amount more peak power. I believe most people were seeing around 8-10 more peak WHP on the Rev-Up than the non-Rev. The debate comes in when discussing whether or not the Rev-Up's peak power advantage makes it a better overall performer than the non-Rev motor since the non-Rev has higher peak TQ and makes its power at lower (more road useable) RPMs.

The newer SAE J1349 standard used in '05 closes the loopholes that were being exploited by many auto manufacturer's in HP measuring situations that allowed the same motor to score higher HP numbers on the old standard than it would have by the new standard. The fact that the Rev-Up motor was able to produce higher official peak HP ratings with the more strict and legitimate SAE J1349 standard (usually lower power yielding new standard) than the non-rev up did on the more lenient (usually higher power yielding old standard) shows that it does in fact produce more peak power.

OP has every right to be pissed and possibly seek legal rectification of the situation, depending on how long ago this transaction occurred. If that car is running the ECU from a Rev-Up motor in conjunction with a non-Rev motor, who the heck knows what the long term impacts on motor longevity or performance could be. Hopefully when the OP bartered for a lower price as a result of the disclosed CEL problems there was nothing documented (that he maybe didn't notice) stating that he was accepting the vehicle as-is with that disclosure and other potential motor-related complications.

 

Damn sorry to hear, that's crazy

That right there would've already scared me away from this deal. Not sure if you posted the price you bought it for (I hope you got a really good deal on this). But even then, you don't know the long term consequences of an incorrect engine swap.

Not tryin to scare you, but I'd go after the seller and see if there's anything you can do. Even consult a lawyer, since this is a used car sale, which is sold AS-IS in most cases.

 

wow i'd be pissed

 

You got ****ing hosed.

 

My '05 had serious OC issues........had engine rebuilt.....still have OC issues. Wish you all the best. Good Luck!

 

Thanks for taking the time to reply and for shedding perspective on the situation.

It's easy to get caught up in the moment and sometimes taking a step back to realizing that things could still be a lot worse is very helpful ... And perhaps it's a long term positive in disguise.

Just gotta move forward and enjoy the car.

ALSO... The springs are legit... Im pretty sure they're Tanabe DF210s.

 

How much did you pay for the car? And the lowering springs should of been the first indication to run away!