ok i have removed my oil sump cover and found metal sooo i want to know what steps do i have to take to remove the pan? do i have to pull motor or just jack it up or drop k member out to remove pan i want to inspect all bearings and crank before i pull motor

 

You can use an engine support bar, there are two big bolts in the middle of the timing chain cover you can take off and bolt down eyelets for the support bar. After that it's removal of the crossmember and then you can get the upper oil pan off.

Engine support bar = \ = cherry picker, Google it if you're not sure what I'm talking about.

 

Since cherry pickers (aka, engine hoists for actual humans) are more common and easier to get, you can just support the engine with the cherry picker and drop the k-member. You'll lose a little breathing room since the legs of the hoist stick out under the car, but if you're just trying to pull the oil pan, it should work.

Note, however, that getting the oil pan off is NOT going to let you replace a bearing easily.

Your best bet, if you're confident that you have a failed or failing bearing, is to go ahead and pull the motor. It's a PITA. But, not complicated. The service manual (available online via a quick Google search) has very detailed instructions.

Buy a bolt organizer - $10 at Big Box store - and label everything.

 

The problem is you should NEVER put yourself under a load being supported by a hydraulic means such as a cherry picker, an engine support bar is entirely mechanical and thus safer to work under.

 

 

Why? Have you done this or just making a comment?

I have done this and while it is work intensive, sometimes you have more time than cash. I had several rod bearings on that engine that had some damage but they did their job. The crankshaft surfaces were in great shape and a new set of standards took care of the issue.

I agree that you never rely on a hydraulic support, make sure you have a solid mechanical means of supporting the engine in place before working beneath it. My uncle died 3 days after a car dropped on him - he owned a transmission shop in Texas.

 

Just make sure to put the cylinder you are working on at TDC so you don't contact the piston and valves when you're manually pushing the.piston back up after you take off the bearing cap.

 

I guess we work on engines differently then. I want the rod/piston assembly to be at the bottom of it's stroke so that I can take the bearing cap off, push the rod up slightly and remove the bearing shells. I also need enough room to clean the rod bearing area before putting the new bearing shell in place. I have performed this procedure on one heck of a lot of engines and never have I put a cylinder at TDC to check or change out a rod bearing.

 

If there's a big nasty ridge then yeah you'll have to rotate the crank a tad, I've never really had an issue with it though.

 

What the hell are you talking about? A big nasty ridge?

Let's put it this way, if you have the piston at top dead center, then there is no room to push the piston/rod assembly any higher in the cylinder. And that makes it very difficult to get the top bearing shell out of the rod. It's not impossible but a lot more difficult plus you are going to have the crank throw up in the engine case and in turn cutting down the amount of room you have to work in.

From quite a number of your responses, I don't think you have ever actually done any internal engine work.

 

I was speaking generally, honestly on the VQ I wouldn't even recommend an individual bearing replacement unless you were absolutely financially strapped and were fully aware this is nothing more than a band-aid until you can either tear the motor down. If you're 100k miles into a motor and start to have a bearing problem then that motor is probably going through a quick death and that one bearing is just the beginning of MANY internal problems. The labor hours even getting to the point where you can remove the caps (front suspension all the way to the front member, engine to the upper oil pan) and even then the main bearing beam and tight clearances makes it nearly impossible (might even be impossible, I've never been able to accurately mic a rod from below) to even get a micrometer on the rod for an accurate outer diameter. You can just replace with a like bearing if the color stamp is still on it or mic the remains of the bearing and hope you get it right. Personally I think it's a terrible idea and the labor hours would be better spent on just replacing the motor with a low mileage reasonably priced donor motor.

My reason behind starting near TDC is I refuse to let a piston be rotatedin the bore once an engine has completed initial break-in, everything is mated together to go up or down, rotational movement of the piston should be avoided at all cost so personally I never push a piston back into a bore by hand I just let the crank do the work, uncap, rotate a degree as needed to free the bearing, they fall out, done. This is how I was trained and it's worked well for decades. There's plenty of methods to follow, this is mine.

Besides after re-reading the OP he said he wants to inspect ALL bearings and you're definitely not going to do that with the motor still in the car, at least I hope not.

OP can pick or chose whatever methods he wants to perform the repair.

I'm not here to brag experience or to measure dicks, that's not what I use the forum for (For disclosure I've only assembled 3 VQ's, Two were VQ35DE for a 350Z and Pathfinder, one VQ40DE for an Xterra). We were obviously trained differently when it comes to assembly and internal work but I've never had one of my assembled motors fail to meet expectations, I also try to avoid internal work at all costs (on motors with higher miles) because when people come back in 6 months with ANOTHER bearing failure after spending a grand on the last one they're not going to be happy, and they're not going to understand how when one major component starts to go it's usually the beginning of a cascade of failures.

I haven't even heard from b73 since he made this thread so I probably won't comment back since it's outlived it's usefulness.

 

Once again, some of the comments in your reply are indicative of a book-mechanic. We see these types of mechanics (and I am using the term loosely here) all the time. Guys walk into the shop and immediately start telling me that you shouldn't do this or that because they read that somewhere or someone told them so. Most of their comments are never based on real world experience, mine are and always will be. Let's take your rotating the piston comment as an example. And not that I would need to rotate the piston anyway to change out a rod bearing but doing so does absolutely nothing. Please remember that the piston rings are riding on the cylinder wall, that they rotate constantly and that rotating the piston/rings simply does zero damage to anything. Your previous comment was about a "nasty ridge" and I see in your reply that you conveniently avoided answering the question about that remark. And the reason is, is that you cannot validate what you said.

I stand by what I said before - and yes I am calling you out on this forum, I seriously doubt that based on your supposed training that you have the experience that you say you have gained. If you do, then somebody seriously screwed you over. The point being, quit telling people a bunch of B.S. - if you can honestly answer a question then great, it's appreciated by all but when you continue to comment with bad information, you hurt the forum and the people that read it to gain knowledge and information about their vehicle issues.