Hey there, I'm the original owner if this '04 G35 MT, no accidents, always reliable and fun to drive. At 90K miles, needs a new engine. Didn't know about the oil consumption problem, and now have rod knock tick-tick-ticking. How successful is installing a new engine? Is something I can expect a seasoned mechanic to do well, or would this just be the beginning of owning a glitchy car that always needs something? I'd love to hear from someone who went through the pros and cons of this expensive decision. Sadly, I don't think it's of any value in it's current condition (would anyone want it?), but if spending $4k brought this great car back to life, I'd be thrilled to have it back. In the meantime, I'm driving it as little as possible, as gently as possible, and checking the oil incessantly. (yah, too little, too late) A recent change is a new noise that sounds like a duck call. Pretty sure there aint a duck in there, so this is probably real bad news... Any input appreciated; your success with this, troubles, unforeseen expenses, how to handle the guilt of letting 'er go, etc. Thanks!!

 

You can definitely source a replacement used motor and pay a shop to do the swap for you for 4k.

Last used JDM engine I bought was from northwestjdmmotors.com out of California. Worked out great.

 

I'm surprised to hear of the engine going at 90k; that must have run really low on oil. Your car appears to be in pretty good shape, if you still like it that much then swap in a replacement engine as cleric suggested. Even in its current condition it's probably worth more than you think it is.

By the way, I'm the original owner of an '04 6MT coupe as well. 136k miles and still running well.

 

Thanks for the engine source referral. Valuable stuff as I don't want to be replacing my POS engine with another POS, so the source certainly matters.
I was quoted 20 hours labor at $110 per hour. Now, if this is the entire picture (~$1.8-2k engine + $~2.2k labor = fun car for several more years), then I'm all in. But I'll bet there's more to it.

• Does a "new engine" include all my belts, sparks, igniters, gaskets. (and who knows what else I can't think of)? I'd love to see a laundry list of all items needed for complete engine replacement, even including the common sense need for new oil and filter. Don't want to get nickel and dimed into $6K before I even address the need for new front and back fenders.
• Is a "specialist" for either Infiniti or engine replacements needed? The owner of the garage used to work on race cars, but his non-english speaking mechanic does all the work.

If it's reasonable to get my G looking and running good for no more than $5k, I'll take the chance.

 

Yep, ran it low several times. Changed oil every ~2,500mi, it didn't leak, thought that was enough. Wasn't aware of the oil consumption issue for many years, finally learned it wanted a quart every 500. So there could have been several miles it ran low on oil. The real kicker was taking it to one of those Jiffy Lube type places (to help be better at keeping levels up). It started sounding like a diesel, yet I didn't blame the [New!] oil. They'd put the requested full synthetic in using quart containers, then did the top off with pumped in oil from their hoses. Strange... Car just kept sounding worse. So when at 200 miles past a "top off", and 700 after a full oil/filter change I take to my mechanic who drains into a container so we can look at it. Three quarts low, and totally black. This was the beginning of the end.

 

Keep in mind that you're keeping all your accessory stuff and everything else on your car except for the long block. The shop might keep the new intake but you should specify that you want to keep ALL your existing sensors (cam, crank, throttle body, oil pressure, etc) because those are known working sensors. Basically you're just replacing the block+heads assembly with the new engines timing components and such but the rest of the stuff you keep from your existing motor.

The JDM motors are used motors from Japan, they have different vehicle emissions requirements than the USA and at 50k miles they start requiring a very strict (and more expensive each year) vehicle test to be done to register the vehicle for road use (glossing over everything but that's basically the idea).

At 50k-100k miles average (from what I've seen anyways) they salvage the entire vehicle, typically the engines are then sold overseas. We get a lot of them here in America.

I don't know what current prices are for the VQ but NWJDM has a VQ for sale right now on their site for $1200 and they charged me $200 for delivery to my shop, be sure to tell them you will need a truck with a liftgate on it, have it delivered to the shop that will be doing the swap so coordinate the delivery with them.

 

Don't know if you have made a decision on what to do yet or not but when I had to replace the VQ in my 05 coupe I was told to order an engine from https://carpartplanet.com/engines/infiniti/g35 per my mechanic. It was used (had about 80k miles on it) and it's been 4 years of smooth riding so far, just had to replace an alternator.

 

Thanks for your reply. Funny, I hadn't looked here for a while, and finally this week pulled the trigger on the installation. A friend of a friend of the family quoted $1,000 less for labor so I pulled the trigger (8 hours of labor vs 22 previously quoted). Said I wanted a JDM engine (~50K engine from Japan). Quote says nothing more than "New engine", and a total price $2,800. I asked for more clarity, saying how can I know you're not removing my POS engine and replacing it with another POS? Told "we check it out before installing". Mmm hmm. Waddya know, told clutch trashed (worked great for me), will be $1,600 parts and labor, and wants to install some "conversion" kit from O'Reilly. Asked to wait while I research parts, but he just installed my engine w/o waiting. Great, lets hope it'll be working as well as I recall. Showed up today unannounced, wanted to see my new engine before install... and he installed it anyways. So much for the clutch replace opportunity. ...And the new engine is a POS. Sounds just as damn broken as when I brought it it. What The Hell. There is no talking to these people. Keep getting hte "It's going to be okay, little lady" routine. So, I guess I will have an engine... someday... from somewhere... and they will not ever tell me where it came from. Fantastic.

 

Ask for receipts, don't pay a dime until you see invoices. You want the engine purchase ticket, as well as all other parts they supposedly replaced.

Most of the JDM importers don't list engine condition, just actual or estimated mileage. There are some that will give compression tests though.

If the engine doesn't sound like it's running right then it's probably not, take a video of the hood open with the engine at idle. Go around the engine bay from a few different angles with as little background noise as possible.

Post the video to youtube then put the link here in the message body and it will embed the video automatically.

 

Yah, I received the engine purchase ticket two days of asking. It was basically a receipt form you could buy at Staples, not a legit document any business would have printed for their business. Says nothing other than 96K miles, 90 day warranty, and price. Not even a description of type of vehicle or engine. I asked for more detail about the engine to be listed on the work order. Instead, dumb things were added, like coolant, belts, thermostat, oil, oil filter (no prices for any of this)... AND the Warranty on Parts 6 months/6,000 miles changed to 3 months/3,000! Yes, after he'd already "swapped" my engine. (dropped the car off 5:45p Monday, Ordered, Delivered, & Installed by Weds 9:30a? pretty fast...) When asked to see the serial numbers on the engine he claimed was my old one, he showed the inside of the intake where "MR2" is part of the diecast. Geeze. I later found two stamped numbers on the engine block and hope to find if the VIN number be paired with the engine block number so I can know if my engine had indeed been removed at all. That was the final straw for me. Said I wanted my final invoice, that I'll take be taking my car home. Was told I can't have it, that the mechanic wants the broken engine he installed removed because he paid for it. I said I'd wait, and wait I did. Pretty much paced the sidewalk for 1.25 hours. In the meantime, no one touches my car and the owner starts mopping where I can see him, as if to say "F-you lady, yer gonna wait forever". Now, I don't expect this guy to change his entire schedule of work because some girl changed her mind (it's a pretty busy shop with at least 4 mechanics), but to be mopping when there is an open bay tells me he had no intention of retrieving his engine. Neither of us argued in person or via text, it was all very civil. I texted the friend who referred me to this mechanic a picture of the mopping mechanic, asking him to remind his mechanic friend that as soon as he removes the broken engine he wants, I'll be out of his hair", plus, "Do I have to call the police?" About 45 minutes later... the Sheriff rolls up! I didn't call them. Mechanic tells them it'd take 3-4 days to remove it, and Sheriff informed him the car was my property, he has no right to keep it, they handed me the keys. Towed it home. (Thanks AAA!) What a mess. This is a bad deal for the deal for the mechanic. Just because he was sloppy about his communication doesn't mean he was for sure trying to rip me off. He definitely invested some time he didn't get paid for, may have purchased the engine that's now in my car (I'll be looking into this). But he demonstrated several times he's going to do with my car what he wants. The referring friends said things like "sell it right away", "don't tell the buyer you changed the engine", so I had no faith this was going to end well for me. I've invited the mechanic to retrieve the engine in exchange for my old one (if indeed he swapped), and I will not even attempt to turn the car on for a week. Taking pics of odometer, and will again in a week with a current newspaper in the shot to establish a week has passed. I wonder if he'll try to get it, or if I'll find out my original engine is still in there. What... A... Mess...

Cops helping me get my car back.

 

Oh wow.. Don't give up though. I have my 04 for over 15 years now, bought it when it was a year and a half old. Bought mine in July of 2006, 112k miles on it currently and love the car. I am thinking of getting a Mustang E electric but even if I do, the G35 will always have a place in the driveway. Its worth the headaches and if you look, these cars in good shape with low miles seem to be fetching over 10k. But a fun car it is and reliable. Keep on keeping on .. life is never easy but you have a beautiful car. It's worth fixing.

 

Thanks for the encouragement! My G has been the best running vehicle I've ever owned. I'm gonna let it collect dust for a few weeks while I build up strength to deal with this again, or grow tired of walking. ;-)
I can understand why a mechanic doesn't want me to bring my own engine, but is it reasonable they consider sources I suggest, or insist certain criteria be listed on the work order? (e.g. warranty, compression test results, miles?) Seems like a dance; if I ask for too much I'll be labeled a nuisance, not enough and I get the scenario above.
Do these engine block numbers pair back to the VIN with the help of the dealer? Curious if he really ever removed my engine, replacement sounded iden-tic-tic-tic-tical. He lied to me about the existence of these numbers.

 

I cant answer about the numbers. Call a local dealer and ask. But no, a good mechanic should have no problem with your requests. Before I started doing everything myself (brakes, oil) Valve covers was the biggest task at hand and it was not all that hard really. But before that I used to take the car to a local garage. I think it was in 2009 that I said I think I need brakes one day when he was doing an oil change and he said go find the brakes you like, good ceramic ones, the rotors you like and bring them to me. I will charge you $99 to put them on. He straight out said, you have a cool car, go find what you like and I am sure the price will be better than I can get them for and Ill put them on for you. It was a local Sunoco gas station. You just have to find a mechanic that is legit and easy to work with like anything else in life. A few years ago when I was redoing the house I had a guy come in who said I will get you a stainless steel fridge, microwave like a LG brand or something. I was like umm I will pick them out. He said no, I will get them for you. Out he went. Not a chance. I found a construction guy who did the construction work and he brought in electricians to do electrical, flooring guys to do flooring, a plumber to do plumbing while he stuck with the "construction" aka, knocking down walls and framing while the tradesman did their parts. He oversaw everything of course but I slept well knowing he was not a all in one handy man but a legit contractor who had tradesman he brought in to do their specialties. And I picked out everything I wanted and ordered it and had it delivered while he saw the install of everything. Its all about finding the right people... this mechanic is just not the right guy. Maybe he wants total control of the project but obviously it did not turn out well. There will be a mechanic out there that says ok.. have it delivered here and give me x amount of time to then get to install it. Simple. It just takes a little bit of work to find the legit good mechanic is all.

 

Good correlation between contractor and mechanic. Sounds an awful lot like dating. I suppose when I find the right one, I'll just ...know

 

Exactly! Hahaha.....