Hey guys i'm looking for a bit of advice to those who have rebuilt their vq motors. I got a 03 sedan with 175k. It has a nice tick and is steadily getting worse these last few months. I thought about swapping the motor out with another low mileage motor. The more I've been thinking maybe a rebuild is more my route.

Once i pay this b**** off i plan on going SC. I got a ok with my bank for 4k to use for my car. I've been looking at z1 Motorsports basic rebuild kits. I don't know a ton about motors, i'm not sure if a rebuild kit would even fix my tick or if it carry's all the parts for a rebuild with the high millage im at.

I know i'm not giving a ton of info here but any information, advice or ideas that i should look at would be greatly appreciated. I called z1 told them where i'm at and what i kinda wanna do in the future. They bluntly said get our level 2 kit and pretty much hung up.

 

Z1 is going to recommend a crate engine because that's their line of work. For a rebuild, I would try to find someone in your region that specializes in Nissan/Infiniti. Since there's a much larger tuner crowd in the 350Z world, and our cars share the same basic under-pinnings, it may make more sense to start your research there and see if there are any local shops with experience rebuilding VQ35.

Another option is to buy a low mileage used motor out of a totaled car. There is another recent thread somewhere on here where another member did this and it ran right around 4k.

 

Lookup import parts pro. Their stage 1 is supposed to handle 600hp and is $4400 for longblock.

 

Ask yourself this....

You are about to spend $4K to rebuild the engine plus an additional $3-5K for the supercharger, supporting parts and install on a car with almost 200,000 miles. Resale value, even with supercharger, will basically be nothing.

Is this worth it to you?

 

Very good point. Especially since we are talking about a 4K loan from the bank......

 

To be honest, I would first take it to the dealer and have the tick checked out. There are quite a few things that could make this noise, many of which are not related to the engine needing to be replaced.

The engines in these cars can go forever. What did you pay for it ?

 

Well guys i found out what my tick is. Its the timing chain tensioner/ guide. So after looking at pricing its about 500 for parts then 800 for labor. That would only be fixing my tick and not even rebuilding anything else on my motor. I'm thinking a newer motor would be best now. I found this motor not sure about it yet $ 1795 0 miles on it. what do you think? https://123engine.com/infiniti1.php

 

There is a good thread on the tensioner here.

I thought $500 seemed expensive for the part, but the post above confirms.

The price looks good for the rebuild. Personally, I would lean towards that direction.

 

http://bit.ly/S8RayZ

 

0 miles since rebuid? Because if that's a brand spanking new, never been fired engine, that's dirt cheap. Most likely...it's a rebuilt engine.


BTW...your link is to "123 engine complaints"

 

If you're going as far as an engine swap, why not go for a v8.

 

its not even that....

DUDE your money is screwed up. "ONCE i pay it off i'm going to S/C"

So you still OWE money on a 03 with 175k? You got the right idea, first thing is to pay it off. Just drop a used motor in it and call it a day. Or a simple S/C if you really want it that bad.

 

Well because a v8 swap cost around 10-15k. Different tranny, wiring, ecu, dash, where do i start. A VQ motor swap i can get a motor with 30k for under 2k then installed for 600. I looked into a v8 a while back, unless your making some bank its not happening.

 

Yes i owe like 3k on it. But i found my tick, its my timing chain, about a 1500 dollar fix. Not worth it on a motor with 170k so might as well rebuild it all. Problem now is i live in MO. Only have 1 shop around that has ever rebuilt a vq motor. Plus everywhere i call is quoting me over 4k. So i'm down to my final option just swap my motor out with another. spend about $2500 on that. leaves me with 1k left enough to rebuild my tranny and add a trans-go! I just hope can find a motor with about 30k on it

 

so after all said and done you will owe $7k on the car or w/e type of loan that $4k is in.

you seem pretty stuck on going forward with this but i'm just seeing the $$, why rebuild the trans?

If your going as far as getting a MOTOR put in, find one already mated with the engine. It will not be $1000 more. My personally i would just scrap all the ideas. Drive the car as in, worst case would be the broken guide/ tension gives and you kill the motor. Then you go back to original idea of swapping motors. BEST case if doesn't give out and take it to 250k with everything as in, pay off the car by then and be debt free. Yea you dont get a S/C or anything but you wont owe anything. And your better off getting into the next car.

People who do motor swaps are generally people who can do it themselves saving money. There are better ways to spend that money, but in the end its what YOU want to do. If it makes you happy then do it. I'm just focused on becoming debt free and staying that way.