Where they new aftermarket covers or Nissan/Infiniti originals? If they were OEM new I wouldn't think you would have that problem. If they are aftermarket I could believe that happening... The procedure I wrote up is for using your old used covers. I have never bought new ones so hopefully others that have will chime in.

And yes the procedure I listed is a normal gasket change with the exception of cleaning and roughing up the two spark plug tube surfaces so the RTV will stick and completely seal them off. I'm a little worried about all of your tube seals leaking because normally 140,000 mile covers normally only have a couple that leak by that mileage. I wonder if the covers you bought have the wrong size seal??

 

New aftermarket. I pulled the OEM ones off the block and they are identical to the new ones, same size seal and all. I didnt clean off the spark plug tubes or the location where the seals sit on the head, so perhaps this could have contributed to oil slipping past the seal and falling down into the tube.

 

Unless the tubes had a lot of crud on them they should have sealed with new covers / seals. That sucks man, doing the job twice and you bought all new stuff to do it right.

 

Yeah so far it's been the only "waste" of money in that I'll be doing it again. I guess I should include the spark plugs too, they're only a few months old but literally are bathing in oil. But I'm probably going to try your method because I don't feel like drilling out the seals and installing the fel-pro seals and im sure as hell not going to buy new VC's again.

 

One more question, is there some kind of...lower gaskets/seals that I should look at changing while I've got this all apart?

 

Sorry, I should clarify. Anything else I should check in there that might be contributing to oil in plug Wells, or that may have been overlooked on an engine with almost 200k? I've heard of a timing tensioner for instance..

 

Timing tensioner definitely needs to be replaced, there's nothing else really INSIDE the valve cover to do while you have the VC's off and that's the ONLY reason you will ever get oil in the well tubes.

Powertrain problems, possibly worn engine mounts, definitely a worn rear differential bushing, definitely worn suspension bushings, all fluids should be inspected and replaced as needed.

I like to use a turkey baster to siphon out the power steering reservoir then refill, check fluid clarity every oil change and replace as needed.

Rear diff fluid / 6MT fluid probably need changed. 5AT fluid is a drain/fill and probably needs to be done A FEW TIMES because people neglect their auto trannies.

Don't worry about brake fluid until you change pads/rotors next time.

Remove and inspect your drive belts for any cracking.

Drain/fill the radiator and I strongly recommend renting a pressure tester to verify the system is all 100%, this can catch problems early and overheating can potentially cost you a new motor. There's an air purge screw that needs to be opened when filling the radiator, don't just dump in all the fluid at once, it should take a full 60 seconds to add 1 gallon to prevent trapping air in the system.

On the topic of that purge screw, it's a component that is NOTORIOUS for failing, the plastic "coupling" in that heater core line likes to split in half, while the system is empty I strongly recommend upgrading to the metal one sold by Z1 Motorsports, it's cheap and worth the $25.
https://www.z1motorsports.com/coolin...e-p-11190.html

Once those maintenance items are finished you should dive into the suspension and replace pretty much EVERY bushing, it's a multi-link sport suspension with a lot of moving parts and it's cheaper (if you're doing it yourself) to just buy new FUCA, compression rods, ball joints, tie rod ends, etc and do everything in the front all at once rather than wait for something to be worn out to the point it causes severe alignment issues and costs you a new set of front tires.

After that's done get an alignment correction unless you have obvious wear/feathering on the tires right now, if so then I recommend pushing the front suspension overhaul to the front of the list. It's your option whether to do the wheel bearings while you have everything apart or just wait till later when one goes out. Always replace them in pairs on an older vehicle because the opposite side is probably close to failure anyways.

That's all the major maintenance points, clean the MAF, pour some Sea Foam in the gas tank every 3k miles, always reset your trip odometer when you fuel up because the dash gauge or sending unit on the pump has a high failure rate and it will say you have 1/2 tank even though it's empty. Using the odometer you can manually keep an eye on miles and if you have gone 300 miles and it still shows 1/2 tank then something is wrong. Sucks running out of fuel

Change your spark plugs every 60-70k or so, use the stock NGK ones. If you get all that done and want to do more preventative maintenance then replace the cam and crank sensors, only use Genuine Nissan OEM or Hitachi, it's not a matter of IF they will fail it's definitely a matter of WHEN.

 

Daaamn cleric. Thank you. Immensely helpful and very much appreciated.

 

There's also a bunch of odd interior things you can do to prevent wear from getting worse, the seams on the leather dash/door panel like to peel back and it's incredibly annoying. You can "prevent" this from happening by using a cheap roll of trim from Amazon / eBay and going over all the seams. I strongly recommend to pick a neutral color like CHROME which will not be too catchy and obnoxious. I initially thought it would be cool to go over everything in dark ORANGE since it would match the dash lighting (and the very dim footwell lighting I added) and holy **** was I wrong. Lasted 3 days before I yanked it all off and just went with the silver option lol.

Here's the stuff I used, I don't expect to need any maintenance because of peeling pleather now. Super easy to install, just push it into place everywhere there's a gap where the vinyl/pleather might start to peel back.

 

On the topic of the timing chain tensioner, is this a single part or multiple pieces? Having trouble 5racking down the replacement parts.

 

There are 3 timing chains, each with their own tensioner but the only one you need to worry about is the one for the primary chain, it's accessible through an access window on the right side (passenger side USDM) of the timing chain cover.

 

Got my lower plenum off and found a crap ton of fiberglass insulation in the space under the manifold..

 

That's really wierd, the only time I've ever seen a blanketed lower intake was on methanol drag cars, I strongly doubt that's why it was on your G

 

Hopefully not from mice! Check for chew marks on all of the wires.

 

I assume rodents, dont know how else it could get there. Worried about that one little connector in there. No gasket on my intake so I ordered a new set. Hose to my pcv valve has a 2 inch crack at one end. Any ideas where I could go for one locally? Tired of waiting for online parts..