Yeah, it's a lot of work and a high risk job for a shop to fix. If it doesn't go well it means a replacement head (let's not think about the price of that). You probably won't find too many shops willing to do it cheaper since so much of the car has to be disassembled to do it right.

 

Yup so I'll be doing it myself, worse case scenario? I'll have to drop an engine in lol. I've found a few in the area for about 700 so let's see how this goes. Planning on cleaning up bolt holes and packing them with marine weld and either putting a stud in and using a bolt to secure the thermostat or tapping a new hole in the marine weld.

 

Decided to start tackling this over the next few days, only thing left now is to remove the radiator support with the fans attached so I can have clear access to the thermostat holes that were damaged so I can clean them of the rtv. Was damn near impossible to get to it with the lack of space from above

 

You're getting there! I love that Infiniti made the core support removable without having to drill out spot welds (being composite it really couldn't be any other way). I had to do a similar water jacket repair on a G20 and I had to cut down drill bits to get a drill in there because the core support was welded in the G20's.

You'll be glad that you fixed it the right way when it's done.

 

Thanks man, life's been hectic so I'm trying to do work when I can. I did manage to snap a rusty bolt head in the condenser so I'm going to hit the junkyard in the am and grab another one for 12 bucks. I would try to drill it out but this metal is seems to be very soft (aluminum?)

 

if the v35 thermostat works bc of the mod the previous owner made why not just use another v35 thermostat?

 

The bolt is steel, the condenser and hole / threads is all aluminum. It probably seized being different materials and hasn't been broken loose in a decade or so. Hopefully it snapped off high enough where you can get a grip on it and maybe back it out. If not you may have to center punch it, drill it and tap it.

 

That job was poorly done. tons of rtv caked on, I would have to drill into another thermostat and make a new hole (the thermostat part number I Googled did not have a hole in it) and slather more rtv on and pray it holds

 

Yup im thinking that's my only option OR hit the yard and grab another Condenser for 12.00 dollars

 

Striked out at the junkyard, every g was stripped to the frame lol. But I got the the radiator support off finally. Been so busy conducting interviews for my department so time has be slim. Really missing my g though so I need to get this done.

 

Soooo yeah I'm at a standstill. Didn't know it was this bad.

 

I would start thinking about replacing the head. I saw one on ebay for $165 shipped. There isn't much sealing surface left where they drilled the holes and having the heads welded up will require the head to come off anyway. The welding and machining will probably cost as much or more than a replacement head. You could also do other maintenance stuff while in there IE: water pump, galley gasket, valve covers...

Sorry to see that it's such a mess... I'm sure you would like to find out who did this and have a nice chat with him

 

Yup same thing my dad said, unfortunately I have no knowledge in doing internal engine work. So it's either I learn or replace the ENTIRE engine. Is replacing the head as complex as I think it is?

 

I'd rather replace the head than replace the engine, it's relatively in depth. Personally I would go in and change the oil gallery gasket while in there.

 

I would change the head if it was my car. The factory service manual will be your friend on a job like this. The exhaust Y pipe has to come off, the driver catalytics, driver exhaust manifold, balancer, timing cover, timing chains, driver valve cover, upper and lower intake, rear head coolant tube, and then the head can be removed. The service manual will have the timing chain alignment procedure which will be the scariest part of it all. It will also have the head bolt torque procedure. You will need a new head gasket, some say head bolts but I have reused head bolts so many times with zero problems that I wouldn't buy new unless you just want them. It would be best to have help from someone that has changed a head on a OHV type engine if it's your first time. Or plan on taking a lot of time reading up and doing it slow.

I know engines are only $700 - $1200 with low miles but it's probably more work and time to swap it out. With the head, gaskets, rtv, ect ect you'll probably be in it $300 or less.