Wow! Looks like you have your work cut out for you. IIRC, you'll want to mark the position of the steering column prior to disconnecting it. Otherwise, you may end up with a crooked steering wheel.

 

definitely scribing the position of the knuckle to the column first.

i was under the car checking some things out today and decided that I'm going to order a new mid pipe. the one on the car is a 2 into 1, that had the flex sections welded on both sides for some reason.. they are leaking exhaust. then the distal end of the midpipe has a straight 2.5" section of aluminized exhaust piping welded into it. it makes me think that maybe this was a 350z exhaust that is now on the car, looking at the extension pieces you see on ebay exhaust ads for the g35.

plus i just found out that i will not be doing all this work at one time this week, too many other commitments and appointments. so i guess when i get the headers, I'll clean them up and i think i'm going to heatwrap them since they are not stainless.

might go ahead and install the mounts though since they are apparently pretty bad by the feel of the car under throttle.

also ordered a grounding kit today from Sean (SxExCx)

 

Nice! The exhaust is the one part of my car I'm not super happy with. I don't hate it, but I'm not thrilled. I just don't see the point in doing anything about it until I'm ready to add boost. A 3" option will hinder performance until boost, and a 2.5" will hinder it after. It's really no-win, so I might as well save my money.

 

Well, i got the mounts, headers (thx linedr89) and cats (thx Venom) yesterday before work. So I guess I'll shoot for maybe the vc gaskets, tb/maf clean, new cam pos sensors, and possibly the mounts later today. I need to buy gaskets for the headers and cats yet, so they will be next week. plus I want to thermo-tec/DEI wrap the mild steel headers first anyway. I'll try and take pix intra-operatively, although i use my phone for working music so it can be a pain..lol

looking forward to changing a few things..hopefully the major one is that dragging idle and stalling occasionally.

stay tuned!

 

so, Thursday was NOT a good car day. Turned a simple job into a 2 day event. Ran into things that I did not expect in a 12 yr old car.


I snapped a valve cover bolt off removing it, almost 2 of them but I wised up and tapped on the head of the bolt to shock the threads and sprayed that one first. Luckily the one that I snapped off was the passenger front outer corner, so it wasn't impossible to get to. I wasn't able to extract it though, so it is now drilled out and replaced with a nut and bolt. As it was, I spent over 2 hrs on something stupid.. no mounts.


Then there was the 2 hrs spent trying to get the freshly painted valve covers back on without the new gaskets falling out. I tell you, I have worked on A LOT of cars..of all makes.. this one made me feel like a noob. Maybe it is because I had been up since 3pm Wednesday, worked all night and stayed up Thursday to work on the car..finally getting the valve covers re-installed at dark. I did get the new cam position sensors installed though.. while I was in there.


I finally got back to it on Friday afternoon. I cleaned the TB, upper and lower plenums. I cleaned the gaskets and sprayed them all with copper gasket, just to be safe. I had been hearing a vacuum leak and the only thing in the area was the PCV valve, so I put a new one in. A little better, but I think the PCV hose needs replaced now. I think I'm going to fab a catch can, since the inside of the plenums was pretty oily.


The thing I'm upset about is, there has been no change to my stumbling idle and it even stalled on me again coming to a stop.


I have several exhaust leaks in the midpipe, they actually whistle on decel, my dad said (in all seriousness) that he thought it was the turbo spooling back down..lol Wondering if those leaks are so severe that the O2 sensor is tripping out and running it rich. I also really want to get a spare set of injectors to send out for cleaning. Smelled a lot of gas when I opened that plenum. I think the injectors are seeping/not atomizing properly. I have already run seafoam and techron thru the tank. The TB was actually pretty clean.

So I'll be buying a midpipe, not sure if I want the same style that is on there now (Ebay..manzo brand looks like it) or the more than twice as expensive Circuit werks resonated one. I want it quieter I know that much. The headers may be a hefty job by the look of just the top end work so far..


here are some pics






also..trying to figure something out. what am I missing in these pics.. that is the passenger headlight area, by the overflow tank. these plugs are zip tied up




as always, Stay Tuned!

 

I'm sorry to hear its going so bad. Did you clean the MAF tho? 99% of stalling on these cars is one of 3 things: dirty TB hinges, dirty MAF or cracks in the intake tube (unmetered air) between the MAF and TB. The ziptied thing looks like the plug for the headlight. You may have an aftermarket ballast/igniter setup.

 

Did you replace the valve cover or just the gasket? Oil pooling in the spark plug tubes is not because of the gasket but the spark plug tube seal on the valve cover. You can drill out the seals and replace or replace the whole cover.

https://g35driver.com/forums/g35-cou...rranty-up.html

 

I replaced the gaskets, fully degreased and cleaned up and painted the valvecovers. Then I RTV'd the openings around the tube seals before reinstalling them.

Still getting stalling if I am cruising and come to a stop light and just pop the car out of gear without blipping the throttle, the rpms will drop and it will stall about half the time. I can restart it without a problem, sometimes just by putting it back into gear and popping the clutch while still rolling.

I also have a stumble that I think is originating on the 1-3-5 bank. No SES light for any new conditions like misfire or anything. At this point I'm betting on the injectors being at fault.. sounds like injectors that are partially clogged.

I still have many other potential issues though, and parts on the way. Need to pick up a mid-pipe to replace this badly welded together leaking one. I should be getting the grounding kit from Sean any day now and once I install that maybe something will fix itself. I've seen bigger problems solved by a clear strong path to ground.

I'm buying the gaskets for the header and cats, and wrapping the headers this week. I need to know the header bolt/stud size. I think a few are missing on my car and I will just buy a full set of new ones.

I figured out the mystery of at least one of the plugs in the pic. Windshield washer fluid bottle. It's not there. Anyone have a spare to sell?

 

Well a week down the road now and I have discovered that the idle is better with the AC on. Quite possibly some type of vacuum leak then I'm guessing since the AC idle up is helping out.

Side effect of the grounding kit install is that the fuel gauge now goes all the way to FULL when I top off the tank. Almost thru a whole tank and it seems to be reading more reliably as well...although mileage does not seem much better. I do still have the SES light for bank 1 sensor 2 o2 sensor. I got the mid pipe the other day, but it is made for a z33 so I need to fab an extension.
The one on the car was welded on with a section of aluminized pipe. I think I have a resonator laying around that I can use, and hopefully kill this annoying hollow raspy buzz at a certain frequency. Oh and get rid of that flex joint exhaust leak too.

I picked up a set of injectors and had them shipped straight to a rebuilder as well, so I guess I'll grab a spacer kit and install that at at the same time. Hopefully my idle/surge/stall problem will be solved. Then it's time to find a tune to make it safe. Any suggestions?

oh, and tomorrow I'm building a catch can setup using an old GReddy can I have from another project.

 

Pic update







Top Speed headers and stock cats. .. Just in case. I have found that the longtubes on the car now are making contact with the steering column knuckle when turning. ..weird feeling.

 

Man those cats looking awfully familiar...hope you settle all these issues soon, it's been a crazy read.

 

Yea they do don't they. .

I even got the old o2 sensors out. Don't underestimate the value of an oxygen sensor socket and an impact gun.

Headed out now to fix the crappy exhaust midpipe on the car. .. somehow I have a 2.25" flex joint mostly welded into the pipe on the drivers side. ..lol.. oh that's explaining alot. ... geez

 

Great work so far -- I can see you're rather meticulous so I am very interested in the details of your RTV procedure on the tube seals of your valve covers. Can you unpack the specifics of how you cleaned, prepped, and applied it? I hope to get this right the first time. Thank you.

 

I'll check the spark plugs tomorrow when I install my rebuilt fuel injectors. I'm only about 1000 miles in since I did the valve covers. Let it ride a bit more to make sure it was a success first. If it works, I'll lay it out.

 

Meticulous & conscientious -- superb. If it doesn't work, I'll probably be buying valve covers with you :/ Apparently, the [the no longer ridiculously cheap, but still relatively inexpensive] 2004 Maxima valve cover is a direct fit for the passenger side ...