This morning I went to change the serpentine belt on my 1998 4thgen Nissan Maxima. While it’s a simple task, it turned out the “Adjustment Bolt” was also seized and slightly bent. It definitely needed to be replaced. The good news is that you can buy just the “Adjustment Bolt” and/or “Adjustment Nut” by itself. You don’t need to buy the entire assembly. If those are your only two broken parts like me case, then all you need to order (or get at a junkyard) are these two part numbers:
Miles are unknown on the motor. I’m gonna say….very low miles. It blew oil vapor out of the crank case for a couple thousand miles, so it’s safe to say she was basically brand new.
I cleaned and window welded the old mounts. I forgot to take pics, but you know how cracked up and falling apart they are at this age. I used the 3M tube and shot it into any cracks then filled up the vacant spots and added a layer on the outsides. Obviously, burning/cutting them up and filling is the best way. I’m cheap and lazy.
I opted for a 4″ grinder with a cutting wheel to do the PS modding (Darren used hack saw, iirc). You can lop off most the bottom ear, then cut slits in both of them and break out the pieces with a chisel. Test fit the pump and you’ll see where it hits the block. Grind off a little more there and you can really make it easy to get the belt off. Grinder makes a lot of mess. Make sure the motor is sealed up good enough (I washed it with a hose afterwards).
UD PS pulley is in the mail. So, ignore this stupid, ugly thing.
DOUBLE CORRECTION Pulleys looked aligned originally, but it’s clearly misaligned. I thought alternator was off compared to the AC/crank pulley, but i was wrong. The compressor is like 4mm off from the crank/alternator on this particular engine (no one elses is like this apparently). It makes the belt squeal when it heats up b/c it’s rubbing on the alty pulley AND rubbing sideways accross tensioner pulley (tried to align the atly between crank and compressor, didn’t work). I resorted to using tiny washers (in retrospect, making a half moon would work) to shim the tensioner pulley to the appropriate angle towards the alty pulley and aligned it with the compressor. I have no idea why my engine is different, but this worked. The belt runs “straight” across the tensioner pulley. I believe Daren just had to shim the alty with a couple washers.
I didn’t have the luxury of the new bracket, so I took a junk piece of metal and made my own connecting to the old bracket. Here’s what it looks like before molesting scrap metal.
Being the lazy *** that I am, I decided to leave the new coolant pipes up top (connector mounts/brackets be damned). The hose already on them works great to bypass the TB coolant asshatery from Nissan.
For the lower pipes, I kept the originals – Por 15’d them and kept the oil cooler thingy, which works out great for the MASSIVE pl-14619 filter. I recommend replacing the oil cooler hoses. Also, replace the oil cooler O ring (it will leak later).
I went kinda crazy on the tensioner. I stacked four 3/4″ lock washers and trimmed the top of the tensioner nut off to gain more clearance. I did it before fully testing LOL. I don’t think it was necessary…. It looks like I needed more washers than Darren, since I have an UDP. I also ground down the back of the pulley bolt some b/c I couldn’t freely slide it up and down.
The new nylon hose is smaller, so I used two different adapters and screwed them together (with permanent thread lock lol). I couldn’t find a barbed coupler with different diameters at the ****ty hardware stores.
I am using a 7th gen IM and TB on this engine. I want to retain as much power as possible. No EVT will be the only difference. Three pullies being lightweight/UDP should easily offset the loss of EVT.
Is it me or are arp bolts kinda sexy?
retarding cam wheels didn’t work, lovely edit: Fixed after Darren sent me a pic.
I underestimated how much larger this pulley would be since it’s underdriving LOL. This thing must be 6″ .The sentras stock pulley causes cavitation at high rpm, so it’s even more oversized. It’s not that big of a deal, I just cut off that little arm on the bracket.
What I did forget is that they don’t use a two belt system, so it has two more ribs. 32″ belt works perfect and alignment is with the belt in the middle.
So, yeah, SR20 pulley is definitely a better idea for the non-rigging crew
You’ll notice a piece missing haha. The pulley is 5.5″.
USE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO REPLACE POWER STEERING HOSE AS IT’S JUST ONE LESS THING TO REPLACE LATER
Mmmm, new friction plate
PCV? Nonsense crap!
Extended IVT wires
quick and dirty recap (can I do anything right lol) of what is not in my thread:
These are needed from old engine:
Water pump access cover
Crank Pulley
Flywheel
Motor mount brackets Front, Rear, and passenger
Axle mount
Upper and lower oil pan
oil pickup tube
Oil dipstick
Oil cooler and related pieces (not thermostat), you can fit the monster purolator pure one with it pl-14619
Swap pass motor mount – You need longer bolts for the two top ones (I don’t remember, just measure and figure it out, simple ****). I don’t recall what the bottom one needs to be.
Need to buy the cam signal inverter from Darren (or build it, but I’m lazy) and power it by tapping into the 5V at the power steering pressure sensor. http://www.nisformance.com/Default.asp
Need the TB adapter harness or pigtail.
Install the VIAS. I think Darren used one of the solenoids off the new engine, idk. I just used the original VIAS system (split to both valves of course) to make sure it worked. Or you could just plug in the solenoid and rig the valves open.
Need real tuning solution to extract all those ponies and fix AFR.
Need 4″ intake for moar powah (which will need bigger injectors or more pressure)!
Before loom
After loom
I couldn’t find it actually posted anywhere where it loaded, but google had it
Alright folks, here ya go! Nice NiCopp clutch line!
Late pic for funsies. I forgot the balancer and chains LOL. I strapped the motor in and out and pulled the tranny up with them
So I am currently in the middle of swapping an HR motor from a 7th gen Maxima into my 5th gen and came across the throttle body harness swap and I couldn’t find anything about it via searching besides buying an adapter online so I thought I’d share how I soldered mine DIY.
Below are some pictures I attached to show some diagrams, also what each wire from each harness, its color, the year of the car and the wire’s function. (sorry about the weird layout, was using software I wasn’t familiar with)
The first picture on the top left has information for both cars, 2002 on the left, 2010 on the right. the rest are the diagrams to be sure they are connected correctly.
We spotted this on Craigslist for sale in North Jersey for 12K OBO. It’s a fully customized 2003 Nissan Maxima with only 40K Miles. It was worthy of a my4dsc.com feature.
There are a few things to keep in mind before beginning your swap:
It’s easier to do this swap if you have a 3.5 DE motor laying around, especially if you just pulled it out of the car. You will need to take some things off of the old motor to use on the HR. Without this, there are a few parts that you will have to buy in order to complete the swap.
There are some specific tools needed: An ‘E8’ torx socket, 5/16 Allen key, Loctite
Step 1: Stripping the motor
Depending on where your motor came from, there may be a lot of ‘extra’ pieces still attached to it. Some of these will just get in your way while you prep your motor, some can’t be used for this swap.
Remove all accessories, which includes the alternator, power steering pump.
Remove any harnesses and brackets that are still connected to the motor.
Remove upper intake manifold (removing lower manifold is not necessary, but sometimes desirable. If removed, a new gasket should be used to reinstall).
Remove oil temperature sender:
Remove idler pulley/tensioner ‘spacer’ (seen below in red):
** The injector rail may also be removed, but that isn’t necessary.
Step 2: Cover any openings
There will be A LOT of metal shavings and dust around the motor, depending on how you do the cutting and grinding that comes later. These absolutely CANNOT be allowed to get into the motor.
intake ports in the top:
exhaust ports on the sides of motor:
fuel injector ports if fuel rail was removed:
the open ends of any coolant hoses/pipes:
Step 3: Modifying the motor
Some parts of the motor will need to be cut somehow (tools, methods and results will vary) to allow for proper fitment and function once it’s reinstalled.
** Because of some concerns about the integrity of the stock oil gallery gasket, we at NISformance strongly recommend replacing it in this step. **
when changing the oil gallery gasket, this is a good time to grind away the center portion of the power steering bracket before reassembling the front of the motor.
grind/cut away the center portion of the power steering bracket. This requires some aggressive cutting, but also needs some attention to detail (cutting too DEEPLY can weaken the integrity of the timing cover. Cutting too WIDE can weaken the remaining brackets that will be needed to hold the alternator):
grind/cut away a portion of the metal where the idler pulley/tensioner spacer was:
remove exhaust manifold studs at the rearmost exhaust port (close to the trans). This requires an ‘E8‘ torx socket:
clean out the threads in the opposite holes using a ‘10×1.25‘ tap.
replace the removed studs into the newly cleaned holes:
remove lower oil pan.
remove upper oil pan.
use the oil pan from a 3.5 DE motor…but remove the windage tray. Add your o-rings and seals, and install upper oil pan onto the HR motor.
remove the HR water pump access cover, and replace it with the one from the DE motor
Step 4: Adjusting the cam signal wheel
This is a VERY important step and it must be done very carefully for your car to run properly. You have to be accurate.
Apart from the wiring, adjusting the signal wheel is the most detailed work you need to do on the swap. It is important to be very accurate when cutting or grinding, and it’s also extremely important to assemble everything correctly at the end of this step. Pay close attention to the pictures and make sure that your work looks EXACTLY the same!
*You will need to modify your 5/16 Allen key by cutting the arm down so that it is approximately 3/8″ long. This is your ‘special tool’ that you will need to use in this part of the swap.
open one of the valve covers.
using the ‘special tool’, loosen the signal wheel lock nut and remove the signal wheel from the intake cam:
completely remove the inner nubs from the signal wheel without damaging the rest of the inner surface:
at the crank, turn the motor until two notches are visible at the top of the cam:
add Loctite to the flat inner surface of the signal wheel:
reconnect the modified signal wheel to the intake cam…be sure to place it at the proper angle (as shown below) and resecure the lock nut:
close and bolt down the valve cover
open the other valve cover, and repeat these same steps.
Step 5: Cam Sensor Wiring
Now that all of the heavy wrenching is out of the way, we get to the really important part of your swap. The wiring harness in your car needs to be connected to the newer motor, and it’s not just a ‘plug-and-play’ situation. These diagrams show you the changes that need to be made to make your DE harness control your HR motor:
** THESE WIRE CONNECTIONS ARE CRITICAL. MAKE SURE THAT THEY ARE CONNECTED CORRECTLY (ACCORDING TO THE INSTRUCTIONS), AND SECURELY. TWISTING THEM TOGETHER IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH. **
The stock cam signal wire will be intercepted (cut) by the cam signal inverter supplied with the swap kit. There are six wires on the cam signal inverter…here’s how you connect them:
the RED wire goes to a 5v source from your car’s harness (to supply power to the sensor)
the BLACK wire is ground
For Cam #1…cut the existing wire:
the YELLOW inverter wire connects to the existing wire on the CAM side
the ORANGE inverter wire connects to the existing wire on the ECU side
For Cam #2…cut the existing wire:
the BLUE inverter wire connects to the existing wire on the CAM side
the GREEN inverter wire connects to the existing wire on the ECU side
Member Credit: Shaquille Keon Jenkins & Philly Rillin
The 350z lightweight alternator pulley fits VQ35 Maxima’s. Same exact size. Its a little thick in the middle so the nut doesnt thread all the way in but with red loctite and an impact gun does the trick. Best part of all, it’s lighter!
