Under valve cover - '02 Nissan 3.3

[AZjeff]

The '02 Xterra has always had a slight oil drip since I got it 10 years ago but it recently decided to identify as the Exxon Valdez and the drip turned into a leak. I suspected left side valve cover gasket which is a nightmare to access so took it to my indie. With the lift and a mirror the leak was confirmed. Now the fun part. The upper intake plenum has to come off and there are a number of hoses and vacuum lines that have to be removed blindly back against the firewall to get it off. This job is probably impossible without one of those creeper things that extends out over the engine so you can get both hands involved. And a lot of not polite questioning what the Nissan engineers were thinking when they designed the engine bay. The old gasket was as hard as plastic and had a crack on the lower side that must have finally fully separated. While the cover was off I snapped a pic, not bad for 170k. I've used 5W-30 syn for the 10 years I've owned it mostly Quaker State. It still has a low frequency drip after 2 weeks that I think is the RMS. Put in Pennzoil conventional HM 10W-40 to see if it slows down. A rear main seal R&R is not happening.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Looks extremely clean for 170K!

 

[sw99]

Looks great!

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Looks good

 

[SC Maintenance]

Looks great for the miles

And a lot of not polite questioning what the Nissan engineers were thinking when they designed the engine bay.

Given its 23 years old, it appears they knew exactly what they were doing, and they did it well!

 

[AZjeff]

Given its 23 years old, it appears they knew exactly what they were doing, and they did it well!

Internally yes but it just shouldn't be this crazy hard to replace a valve cover gasket. If we were planning to keep it for years more should have replaced the injectors and plugs while in there but it's going to get sold in the next few months. Just replaced the radiator, hoses and thermostat.

What was it like replacing the gaskets on your '08 @ 395k?

 

[Urshurak776]

Looks awesome! Can't ask for more than that.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Internally yes but it just shouldn't be this crazy hard to replace a valve cover gasket. If we were planning to keep it for years more should have replaced the injectors and plugs while in there but it's going to get sold in the next few months. Just replaced the radiator, hoses and thermostat.

What was it like replacing the gaskets on your '08 @ 395k?

A couple hours per side, maybe less. No gotchas.

The only thing on the backside was the PCV valve, which I have changed multiple times anyway so not hard. The upper intake has to come off to get the passenger side off. One of the VVT actuators had to come off. Nothing hard, biggest thing is to make sure you had all the right parts and gaskets with all the things coming out. Generally it was pretty easy. If I did it again I would order some new bolts. One just about went into the abyss. Luckily it was found.

 

[OilStainedNapkin]

Can’t really ask for much more than that! How long were your ocis? Do you know what was run before your ownership?

 

[AZjeff]

Can’t really ask for much more than that! How long were your ocis? Do you know what was run before your ownership?

Sorry I missed your question. My OCIs have been around 3k mainly because this 3.3 only holds 3.5 quarts with filter. Almost all have been QS 5w-30 FS. No idea what was before.

 

[Glenda W.]

Very nice!!