Last month I acquired the donor engine for my 2003 350Z Enthusiast. The '03's engine lost a rod and put a hole in the side of the block, but it was originally a Texas car and is rust-free (woo-hoo!).

The donor engine is from a 2006 G35 coupe that had an automatic and a claimed ~90k miles. It cranks over by hand without any crazy noises and makes compression at each cylinder (though I haven't measured the compression, yet).

As I moved it into my shop garage this weekend, I was looking over signs of oil seepage/leaking, and I wanted to get your thoughts on what the likely sources are. I am seeing the valve covers as a possible source, but what else? Also, the donor G35 was an automatic, whereas my project '03 Z is a manual. I think I've read that the pilot bearing needs to be changed? Anything else? This thread looks to have a lot of helpful info. Doesn't look like there will be much I need to do other than swap the '03's flywheel and clutch to the new engine during installation.










And, for grins, here is how I moved it into the shop garage.


I plan to prep this G35-donor engine and then swap it into the '03 project over Winter. In the end, I decided that my '05 Z is running so well that I don't want to abandon it by using its engine as the project donor. After I am satisfied that the '03 is running and behaving like I expect, I'll sell the '05 on to another future Z enthusiast so it can live on!

 

If that engine is a 2006 you may need to swap harness and ECU.. because of the the differences in years .. any yeah you gotta pull that bearing out and replace it with a pilot bearing so you can use a manual transmission. BTW if you don't have one go, go to your local auto parts store and rent a BLIND HOLE BEARING PULLER TOOL. that tool saves my ***.. without it I could not get that bearing out. My car is an 03 350z and i installed a 2004 auto 350z motor in my car. just plug and play.

 

Thanks for that tip! So, something like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BNMB42N ?

This thread has a good description (with pics) of the removal of that bushing to install the pilot bearing and the visual difference at the end of the crank between the auto and manual engines.

From other research here and the responses to an earlier post of mine (towards the beginning of this year, when I first picked up the '03), I should be able to leave the '03 harness in place, install the engine and connect everything to it as I am just replacing the engine (and not doing a manual-to-auto transmission swap). The main difference seemed to be in the type/wiring of the O2 sensors. As I'll be leaving the cats and downpipes in place on the '03, I think it will be OK.

 

AHHH .. yeah you should be fine !!

 

I took a couple of pictures this morning of the engine.

Here is the pilot bushing for the automatic transmission that I'll need to remove:


And, the intake must have been removed and painted blue at some point:


The engine harness is intact, so I'll be removing that and putting it up for sale at some point.

 

NICE!!!

 

I recently just finished swapping the engine in my 03 after 507,630 miles. It was still running but not well. (two cracked exhaust valves) Pretty painless and despite some videos and things I read, it was done “without' pulling the tranny or the nose off. Left AC and power steering intact. Just be smart and careful. Good luck!!

 

That's an awesome number of miles on that first engine! It's good to hear that it was pretty straightforward. I plan to leave the AC and power steering lines intact, too.