Don't know if thats recommended as you could bend the cover but damn it looks awesome. I am guessing you are talking about the pry spots about halfway down the block? I think it took me a good hour or two carefully cutting the gasket.

The chain vice with the extended chain and an old section of serpentine belt and a pipe that fit over the chain vice was what I used to hold the crank in place. I only needed a 36" breaker bar and most of my ~200lbs to get the crank bolt loose. Much easier than my accord that needed the 4 foot pipe as well. Not exactly recommended as you are stressing the rubber in the pulley but there are not many other options.





I would recommend getting some plastic razor blades to scrape the rtv they worked well for me without any need to chemical removers. Also if you use an RTV cutter like this they plastic razor blades will help keep the cover separated while you are taping it around the sealing surface. The caliper compressor looks much easier.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RTV-Gasket-C...SoO5h8I4_iLPyg

I would also recommend taking the bumper and rad support off it makes working much easier but does add time to the repair. A/C condenser can get set to the side as the fittings rotate.

 

Yeah I thought the same thing but the guys a Nissan master tech and assured me it would be fine as long as it's done gently. Had the cover off on mine three or four times now and it worked perfectly each time. They do it on every car that comes into his dealership and never had a problem so I went with his suggestion and it's worked out perfect for me each time.

Just carefully cut the gasket around the cover, insert tool between the two casting tabs and slowly pop it off. Works like a charm

 

Just curious if anyone has tried to live with this issue? I hate the oil pressure light but if it isn't going to nuke my engine I'm hesitant to shell out the $1200+ it is going to cost me to fix this gasket. Thoughts?

 

Well if you have verified its actually the pressure getting that low then yea you can kill the motor.

While you are lucky the pressure is going to build with engine RPM unlike a blocked passage or dead pump you still have oil pressure low enough to damage bearings. This is assuming the issue is the gaskets.

Your best course of action assuming you have verified the oil pressure is low, is to park the car and save the money to get it fixed.

 

Thanks for the reply. Car has all the symptoms of a blown gallery gasket, pressure seems fine for first 10 or 15 mins of driving then once it is up to full temp I start getting the oil pressure light at idle. No codes though and doesn't seem to be knocking. If I keep the AC on it seems to keep the idle high enough to not trigger the light. It pains me to shell out the cash for fixing such a dumb part, Nissan really sucks sometimes.

 

Sounds exactly like your gallery gaskets, its frustrating, but do it.

I had the same thing going on, hooked up my mechanical gauge just to confirm and it was super low. The job isn't terribly difficult but definitely time consuming. Good Luck.

Once I replaced mine pressure was above spec. - I ordered the set from ConceptZPerformance to prevent it from ever happening again.

 

It sucks it's such a cheap part that fails. Given the pressures that nissan allows it seems like they know the gaskets leak and are ok with some small holes.

After the fix my pressures are ~27psi at idle and ~60psi at 2K rpm with the oil temp a 200-210F.