2003 350Z Touring, just bought and as you can see the motor is hitting the top corners, I know there has been a motor replacement so not sure what is in, is there a way to tell and what else might cause this.

 

Take plastic off=win

 

A local... Yeah just take that plastic off. Looks better without it anyway imo. What's in it.. A replacement VQ35DE. What else might cause that.. Well, to do the motor swap they had to remove the entire front clip and my guess would be that they just bolted on the hood lock at its lowest position.. Easy fix. Also, that rod that holds the hood up, because of the placement of it on the left edge of the hood while it's holding it up, will start to torque the hood clockwise a bit over time.. You get what I'm saying?

 

Ok, but hood, fenders and front bumper all line up so hood not down to far, Ill take a closer look.
Strut bar is also tight against the plenum. It look to me like the motor is a bit high.

 

Check your engine mounts as well. You may be getting some torque roll that's pushing the engine into the hood every time you hit the gas.

 

my guess is the new motor has a plenum spacer, hence why it is hitting strut bar

 

No spacer that I can tell, I was going to add one, but can't till I solve this issue

This is how tight the bar is to the motor

 

Take a picture of the hood latch. a straight frontal view. Take a pic of the hood when it's down too..

 

You can see where bar is wearing on plenum.




Front view, I have bumper off as I am replacing headlights

 

damn, not the full frontal i was hoping for

 

I am not sure what your looking for, with what I understand with the car, if the front clip was low that still wouldn't cause the strut bar to be sitting tight on the plenum, so with the hood hitting the motor and the strut bar hitting, I would think that its the motor siting high, now I don't know if that's possible, as I not removed a motor from a 350z yet. If I am way off base here I take no offence if you can tell me how the front clip affects both.

 

Maybe bad motor mounts? When you accel the motor twists and hits the hood?

 

if this part was directed to me, i was joking hoping for a full frontal nudie woman

 

Nah, it was for me. Thought it might be the hood, but I was wrong. That motor is definitely high..

 

I rather look at the car, seen all the nude females I with to see, but hey the internet is your friend. I have looked for a lose motor mount and see no rolling of motor when accelerating. and wear is on both sides of motor evenly. Is there enough play in motor mounts to raise the motor that high or is there some thing else I am not seeing

 

This won't be easy to solve from behind a keyboard. Why not look up a local Z car owner and compare the two cars side-by-side with their hoods open?

 

Would love to look at other 350Z's but I haven't seen one around here, Thanks for all the suggestions, looks like Ill have to pull the motor to see what's going on.

 

Found a obscure note on the web about some motor mounts that sat the motor to high, anyone ever heard about this?

 

Yes there are. Me. I'm around there. My fiancé and I hit up The Movie Tavern or PF Chang's like once a month..

 

And Im just south of Lehigh valley in Coopersburg. You're welcome to stop by. Ive had the motor out of several Z's so I have some background knowledge. And we can always compare certain things to my Z and see whats different