I have about 5psi of oil pressure at idle and think the gaskets are at fault. I am admittedly a Z noob as I bought the car about a year ago. I have put 6000 miles on it and thought the oil psi was normal until I had read they are supposed to have 15psi at idle.

Anyways, I have been looking for a detailed "how to" thread on changing these gaskets but I havent been able to find anything so if anyone has any links or things to look for that would be great.

While the car is that torn apart are there any other things that commonly fail that should be replaced other than just the gaskets?

 

I had to get mine replaced with the updated metal ones and it's no small job. If you're not really confident in working on your car I would advise taking it to a shop. There's no easy way to get to it and it involves taking the whole front end of the car off, including your bumper, radiator, radiator core support, and thats just the beginning. You said you were a z noob and I have no idea how far your mechanics skills reach, so if you're not 100% confident in your abilities I would just take it to a shop. DON'T TAKE IT TO A DEALERSHIP. Just my opinion.

 

Are you sure you are at 5psi? Don't trust the dash gauge use a proper mechanical oil pressure gauge.

 

I Am in the process of this as well. Big job so far I am on day 4 (going slow on purpose)

The parts I ordered are
Main timing chain
Both timing chain guides
Timing chain tensioner
Oil galley gaskets
Vtc gaskets and orings
Coolant pipe oring
2 tubes permatex grey

Paid about $500 for everything including a couple tools I did not own.

My car has 12psi at idle and I parked it till fixed. 5psi idle seems like a ticking time bomb I would fix that ASAP before driving!

 

Also these may be of great interest to you.
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php...33899485998173

 

Thanks for the replies guys. I will try to put a real pressure gauge on it before I dig into it. However I did do a hpde last year and I actually had the low oil pressure light come on when the car was idling, I presume because the oil got too thin so I had to try to hold it around 1000 rpms to keep some oil going through the engine. From what I understand that light is ran off different sensors than the gauge and since that light came on I would think its safe to say that the pressure is low and the gaskets are toast. The car drives great, engine doesn't make any noise and like I put about 6500 miles or so on it and haven't had any issues, including auto x. I just thought the light came on from the hpde because the oil I was using was too thin, other than that I had no reason to believe it was operating as it should.

I am used to working on lsx engines, cam swaps, head swaps etc... but not real excited about doing this on my own. That being said paying labor for all the work doesnt look like a real attractive option either.

Did you need to replace all of these items? Or just something worth doing since it is already apart.

Main timing chain
Both timing chain guides
Timing chain tensioner
Oil galley gaskets
Vtc gaskets and orings
Coolant pipe oring

Thanks.

 

http://g35driver.com/forums/g35-seda...ous-about.html

This thread might help and below is my input on parts.

Main timing chain - If you have the time why not open it up and then check for "stretch" before replacing as it is designed to last the life of the engine ~200K Mi

Both timing chain guides - probably a good idea while you are in there but again if you have time just check for wear and replace if necessary.

Timing chain tensioner - Probably up to you its oil driven so I wouldn't think there is much to wear.

Oil galley gaskets - infinity parts for FTW

Vtc gaskets and orings - I think changing them is recommended by nissan

Coolant pipe oring - probably also recommended by nissan.

 

Thanks for the input. Sounds like I am just going to take it to my local guy and see what he can do for me.

 

This is a big job. That being said if you have done car work before it's really not hard. Everything comes apart very easily. You are just looking at a good 20 hours work

 

It took my guy a solid 8 hour day to get this job done. My motor had about 60k miles when i had it done and all i had replaced were those 2 gaskets, everything else was solid. Do you have and intake mods? The reason I ask is to make sure your crank case breather is hooked up properly, mine wasn't and led to a huge headache with oil pressure.

 

I'm in the same boat... My 07 Nismo is parked and hopefully I can get some cash together to get it fixed. 20 hours seems pretty intense compared to 8 hours of labor that was mentioned. Is there a solid number of hours and average cost of the labor?

 

8-9 hrs. 20 is closers to a camshaft job.

 

That was about right ;-) Problem solved. It was the gallery gasket for sure. The top gasket was blown. Mechanic took some pictures and I'll post them tomorrow.

I picked everything up at Concept Z
Here is gasket parts list:

Timing Chain Cover Seal O-Ring
Part #: 15066-JA10A $8.36 Qty: 2

Nissan OEM Rear Timing Cover Oil Gallery Gasket, Upper Large
Part #: 13533-JK21A $30.10 Qty: 1

Nissan OEM Rear Timing Cover Oil Gallery Gasket, Lower Small - Nissan 350Z 07-08 VQ35HR Z33
Part #: 13533-JK21B $4.70 Qty: 1

Nissan OEM 13042-3HD0A Intake Camshaft VTC Seal
Part #: 13042-3HD0A $34.92 Qty: 6

Nissan OEM 13510-31U10 Front Crankshaft Oil Seal
Part #: 13510-31U10 $10.74 Qty: 1

Nissan OEM VTC Variable Timing Control Solenoid Gasket RH
Part #: 23797-EY01A $4.20 Qty: 1

Nissan OEM VTC Solenoid Cover Gasket
Part #: 23797-JA10B $3.30 Qty: 1


Subtotal: $96.32
Shipping (Ground): $14.64
Total: $110.96


Extras:
Replaced all tensioners and chain guides (less than $200.00)

Labor was for 8 hours @83.00 an hour

I went about 1K with cleanup/dispose fees, new oil + filter

 

Any idea if this parts list is DE or HR specific? I want to get all the gaskets and o-rings and whatnot for my mechanic.

 

It is not HR or DE specific. Both engines have oil gallery gaskets, but I'm leaning towards the HR's having a bit more of an issue with them blowing out. My HR has 78K miles on the clock, and I'll be checking the oil pressure once the snow disappears. (Yes we still have snow in MinneSNOWta right now..)