VQ35DE headgasket replacement

In place how hard is this to do! I have the factory manual and it makes it seem like this is a walk in the park or something. Picked up an 05 for a tow car cheap that has blown a head gasket, started misfiring right away and didn't get hot so was thinking of just decking the heads and fixing it in place assuming everything checks out.

No special tricks to the VQ35DE! I'm just on the assumption the motor isn't toast until I find evidence to the contrary so would like to steel myself for what I'm in for.

I can't say I know much about these, but being all alloy, yeah might pay to keep an eye out on warpage etc. is it longitudinally mounted or transverse! On the few odd VQ cars I've mucked about with I've found (personally) that the longitudinally mounted ones oddly enough seem easier to get around contrary to typical expectations. Also please don't quote me because I think I am wrong but I keep thinking about coolant system issues when I think about VQ engines, not sure if worth investigating! Good luck; and I just realised I have been of no help at all haha :)

It's an 05 maxima so transverse. I'm definitely going to check the head, I'm friendly with a cylinder head specialist so would probably just get them checked and decked.

This morning I woke up, saw a car advertised, checked it out in the afternoon and towed it home this evening. I'm still a little lost on how I managed to do that in the space of just a few hours. However after my short drive in it I like how it drives. Probably going to be my new daily.

definitely a BHG! done a compression test! checked oil/coolant for cross-contamination! Those VQ35s are prone to chain stretch which can give mis-firing as a symptom. How many kms has it done! Just seems strange to blow a gasket, unless it's been cooked and then I would be worried more damage is done.

I would be doing some checking first ie check for failed coils ,timing chain etc before rushing into head gaskets.If it hasBHGs ,how hot did the engine get! As P.W said I would be worried about more damage if it been well overheated.If its only H Gs why didnt the owner get it fixed! or is there more to it that they are not letting on about!

It's 100% a blown headgasket, there is some water is getting into the oil. Rather high km's and they were going to fix it, they were even most of the way to buying a low km engine off a seller on here but cash was tight and they would be paying a mechanic to do the swap so they cut losses.

Like I said I'm just going on the assumption it's fine till I find it's not, then if it's not I'll part out bits of the old motor still fine and just put another VQ35 in it. They seemed pretty genuine and were bummed the car had to go, I hung around for a while and had a chat. They said it let go in traffic up the road then they brought it straight home. As far as I can tell everything they said was true and they were up front and forthcoming about the issues it had, they seemed happy when I said I was fixing it rather than parting it out. Well that's the plan for now anyway.

weld the rear doors shut