lgranch

I did a search and found nothing on a 95 about a Y pipe. Most everyone will tell me to just put on headers, but the truck is ready for the scrap yard and I do not want to put alot of money in it. The pipe in question is Nissan part # 20020-31G17. Walker sells one 40353 that will not fit with the OEM system. I have talked to Walker and they designed the system to only match their parts. I can not find anyone locally willing to make one because of the odd bend in the short portion of the pipe. Anyone know where to find the right part. Nissan wants $280 and 2 weeks. Anyone have a good piece from a header install???? As with many on the forum this already caught the truck on fire once. Patched all the holes, added a makeshift heat shield, but that will not last the winter, plus it is load. Local cops are just watching until it passes their tolerence limit. Someone can offer some help I am sure

Whoa there young fella, who told you that the VG30E is a light weight motor in teh pounds department????? This motor is heavier than just about anything else in the 6 cyl class. Why you ask, very simple it is built for long term durability. The cast walls are very thick by automotive standards. The crankshaft girdle is massive and clearly does not allow any twist in the block. The aluminum heads are almost as much weight as a chevy cast iron version. This motor is a significant contributor to the overall weight of the front end of the pathy. No designer worked on this truck to remove weight and increase fuel economy. They waited until 1996 and then did not do much either until the next restyle. Then they just made a big truck. If you are looking for a light weight motor to put in a Suzuki. look elsewhere.

The right side is like new due to an oil leak early in the pathy's life. As for normal, now maybe you west coast drivers can see why 90-95 pathy's in this area sell for $500 to $800. While I would not take this off road, the entire mess is really quite solid. But then that is the problem it is very solid. Precise1- I have studied the non rusty side of the forward mount. I see no way to replace the bolts once they are loose. I can not even find a wrench to reach the head of the larger of the 3 bolts. This thing is buried in the LCA with no access that I can find. So what is the trick I am missing? Now for a comment that forum memebers have been questioning me for several years. I take the tranny out leaving the Torsion bars in place. Yes you can do this! However usually I am removing the engine also. I pull both together. On this truck I have been trying the traditional method since the heads were just redone and then the clutch came apart. The no noise failure turns out to be the disk coming apart in shreads and leaving all the metal in place.

here is another view. While I was working on this I spoke words that my son has never heard from me in his 22 years "scrap it".

This is pic of the front pocket on the left torsion bar. I can break off the bolts but then you can not replace them without taking the A arm off right???

I have a good auto tranny. It is a 91 that is still in the pathy. It is hooked to a NEW COMPLETELY rebuilt motor. The trouble is I am in Cleveland. A long way fro Kansas and shipping makes no sense based on cost.

I've been doing alot of checking in the past few days. It appears that the clutch is still together and there is good tension on the fork. This leads me to believe that it is the input shaft. Any idea where I can get an input shaft. I ask because the local Nissan dealers just do not want to even look up the parts for older vehicles.

The aluminum/cast iron match does not like overheating at all. Since you are loosing water make sure you check the oil. If is milk chocolate brown then you know you have a head problem. The other potential is for the water to go straight out the exhaust. This should steam clean the plugs to a perfect shine. You should also see moisture vapor out the tailpipe like a cloud. If none of these then it is the distributor. Pull it and advance the timing by one tooth. If it is the head I can line you up with inexpensive gaskets to repair it with.

Nothing from Offroad. The pedal feels "normal" when depressed.

I have just completed a search on the forum and I did not find anything that could help on this one. The 95 Pathy that we just finished the head gaskets on just stopped going, forward or reverse. This is a manual tranny. Coming off the highway , pushing in the clutch and putting it into 1st there was a quiet dull thunk. Then nothing. The motor runs fine, the shift moves smooth in every gear even with the motor running. With the boot off the interior you can hear the gears shifting in the tranny. It is not the transfer case that has been verified. There is NO NOISE at all, no grinding, no whining, no clunks, no nothing. If the tranny input shaft blew like the one posted on the forum awhile ago there has to be some noise. There was no previous indications that the clutch was badly worn, but a clutch failure should make some grinding noise or something. This is like the clutch is just disengaged. Slave cylinder failure should fail engaged not disengaged. Before we just start stripping it apart any suggestions on what to check for??? I have been though so much this year I really do not want to have a clutch job to do.

I want to thank all of you who replied. You had me doubt my work and that is good, never get too sure of yourself it leads to trouble. Well the T belt and the cam timing was perfect from the start. There was no problem there. The problem was with the distributor. On this motor the dizzy can not go back in based on TDC. I adjusted the postion by one tooth which should have severly retarded the timing. Instead the timing was perfect. This means that something internal in the motor is either misaligned or put in wrong. Since I only did the heads on this motor and did not completely dissasemble it I do not know which is the issue. The pathy is now running fine and the engine revs clean throughout the entire rpm range.

I have rebuilt lots of VG30Es But the every one seems alittle different. The latest is the 1995 in my son's pathy. He is now out of jail and the motor is finished and running. The distributor is turned as far counter clockwise as it can go. The engine is running fine, however most of the motors I rebuild have the proper timing position about in the middle of the distributor adjustment range. Did I miss something. If I pull the dizzy and move it one tooth the other way I think I will just see the same problem only turned all the way clockwise. I know you forum people have seem this before, so what is up??? Slick you have seen just about every problem imaginable....so?

A question for the forum. With the 91's life being over is it easier to strip off teh body and sell the frame motor and tranny, or is it better to try to sell it whole? I am sure everyone has an opinion.

If a VG30E needs rod bearings it needs other things also. The crank is going to need work and the wrist pins are probably worn. At 240K miles either the wear is going to be next to nothing or complete all around. Rod bearing do wear out, but unless they loose lube the VG30E should go to 350K or 400K before wear is a problem. Long before the bearings have a problem the rings have a problem in this motor. Now if the bearings did loose lube then a COMPLETE overhaul is necessary. Don't fool yourself into believing you can replace only the bearings and everything else will be ok for a long time.

Yes an auto tranny from 90 to 95 will fit your rig. As for why it is going bad. There are lots of potential reasons. Most are associated with dirt but not all. As long as you still have reverse you could try to add Lucas tranny lube. This goes a long way to smoothing out shifting problems. It is a viscosity modifier for teh tranny fluid. It does not FIX anything, but can gain you significant time.

The frustrating part is that the parts to rebuild the tranny are only about $350. Or should I say the parts most places replace. The big cost item is a new converter. It needs to be one with brazed fins. However i have reused converters after they have been flushed. Nissan made a complex tranny thay never really worked all that well. The big problem is heat. They should have come from the factory with a cooler as big as the radiator. Used trannys are a big risk. You do not know what you are buying. a rebuilt tranny is only as good as the person doing the work and there alot of BAD tranny guys out there. If you can get a total replacement warrenty for 1 year then a rebuilt tranny for about $2000 installed is a good deal. A 90 day warrenty is total crap...I could fix yours over the phone and make it last 90 days after I told you no off road driving. My recommendation is dependent on teh rust on your Pathy. If there is lots of rust then taking the torsion bars out and all the other supports is a BIG JOB. If your pathy is a pristine purple machine like Slick's pathy then removing all the necessary items is easy. So if rusty let someone esle do the work. If clean buy a cheap $200-$300 used tranny or a JDM tranny and do it yourself. All of these are US dollars not CDN. Before you do anything....look at the prices for Pathys on Ebay. You may be surprized.

I may have a completely rebuilt VG30E available. It has been bored out .030 over. The engine has been completely gone thru, no old parts at all. new pistons, oil pump, cam bearings, everything. Attached to it is a perfect auto tranny also. East of Cleveland is the location. Obviously I am not will to deliver. Availability will be made certain after August 12th. I can not sell it for my son ,but thats when he gets out.

Just for 2 cents of what can still run. I had a 302 Ford snap the crankshaft between the 1/2 and 3/4 cylinders. This was in my tow vehicle. The truck ran bad but it still ran. I did not suspect the crank until I noticed that the harmonic balancer was wobbling as the truck was idling. If it did not happen to me I would have said it would never run that way.

88 I do not know if they changed the firing order I was just suggesting that it was a place to look. I know I have been "stupid" late in a rebuild and have switched wires by being unable to count to 6. Your suggestion of being off a tooth is also possible. The issue about the cams being cut different I am 80% sure on. I have had the understanding that the duration and the lift is different between the passenger cars and the Pathy/Hardbody. Are there not different torque horsepower curves for the Maxima and the Pathy? The Maxima is the area of less knowledge for me. This is something I would like to correct in my understanding. Can you direct me to torque/RPM outputs for the various VG30 applications?

Since you are working with a car JDM and not a Pathy JDM the possibilities are many. Hopefully your "discovery" regarding the cap and firing order is a clue to help. I agree with Precise1 that to be real help someone needs to hanging over the motor. However based on your discription I am guess that 2 cylinders are firing out of order. The cylinders would have to be close to each other so do not look for the 2-4 combinations. See the problem is I know that they cut the cams different for the Maxima than for the Pathy. This was done because they wanted differnt torque/HP curves based on what the vehicles were suppose to be used for. So what I do not know is did they also change the firing order??? If you get stuck take the valve covers off and slowly rotate the motor by hand and watch for both valves on a cylinder to close. That will be the compression stroke. By watching teh valves you can figure out what the firing order is on teh exact motor you have. Keep the forum posted on the outcome

You have a real tough problem here. JDM engines are different than their American cousins. However you stated that you only used the short block and the heads. These parts are the same. You replaced all the sensors with the old ones and all the intake and injectors with the old ones. Without being able to stand over the engine myself, my guess would be that there is damage to one of the wires to an injector. It also could be a distributor issue. Not out of time, but a problem with the pick up. For those JDM experts in the forum, Nissan did not pull a Ford 302 type joke on the world did they?? Ford swapped the firing order on their 302 depending on if it was going into a truck or into a car. The swap only effected the 5/6 cylinders and the engine would run but not idle. If you changed the plug wires them everything was fine. Since Casey T did not indicate a need for a oil pan change, I am presuming that this is a Pathy JDM engine. 88 or precise1 or someone fix my thinking please

Yea my 91 that I have had for a long time only has one also. But when I came up with 2 in the pile of my son's parts I started to question. My guess is that he ended up with 2 because of a replacement motor also. I just put the one back on and call it a job. Thanks again. I must be getting stupid in my old age.

Another question putting my son's pathy back together. I know that there is a heat shield on the motor mount on the left side. Is there a heat shield on the right side. I have found two in the truck but I am positive both are for the left. Thank for the help in advance.

Thanks to everyone. The pictures let me make a hook up that would grab the door latch inside. THE DOOR IS OPEN AND WORKING. Thanks everyone. especially DAGWOODZZ

With the Pics I think I can make a hook that will catch the door mechanism. Thanks a lot, they were very helpful