JamesRich

You need to get it tested for hydrocarbons like Slartibartfast suggested. I have one of these testers and it is very easy to use. It will tell you right away if you have a head gasket leak, even if it is a very small leak. You just lower the level a little in the radiator so the tester doesn't suck up coolant, put a dye in the tester and then place it in the radiator neck and pump the bulb. The tester will draw air from the radiator and pass it through the dye. If hydrocarbons are present the dye will change from blue to yellow. Super easy! If you were local I'd test it for you. James

I used the first link in your post. I put the dynamat first then the shiny bubble wrap insulation. Cant say if it makes a difference though, I did this right after I bought the truck. Still hot as hell when I leave it parked in the Louisiana sun! My AC never worked really good, It's converted from R12 and I have too much oil in the system but It does keep me cool enough not to sweat. I just think to myself that it would be a lot hotter if I wouldn't have put the insulation!

I still have the factory radiator in my old pathfinder but when my Titan radiator cracked I just went to o'reilly auto parts and got one. It came with a lifetime warranty so I figured it would be good enough. Auto zone sold the same name brand too for around the same price. James

My Grassroots center link is still tight after 8 years of abuse! My hunting camp is a 70 mile drive one way. I drive there, lock the hubs, drive through whatever I have to get where I want, which sometimes looks like I'm driving down a bayou, then unlock the hubs and drive home. I'm on my 4th set of lower ball joints, 3rd set of upper ball joints and second set of upper control arm bushings but I never even think about the center link anymore. I got a manual steering box to replace the idler arm but the idler arm that was on the truck when I bought it 8 years ago is still tight so why bother. Now my wife and I are moving to Tennessee! So I guess instead of playing in the mud I'll be climbing rocks! At least the ball joints should last longer since I won't have them under water all the time! James

Hello Tennessee members! Anyone around the Spring City, Grandview area? My wife and I just signed on a house in Grandview! If everything goes right we should be moving up around august or september. I sure love those mountain views! James

Since no one else on this forum has replaced their VG30 cams in their WD21 I'll let y'all know, the cams do clear without jacking the motor! With the radiator removed, of course, the cams pass right above the A/C condenser. The driver side is a little longer and would have hit the grill, but I was able to just push the grill down a little and it cleared. I'm gonna miss the lumpy idle & top end power from the Schneider cams but the stock cams do have more power down low. James

I'd be happy to sell them because I'll won't use them again, its the 131H grind, but.... Schneider apparently sucks at grinding a cam straight up! You would need adjustable gears and a degree wheel to get them running right. I put them in with the stock gears and it would hardly idle. I could push it to 8K rpms though and it would really pull hard after 4K. I put a degree wheel on it and found the passenger cam was retarded 26 degrees and the driver side cam was retarded 20 degrees! It took me a while, which is why I want to keep them, to get a set of russ's (I think) adjustable gears and I set them both advanced 4 degrees. I actually had to jump a tooth on one of the gears to get them timed correctly, you can't go by the markings he puts on the gears. Now it has a slight skip at idle and run good around town. Really pulls good when I stretch out the gears, I love the idle too! But when I pull my big trailer I have to run the hell out of it to get to speed. Doesn't seem to have the pulling torque of the factory cams. Also I have a carburetor and chevy distributor, I used a wide band sensor to tune it. I don't know how they would react with factory fuel injection.

Yes I read the post about the VG33 in an R50, I just want to know if the cams will clear on a WD21. I changed my heads a while back and put some schneider regrinds, they haul ass when stepping on it but don't tow worth a crap! I want to put the stock cams back in without pulling the heads! James

I know how to replace the camshafts but have one question about doing it in the truck. Do the cams come out without having to jack the motor or some other crazy @!*% for clearance? I don't have a body lift. From eyeballing it, I think maybe removing the A/C condenser and grill? looks like they will clear the header panel. James

I have a smittybilt XRC 8, Been on my truck for 7 years. It will drag the whole truck through mud with the wheels locked! I did that just to see if it would, engine not running either. Haven't had to use it a lot for recovery but lifted several box blinds with it and pulled down an old barn. The second year I had it I seemed to get stuck every time I got off a main trail at our camp and had to use it a lot. Just recently it pulled the truck up on my trailer when my pathfinder left my son on the road! Always worked when I needed it. James

I still have one of those production units somewhere! It was basically a jar with two aluminum lines going through the lid. One line went to the bottom of the jar and had holes in it to make bubbles. It came with some aluminum tubing you were supposed to wrap around the exhaust then connect to the line going to the bottom of the jar so you got hot air bulling through the water. The other line in the lid of the jar went to a T in your PCV vacuum line so a mist went in. The performance claim was that it prevented detonation so you could bump the timing up a little more. James

Probably so, my 87 isn't very fast on high either. Also the intermittent timer on mine doesn't seem to make a difference. I think that would be a problem with the stalk switch. Glad you got them working though! James

Another note on a catch can, mount it as close as you can so you can use the shortest hose possible. I've seen too many people mount them next to their battery which looks good and is easy then complained they didn't get any oil out of it. Too much hose kills the efficiency of the PCV system and can harm your engine. I think MY1PATH was using a catch can when he still had his TBI injection. Not sure if he kept it when he went MPI but he should still have pics somewhere. James

It does look decent sized. So would you get one already so we can see some better pics of it! Lol! James

Use the PCV vacuum line to feed the seafoam in. It won't be as easy as using the brake booster line you might have to use a piece of hose to reach. All the poop that you are trying to clean out of the intake came in through the PCV line so it makes since to feed the seafoam in through the same line. That is why catch cans are popular. A catch can "catches" all the oil vapors coming from the crank case and condenses them back to oil so they never go into the intake and sludge it up. James

I had this problem with my 87, It's just cracked solder joints. Take the box apart and look at all the larger solder joints, you should see the ones that are cracked. I just re soldered most of them. Use a solder sucker to remove the old solder first then put some fresh solder and make sure it flows well around the terminals. James

Yea that was it! I don't have as much clearance as you but It doesn't hit now. There is quite a bit of flex in the bushing on that side but it still doesn't touch the pipe. If I still have problems with it hitting I will make a delrin bushing for that side and that will end the problem. Now that I got that problem done I can finish the job I started. I put a set of VG33 heads that I ported out and matched the ports to the intake. Y'all wouldn't believe how much the ports vary! Also put a set of reground Schneider cams (262 duration/.420 lift. I'll have to rejet my carburetor but needed to have the exhaust finished for a wide band sensor. Cant wait to see the difference all my work did. Thanks again B! James

Hawairish, the bushings are still centered at rest, not sure how much they move under load or how much they are supposed to move. It's been so long I don't remember how the factory Y pipe ran. The last Y pipe I had on the VG30.com headers was just barely above the shaft. The exhaust guy probably didn't think the differential would have moved under load either. They were long tube headers and came really low and close to the shaft so they didn't leave much room for the pipe on a 4wd. They would make great 2wd headers though, they are very well built headers. I thought about spacing up the differential to clear but that will increase the CV angles a little. B, thanks for the pics. I see your headers are made just like mine and they clear. Looks like they are close to the shaft too but enough to clear. Can you get some pics of where the shaft crosses the pipe more from the side? James Whoa! I think I see my problem! After studying your pics B, I see your slip yoke is towards the transfer case, mine is at the axle. I removed the shaft once to pull the transmission but put it back the way it was. If the flanges are the same it can probably be put on either way. Somewhere before I owned it someone may have put it backwards. I will try to swap it around tonight. I'll be going crazy all day at work thinking about this! James

What I meant by flexing is the rubber bushings giving. That's the problem I had with the last Y pipe I had built for the set of headers I had from VG30.com. The pipe was on top the drive shaft and cleared while on the highway and going foreword in 4wd. When I put it in reverse the front axle pinion torqued up and started hitting the pipe. Since that was the second attempt at a Y pipe with the local shops I decided to not waste any more time and money on that set of headers because I had these DT headers sitting on the shelf since the group buy in 2012. I thought these headers would have solved all my exhaust problems, boy was I wrong! James

My front differential bushings are still good, and centered. That's the first thing I checked. I understand different drive shafts, but even if the flange was further foreword The shaft would still be close to the pipe and would probably still hit during flexing. Now maybe the newer models have a higher pinion on the differential, that's why I asked for pictures of someones truck with headers that fit. Does Steeevo still visit this forum? I sent him a PM but he hasn't responded. I would say to hell with them and order a set of pace setters but they don't list any for 87s either. So far I've spent around $1500 trying to get decent exhaust on this truck and I still only have crap!

Thanks B! The only mods to the front suspension are AC upper control arms, and sway a way torsion bars. I don't even have it cranked very high. These are the headers for the 90 to 95 and mines an 87 but I wouldn't think the axle placement changed. James

Yea that don't help! That just makes me want an SAS! Lol! Thanks for the pics though. I can see your Y pipe is shaped the same as mine, I guess that's my answer, Torch everything off the frame and put a solid axle! I sent Steevo a PM but he hasn't replied yet. How does the truck ride and drive with leafs in the front? James

Link? I need to see how the doug thourleys clear the drive shaft. I couldn't have put them on wrong and they don't clear my front shaft. They are part number THY-464-2-C, from searching online they are the correct set for 4wd. Does no one else have doug thourley headers on their truck? James

Hey guys, Can someone post a pic of their doug thorley headers, underneath from the back of the truck? I need to see how they clear the front drive shaft. Here's the problem I'm having. I cant seem to get a break on this truck with headers! James

Yes no carrier bearing on 4wd. I have two sets of lego wheels too. One set with the hankook M/Ts and one set with the Geolander ATS. I just keep swapping back and forth. Thanks for the idea with the string Precise, I hadn't thought about that. I did think about trying to measure the height of the rears on the truck. I made sure the pressure was even then hooked a tape measure on the top edge of the rim and then just let it rest against the tire and on the cement. I figured this would give me a close guess at actual riding height. I was going to bring the mitutoyo height stand out in the parking lot but didn't think the boss would have been happy about that! Anyway I got an 1/8 difference from the right to left rear tires. The only thing that doesnt seem right is both right side measured the same and both left measured 1/8 shorter. Might be the truck leaning. I swapped the front right to the left rear and it seems to have made a difference. It drives much better on the highway and the vibration is minimal. It still kicks over when I shift gears though with all new poly swing arm bushings and a tight panhard bushing so I'm not sure about that but as long as its not squirrely on the road it's all good. I've read about the road force balance and that probably help. I've got the sway-a-way front springs and the jeep V8 springs in the rear so it rides pretty ruff, if I can just keep the shaking away I'll be good. James