PJpathy
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Posts posted by PJpathy
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I used the Canadian harmonic balancer, works perfectly
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Wow I have been really slack. It has now been over eleven months and I have only just gotten engine into the pathy and gotten everything hooked up.
I have had engine started and running yay. It is rather loud with open headers.
Just set timing up to the 15deg BTDC, even though it started and ran fine with the dizzy cranked all the way over to what looked like around 40deg advance.
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Guys I thought I might add a followup to my question. I was quite worried about cam timing (justified or not) but either way nothing short of measuring it would satisfy me.
So, with my trusty dial gauge and a couple of extensions, I found that the final mark on the balancer is indeed exactly TDC of cylinder one, and then proceeded to fit and align a degree wheel to crank.
From there, I then fitted the dial gauge to the inlet and then exhaust lifters of cylinder one for the RHS cam, and cylinder four for the LHS cam.
This is due to the firing order of 1,2,3,4,5,6. Ie cylinder one and four are at TDC at exact same time.
You can just get the dial gauge onto each respective lifter barrel for true measurements.
Long story short, the measurements were pretty much dead on what they should be, with the lift on valve open/close on inlet/exhaust averaging .15mm when exactly on the factory specified crank degree for the VG30E camshafts.
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Spoken to an exhaust joint, apparently as long as it doesn't touch, it doesn't matter.
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Gday, just wondering what is the bare minimum clearance for a steering shaft to exhaust headers. If you look at pics, I can only just push a 1/4" drive extension into gap.
The photos aren't the best, but the first is from the top and the second is sorta from the front.
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Cam gears are definately the correct side.
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Thought u lot might be able to help. The following photos will explain a lot better, but with the timing on the crank at what I assume to be cyl1 TDC, the RH cam marking is where it should be, but the LH mark is almost a tooth off. I suspect this is due to taking around 10thou off both heads/block, but will this affect power at all? Should I redrill the cam drive pulley to line up?
Also the distributor when installed with the above markings lined up looks like this, look ok?
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Was considering that Nefarious, but the gap was like 12mm, wasn't willing to 'massage' the sump quite that much.
Anyway the mods have been done, its all welded up. Going to get it ultrasonically cleaned to make sure no scale or crap comes loose down the track and gets sucked into oil pump.
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I decided instead of faffing around looking for the proper pickup (if its even available in aussie models), I will just mod the existing ones.
I have done this before anyway when fitting a G16B into a Sierra, replacing the G13A.
Cut up the original VG30 pickup...
...then cutout the 85ish degree bend from the VG33 pickup...
...taped em together and tack welded, ready for brazing tomorrow at work.
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Thats my point tho, the VG33 is from an Aussie R50 Pathfinder, and so the sumps and pickups are different.
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Here is where sump is hitting as you can see by the rub spot in plasticine.
You can see where the plasticine reside is on the dimples.
R50 pickup, notice it doesn't follow the cap girdle...
...whereas the WD21 does.
Need to figure out what I'm going to do here. Options that I see are a pickup from another model, or bash the sump to clearance, or make one pickup that fits from two.
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Having a little trouble fitting sumps. I have the sumps from the WD21 and the R50, but I only want to use the WD21 sump as the R50 sump is quite different and may hit on the diff.
As you can see, the WD21 sump will not sit flush with the mating surface. It is shy around 12mm
Sticks up significantly, even without gaskets.
R50 pickup
The two sumps side by side. The one in foreground is the WD21, and background is R50. See how there is a large hump in the horizontal surface of WD21 but not in R50.
Also note the much beefier drain section.
The height difference between the shorter WD21 and R50.
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Does anyone know if the VG33 engine with its own VG33 sump will fit into a 94 pathfinder and clear the diff, etc...?
With the VG33 oil pump and pickup, the VG30 sump definitely will not bolt onto engine due to clearance issues with the pickup pipe.
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So then I sourced a nice VG33 out of an R50 with a blown head gasket.
After stripping that down and stupidly not taking photos or keeping many bolts organized, I sent everything away for machining.
The list of what I had done is:
Block
- Ultrasonically cleaned
- Linebored
- Cylinder bore n hone to suit oversize pistons
- Decking block. Had to take around 7thou off the block due to some pitting where the gasket had let go around cylinder six.
Heads
- Ultrasonic clean
- Exhaust seats replaced due to valve recession.
- All seats n valves machined
- Decking. Took around 3thou off again due to some pitting.
Camshafts
- The camshafts I removed from my old VG30 as they had much more lift and duration. The machine shop just linished them as they were suprisingly in good condition.
Some work I did myself to heads is a mild port job to get rid of those 90degree angles around the exhaust seats as well as all the casting/machining faults.
I also rebuilt the lifters, or at least took em apart and cleaned them out.
Then you have the obvious fitting of new freeze plugs, etc...
After a lot of discussion with machine shop, I decided not to pay the extra expense of balancing the rotating assembly. This is because it is not a performance engine, plus when weighed, the old and new pistons were exactly the same. Was not deemed necessary.
Fitting Crankshaft:
I started by fitting the crankshaft with new bearings and assembly lube. As i gradually pulled down the main caps, the crank got pretty tight in one spot, not enough to seize it but not at all smooth.
After taking everything apart again and cleaning, I noticed a little rubbing on number four main-cap.
Nothing appeared untoward, so everything was reassembled, and voila, no tightness. Must of got some crap in the bearing when assembling.
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Gday you lot, thought I may as well start a thread on my own build/swap of a VG33 into my 94 WD21 Pathfinder.
Basically I blew my VG30 with too much revs and lack of servicing by previous owner (my oil changes consisted of putting two litres of oil in engine after every trip).
I'm still not exactly sure what made the horrible noises, but I suspect a lifter got stuck and may have chewed a valve. I will only know if/when I bother stripping the VG30.
After yanking out the VG30 (which by the way is a nightmare when you don't want to damage auxiliaries thanks to Nissan not fitting lift eyes to engine), this is what I was dealing with.
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I bought the Canadian crank pulley/balancer off ebay as NOS item. From memory though the mr510 adapter was cheaper but he is very difficult to get hold of.
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Are the aftermarket engine mounts a lot better than factory? I seem to have torn the LHS mount.
Anyone happen to know where to get the aftermarket engine mounts in Australia? The only place I can find is Rugged Rocks but I ain't paying $150 postage to get em here.
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Wow this is pretty close to how I'm about to build my motor. Using a VG33 block n heads, VG30 NOS Canadian balancer, VG30 cams, etc...
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My crank adapter is also on the way. I purchased the NOS Canadian crank adapter off Ebay from a bloke in the US. It should arrive sometime next week.
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How much does he sell em for? It doesn't mention prices on facebook
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He may be busy, but not good business to have people wanting your product yet its not available anywhere and your uncontactable.
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You can pretty much boobs any brand, its not like its high pressure or high temp.
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Just use automotive silicone
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Thanks for that mate. I know I definitely have several broken studs I will need to extract, not looking forward to that.
VG33 engine build (inc swapping out VG30)
in 90-95 WD21 Pathfinders
Posted · Edited by PJpathy
Seems I have lost a few pics, will try n find em again, but engine has been put together completely and is now in car.
Started it up (with open headers) and ran it for a couple of minutes, then towed it to exhaust joint to have the headers connected to old exhaust system.
Then I picked it up next morning, drove it for about 30 seconds, and it started to make what sounded a little like big end knock, so had it towed to mate of engine machinist as I didn't have time to look at it, had to be at work.
So he started it once off towtruck, it made noise for about 2 seconds then ran smooth, after which he took apart oil filter, saw nothing bad, and then test drove for half hour in morn, and half hour again after lunch, no probs.
I picked pathy up after work and drove for an hour, noise seems to have fixed itself, then driving home, it came back.
After babying it back home, again out comes the front diff and sump off.
Checked all bearings, all looked perfect.
Put all back together and tried tracing noise with stethoscope, screwdriver, hose, disconnecting spark plugs, injectors, plugs out, all the usual methods, couldn't find squat.
Noise is not able to be localized or identified.
I cut up an old rocker cover and stuck it on the right cylinder bank to see if it was valve noise or anything, all looked ok, and of course being a pain-in-the-ass VG engine, the manifold covers the left bank so nothing could be done there.
Anyway that was about 5 months ago. Started it again a few days ago, yup noise still there, now I'm trying to find motivation to yank engine again and take it apart.