1987 Pathfinder engine removal

[Nevyn]

I'm am trying to get the engine (Z24) out of my 1987 Pathfinder.
The sump is hard up against the drive shaft from the diff. In the manual it says "remove the bolts that attach the rear mounting member of the front differential to the frame."
Can someone please explain this to me please.....hopefully with a few photos so I know what I am looking at.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

[Slartibartfast]

I'm guessing this crossmember looking deal at the bottom of the picture is the rear mounting member you're looking for. I've read that you can get the engine around the diff if you disconnect the trans and get it out of the way first, but that was with the VG30--I don't know how the sump shape/depth compares.

image poached from here

[Nevyn]

Thanks Slartibartfast .....I have the bolts on the cross member out, but the torsion bars stop it from dropping.
In these 2 photos I am thinking the bolts to undo at the drive axles are the ones marked??? is this correct?

[Nevyn]

so on the left hand side of the front diff (looking towards the front of the car from underneath) are these the correct bolts to undo to separate the diff from the drive shaft?

[Nevyn]

so I've got all the bolts out, wound down the jack.....but the diff ain't moving.....any ideas how I get it out, or at least lower it enough to get the engine out?

[trexterra]

Did you pull the axles out of the diff

 

 

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[Nevyn]

trexterra, do I need to take anything else off to get the axles out? I thought unbolting the flanges would be enough

[Nevyn]

ok.....after jacking the diff up and tapping the flanges with a hammer I managed to separate the drive shafts from the diff......the diff lowered down more than it had before, but not sure if its still enough to get the engine out.....will try that tomorrow.....if it doesn't then I will look at pulling to diff back and lower it to the ground

[Nevyn]

So I got the engine's swapped over....fount it a lot easier to unbolt the main tail shaft, unbolt the gearbox cross member, and push the gearbox back as far as it would go, all back together now fine......
Now I am putting the head back on I need to make sure the cam is in the correct position before putting the timing chain on....on youtube I found a video of a block doing a full rebuild of a Z24, only problem is that its all in spanish....now when it came to doing the overhead cam timing he showed that the 2 has to line up with a mark on the #1 rocker, like how it is in the photo.....is this correct?

[Nevyn]

the engine is in and all bolted together.......still under 100psi on compression in #2 & #3....#1 & #4 are fine......I put a bit of oil down the spark plug holes of #1 & #4 and put in the plugs and hooked the leads up....the engine fired up with no effort at all first time, but due to the oil in the cylinders smoke filled the backyard.......engine is running a little rough with a bit of back fire and won't idle on its own, so obviously needs the timing adjusted a bit and then a tuneup.......main concern now though is the oil light staying on....the engine is full of oil, so baring the oil pump, or faulty sender, what else could be the problem?

[Slartibartfast]

Two low compression cylinders next to each other makes me wonder if there's a leak between them.

 

If it's not the pump, or the sender, you could have a blockage in the system or the bearings could be too worn to hold oil.

[Nevyn]

once I got the air filter on and all the vacuum hoses fitted I started it up again and it ran a lot better.....no backfiring, running a lot smoother, and no smoke at all.....still needs a tuneup and the timing tweaked a bit, but overall running a lot better....oil light is still staying on, but will deal with that tomorrow

[Slartibartfast]

Ah, that makes sense, I remember reading that the throttle body injection system doesn't mix properly or something without the air cleaner buttoned up.

[Nevyn]

I changed the sender, still have the light staying on......I've now removed the oil pump and it is bone dry, not a drop of oil in it.....now what could be the cause of that? could it be the pump itself of will it be the pickup in the sump? Is there a way I can check the pump with it out of the engine?

[Slartibartfast]

It looks like the Z24 oil pump is driven by the distributor, so if the distributor isn't seated properly, the oil pump won't work. I dealt with a similar setup on a friend's Chevy and had a hell of a time getting the pump and the distributor to line up. Could be an easy fix, assuming the bearings have survived being run this far w/o oil.

 

Looks like you could bench test the pump by sticking the pickup in a cup of oil and turning the drive bit with a cut-off screwdriver like the guy in the video used, or a whittled down pencil for that matter. If no oil comes out, and the pump isn't obviously coughing up pieces of itself, I'd check the pickup screen for any obvious clogging and see if the pump is sealed to the pickup properly. If there's a missing gasket in there it could be sucking air instead of oil.

 

Sorry to hear you had to pull the motor again!

[Nevyn]

the pump and the dizzy are both run off the crank by the same shaft that runs between both of them....
I haven't touched the car since last week....I just had to have a few days away from it to get me head clear.......I was worried it may have been the oil slinger, but after a bit of research I am doubting that.....I am starting to lean toward the pickup screen been blocked though, as the engine sat for 3 years without ever been turned over. Even though the oil was never drained, the screen could still have been blocked if the oil thickened in that time.....I still have the front diff all unbolted, even though I still can't get the bloody thing out :-/ .....
but if I lift the engine off the mounts, will that give me enough room to take to sump out?

[Nevyn]

for those interested I unbolted the gearbox crossmember, unbolted the tail shaft from the rediff, then pushed the gearbox back as far as I could......with a bit of pulling and twisting I got the engine off the gearbox shaft.....installing the engine was much the same with a bit of pushing and twisting of the engine, and using a jack under the gearbox to get the right angle and height to line up the shaft with the engine....needed to turn the tailshaft a bit to line the splines up right.....used a jimmybar to pull the gearbox up to the engine enough till I could use the bolts to pull the box and engine together fully......
Its a bit difficult to tell if doing it like that would require the front diff to be dropped or not and I'm a few months away at least before I'm pulling the engine back out to find out.

Biggest problem I have now is getting the front diff crossmember out from where it is sitting on the torsion bar.....do I need to remove the torsion bar to do this?

[Kingman]

Well not particularly... but it's much easier. It's a son of a b*tch otherwise but doable.

[Nevyn]

Well not particularly... but it's much easier. It's a son of a b*tch otherwise but doable.

 

could you clarify that a bit for me Kingman.....not too sure what your saying

[Cuong Nguyen]

Biggest problem I have now is getting the front diff crossmember out from where it is sitting on the torsion bar.....do I need to remove the torsion bar to do this?

 

 

Well not particularly... but it's much easier. It's a son of a b*tch otherwise but doable.

 

 

 

could you clarify that a bit for me Kingman.....not too sure what your saying

 

[Nevyn]

 

 

 

 

 

 

mmm....I don't find that particularly helpful Cuong.......maybe explaining how to get the torsion bar off may be a little more helpful

[Cuong Nguyen]

I didn't have to deal with your issue because I was two wheel drive.

Removing the torsion bar was easy from what I remember.

Lift the front up to take off tension.

Back off the adjuster nuts on top of the rear torsion bar crossmember. You might want to mark where the torsion bars line up for reference. Remove.

Remove bolts securing front anchors

Pull out.

Done.

Helps to let the anchors and bolts soak in pb blaster.

 

 

 

 

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[Nevyn]

I didn't have to deal with your issue because I was two wheel drive.

Removing the torsion bar was easy from what I remember.

Lift the front up to take off tension.

Back off the adjuster nuts on top of the rear torsion bar crossmember. You might want to mark where the torsion bars line up for reference. Remove.

Remove bolts securing front anchors

Pull out.

Done.

Helps to let the anchors and bolts soak in pb blaster.

 

 

 

 

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Thanks for that.....I had tried undoing the adjuster nut but after going so far it got so tight even a rattle gun couldn't get it to turn....I tried jacking up the adjuster thinking it would take the tension off, but it made no difference......should I jack up the whole front, or just the side I want to take the torsion bar out from?

 

[Nevyn]

So I got the diff out.....so much easier to get the torsion bar out when the front is jacked up to take the tension off......
Got the sump off and the oil pickup looks fine, the filter isn't blocked at all.....so what else now could be causing the no oil pressure?

[Slartibartfast]

Bad pump or trashed bearings.