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I wonder whether the benefit from those is from the new/different modes, or more from overriding whatever "optimization" the ECU does. I've been annoyed by that meddling in almost every E-throttle vehicle I've driven. Small adjustments ignored, smooth inputs made jerky. I much prefer the cable throttle in my '93. The old VG30 may be gutless, but at least it tries to do what I'm asking!

If you are getting rid of the 1st gen steel wheels in chrome this spring I am your buyer. Like these: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/1987-nissan-pathfinder-no-clue-what-im-doing/221040/page1/

I reached a stopping point today so I thought I would put it down while it's fresh in my head. For the gear driven speedometer models, remove the speedo gear first. If you don't, you'll probably break the plastic oil cover and gutter. I didn't make the name of it... it is what it is. When disassembling the rear end of the case, contrary to the manual, do not remove the front driveshaft output nut or adapter until you're ready to replace the seal. The procedure has you remove that first and, in my case, the front bearing came out of the housing vice the rear which misaligned everything when pulling it apart and the chain would not let me pull it apart. If you leave that part on the front of the housing, it will keep the bearing and sprocket on the front housing, allowing for a much easier removal. Now that the extension housing off, the procedure mentions pulling everything off of the tailshaft. Do NOT do any of that. I spent a lot of time trying to pull that apart and it didn't need to come off. Pull the snap ring off of the shift fork that is accessible. That's for the 4WD. Remove the oil cover and gutter. It's plastic, so use care when pulling. I imagine that's probably unobtanium. There are 6 Torx head bolts holding the mainshaft to the housing. Do not remove those. Split the mid section from the front section. This is where parts fell out. Intact. One was a shim that goes on the bearing of the countershaft that resides in the mid section, and there were the 2 pieces of the mainshaft pocket bearing that resides in the input shaft. I removed the 4WD fork rod and 4Low fork by popping them out from the external actuator. There is a ball bearing backed with a spring, held externally with a 19MM plug. I don't know when you should pull those, but when I pulled them, the ball bearings fell into the housing and were easily retrieved with a magnet. From there, you can access the top 2 bolts of the front cover, unobstructed. Putting it back together, I placed the pocket bearing into the space where it goes and used grease to hold the shim in place on the mid section. That's it!! it's basically lining everything back up and doing the same thing in reverse. Since the front driveshaft rear bearing is stuck in the extension housing, I'm going to have to borrow a slide hammer to pull it out and will continue to try to put it back together tomorrow. I'll be ordering a new front driveshaft seal, so, yet another thing I'll be waiting for until it's done. At least, I can start working on getting it back in the Pathfinder and put that in later. All in all, about 5 hours to work on, and if I knew about the things I didn't need to do, or sequence of events, it could have been much less. Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!!

Howdy All, I am putting the Bilstein 3" true lift kit on my 1991 Pathfinder and was wondering about extended brake lines. This is my first time ever doing a lift on anything so I am learning as I am going (apologies if anything I say is dumb). I was wondering if anyone knew whether I need extended brake lines to support the lift or if stock will suffice, and if so where would I get them. I have looked at quite a few sites at this point and the longest I can find are the Sunsong 17.8" lines on Summit. Any help would be appreciated

Seals are a standard sizing usually so even if the auto parts store can't get them if you can read the numbers off of them, a bearing specialty shop should be able to find something.

Hi, Wondering if you are still making these. How much for a rack?

@adamzan Agreed. The seal does not come out of the front. There is a slight ridge in the oil cup that prevents it from coming out the front.... In addition to the oil cup that completely prevents it from clearing the mainshaft (Only on a MT. AT doesn't have the oil cup based on what I have seen and read). The cover that it goes into, has 2 bolts at the top that fasten from the other side. I'll get back to this if I experience anything different... it looks somewhat challenging, but it also seems fairly basic. You just have to take things apart in a certain sequence... but it's pretty much completely disassembled in order to get to it. I thought I replaced this in my 95, and I know I didn't have to split the case.... Maybe my memory is faulty... I don't remember that cup being in front of the seal at all... And it was a MT as well... Maybe someone put the wrong transfer case on it... It was a 4 cylinder D21, so not entirely the same... maybe that was the difference... I don't know... I guess... since everything is 30+ years old and I'm going to be taking it COMPLETELY apart, I might as well replace the front driveshaft seal and the gear selector seal... Off to find out where I can get those...

That seems insane.

@Slartibartfast I keep forgetting to check codes - will be the next thing I do. It's getting fuel for sure, and I'm 99% sure compression (I pulled a spark plug for timing belt job but replaced it and torqued correctly - otherwise nothing compression-related was removed or changed), so spark seems to be the culprit. Hopefully codes will give an indication, and if not I'll start checking grounds. I did remove the dizzy cap at one point but not the whole assembly, so maybe I damaged or messed with the crank angle sensor? Who knows. I've been getting a lot of bike commuting done lately so silver linings, ha. @gamellott that makes sense re: pulley! As for connectors I sort of preemptively disconnected a lot of the front harness (throttle position sensor/dizzy/crank sensor/etc) when doing the belt in an attempt to keep as much out of my way as possible.

https://imgur.com/a/abnZihg It cut out the initial start but the initial start is normal

AFAIK it should be any year XJ model 1984-2000 (?). I know they had a facelift in the 90’s but I don’t think that changed the suspension at all. Also, do you need to mod the XJ springs to fit like you do with Grand Cherokee stock springs? I know JGC spring swaps are common for budget lifts and I remember people talking about bending or doing something to one side to match the Nissan springs?

i wont be able to test today but i could get a video of the cold start, ill try to test tomorrow.

I would check the ignition wires. I had a couple of bad ones at one point in time where it misfired because the spark was not getting to the spark plug. If it is a bad wire, you will notice a clicking sound while it's running with the hood open, and there is the possibility that you could get bit by the coil. That's always fun. It's low hanging fruit, but I would also put in some new spark plugs. No need for anything fancy. Also, I experienced a couple of frozen injectors which REALLY sounds like what you're experiencing. I had 2 dead cylinders because of bad injectors and it would still run, just very poorly. You can pull each wire independently while it's running to isolate which cylinder isn't firing, assuming it's consistently the same cylinder. If there is no change in how it runs after pulling the wire, it's associated to that cylinder. If it dies, or sounds worse, its not that cylinder.

A guy I know put an EVCX into his VK swapped Frontier and came to me, raving about it, along with a video and how well it works. I'm sold. I know with my V8 and the 90mm TB she can be jump and does worry me about tine control for off-roading. This will likely resolve that problem. I've also been concerned about DBW throttle for off-road and really liked my cable throttle in my old X for vehicle control. This may be just what I need.

Depending on the calibration of your torque wrench, you may have gotten it perfect!

Looks like progress! Bet that manifold leak was noisy. If it was blowing hoses from exhaust gas getting into the cooling system, that suggests you were right about the head gaskets. Check for cracks and warpage while it's apart. The oil in the valley probably came from the valve cover gaskets. That depends on how far you go. The VG30 and VG33 service manuals have identical specs for the valve springs, so the stock springs should handle VG30 cams just fine. JWT even recommends the stock springs with their S1 cams, which if post #7 in this thread is correct, are a larger jump in lift from the VG30 cams than the VG30 cams are from the VG33 cams. JWT's S2 cams do spec harder springs. And yeah, if you're pulling the heads apart anyway, that would be a great time to clean out the gunk and lap the valves. Mr. 510's VG34 thread has some info on porting if you want to give that a go.

Just Calcium build up in the coolant. Pistons look normalish (dirty but healthy) and that knock sensor looks better than what I pulled on mine! But with all that sludge being at the top where the overflow is and you filled anyways, I would put it to being from the gross hose water that got put in to it. That's why you need to use distilled/deionized water. Someone made a point of that somewhere a few posts up. From the research I did for the cams, you'll have to go with the heavier valve spring to compensate for the higher lift. More lift on a soft spring is just asking for valve float. That's it. The cam gears should be the same, and the rocker assembly. Check the valve seats though for any pitting or carbon, improper seats just loses HP.

It definitely has had hose water go through it, between the overflow pipe bursting and the coolant loss, i was desperate for water. Are you saying that's calcium buildup on the pistons? I will make a separate post if I do the VG30 cams, for sure. Would like to get just a bit more power out of this engine, not sure if there is other stuff I'd have to replace or if it's just a drop in upgrade.

I would like to chime in saying that could be calcium build up if its ever had hose water flushed through it at any point. that and heat don't usually mix well. If you get it running with VG30 cams post the info. I've been wanting to do the same but don't want to pull my heads and let that JDM magic out quite yet

So its been awhile but I have updates. Since I had corrected the timing more or less, the truck was acting a lot better. Getting 16.5 to 17 on the highway and 14-15 city. The same drive I would take up the mountains was a lot more manageable and could keep it going 50 at 3k rpms without overheating. Again, as I'd get off the highway it would climb a bit (3/4 gauge) but would come back down and I'd think nothing of it. I could see the coolant rising in the reservoir but it wasn't boiling over anymore. I also replaced the fan clutch at this time but didn't really notice a difference. Lasted rest of winter nicely. Come spring, and 70 degree weather, more problems haha. My coolant overflow elbow pipe burst and I replaced it surprisingly easily. I was hoping this was the cause of everything else and was pretty happy but the day after I fixed, my top radiator hose popped off and I started burning coolant on startup and overheating on steep hills. I religiously bled and burped the cooling system almost every day and was going through coolant fast. The coolant burning was most pronounced on cool humid days, but some days it would be fine. It would also act totally normal once I got up to temp and was driving around. My idle revs also fixed themself at this time, not sure how but now idling at around 700rpm. My fear of head gasket is now realized and I opted to buy some crc head gasket sealer. I got home and read some reviews that were the most polar opposites 50/50 it worked or it destroyed the engine. I decided to not use that and return and buy head gaskets instead. Still not sure if it is the head gasket or the lower intake manifold gasket that was the issue, but I took the driver head off as of an hour ago, and plan on doing the other head tomorrow. I'm kinda glad to do this as I've been wanting to do the valve covers and my driver side exhaust manifold for awhile now. The driver side exhaust literally fell apart in 2 pieces when I unbolted it! Couple other things I noticed was my engine valley under the lower intake was completed submerged in oil? I think that explains my knock sensor codes as the knock sensor was actually melted where it was. I didn't notice anything particularly bad with this headgasket on the driver side but who's to say, the 4th cylinder was spotless. I'm wondering if there's anything I should check for while I'm here, was thinking about performance upgrades, I've heard some people put VG30 cams in this engine but not sure. Cylinder 4 looks clean as a whistle so I'm hopeful(?) that the head gasket was leaking and I didn't waste my time taking this off. Any tips or recommendations for the stage I'm at right now? Should I clean the head and rockers with diesel?

AFAIK Teflon tape is fuel-resistant, but it's meant for tapered pipe thread. I haven't had a fuel pump out of an R50, but looking at pictures of them, I'm not seeing tapered pipe thread connections. I'm seeing hoses clamped to nipples and quick-connects, neither of which take Teflon tape. Generally quick-connects take O-rings. If the O-rings are bad, you could probably pick them out and install new O-rings. I remain skeptical of your vacuum theory.

@Slartibartfast So you're saying I got it pretty close then!! Downloaded the FSM for the transfer case. It looks like the only way to pull/replace that front seal is to take it COMPLETELY Apart. Not quite what I wanted to do...

Ya, I know about the 6-second fuel signal after each start. I've actually measured the fuel pump voltage at the connector and noticed that it was ~10.7v, so believing that it might be due to lower voltage not turning on the pump hard enough, I connected a 100ah lithium battery directly to the pump to no avail. I believe there is enough suction created though the injectors to pull the fuel up past the leak once the rpm gets up there with the starting fluid. I'll know eventually once I change the hose or just put some Teflon tape on the stem. Do you think the tape will deteriorate on contact with fuel? Just bought some yellow teflon tape. Easy way first.