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Heck yeah thank you. If I can de-pin the plugs I was gonna do that. if I can survive me ECU repin then this is gonna be easy lol

Update : it's much worse going forward than in reverse...

Hey all, new Pathfinder owner here. 1998 XE 4x4. Here's my situation. Trying to figure out the source of my horrific grinding noise coming from what I've gathered is either A) CV axle B ) wheel bearing or C) front diff. Truck is in really good shape, low miles engine recently swapped, drives great yadda yadda. Driver side CV axle was in the trunk when I viewed it. Boot was torn, owner said he took it out a few days earlier because it was making a bad noise because it lost all its grease. Makes sense. He showed me a video of the 4x4 working so I took his word for it and bought the truck. I drove it home over 100 miles (didn't realize the insane danger of this move until about halfway through the trip, scariest drive of my life). Anyways I made it home in one piece, the truck drove amazingly up and over the i80 pass from the bay to reno, no weird noises, no grinding, no vibrations from the front end. The next day I got a CV axle from the junkyard from a 1999 pathy that looked and felt great, clearly plenty of lubrication. Installed it, went to drive and there was a gnarly grinding noise that is directly related to speed. Starts immediately when I take off from a stop. Diff fluid was VERY low, topped off. Still grinding. Thought maybe I bent the dust guard for the brake rotor, it was bent but bending it back didn't change anything. Did notice the passenger side CV boot is torn and bone dry inside. That seems like an obvious culprit but my question is why didn't it make ANY noise the entire drive home? Wondering if anyone has any thoughts, although I will probably just replace both cv's with new parts once I get my money up. It also seems like the passenger side axle seal is leaking at the junction point to where the CV axle mounts. Is that a hard job? Thanks all, excited to get to know these trucks better!

It is my understanding that the Factory standard 3.3L injectors work, but have a different connector, and require an adapter of sorts, or maybe you can simply splice in the correct connector if you have no fear of butt-splices. There is a somewhat recent thread in here regarding that. See this thread:

Since I did my SC swap, I’ve had stock 3.3 injectors and rails laying around and was thinking about putting them in my brothers WD21. Will they work with the stock ECU? Most 3.3 swaps don’t really explicitly mentioning the ECU. I know the plugs and rails are slightly different but that’s it. Do I need my old ECU and MAF or just the plugs to be repinned?

Funny enough... I was perusing the Marketplace, and ran across someone who was selling a beat up Xterra for $1000 with a SC engine.... Wife did not balk, she was just curious how I would get rid of the carcas... So... do I get a new gun or a good donor vehicle? Although... there was no mention if it ran or not.... Editing to inquire about the SC.... Is there a need for a different brain for the SC, or is it just a dumb air pump?

Lol I think really we don't get the desert style heat up here (just gross humidity). Though plastics do degrade its usually only on cars that sit in the same spot for years at a time.

@sillbeer, man where did you get these!? They are like gold. I have a 3 door and been searching hard for some. Was the postage from the US reasonable? happy now they’re on?

The Frontier and Xterra (gen 1) are laid out the same way as a WD21. I have one of each so I can confirm this is true. It is the r50 VG33 Pathfinder that is different. The Fronty/X also use flat ribbed belts for all 3 while the r50 uses 2 flat belts and a v-belt for the PS (it is a weird setup). You could also have your pathfinder balancer machined to fit the VG33 crankshaft but I am not 100 percent sure this is possible or if there is enough meat on it to do that.

Seriously contemplating this one for once and I've got a few thoughts: One of the differences/headaches people run into is the harmonic balancer difference and interchangeability. If all of the bolt-on accessories were the same, that'd be fine, but the alternator and PS pump are on opposite sides. Workaround could be to swap in your old accessories to the block, but you have to swap the pulleys. Are the pulley's interchangeable between alternators and PS pumps? Are the pumps and althernators similar enough between the engines that they can just be reused in a different location, with the VG30 brackets? I read some time ago on this forum (I can't find it now), and I don't know how true this is, that the Frontier engine was laid out the same way as the WD21 and the Pathfinder and Xterra were opposite regarding the PS and alternator. So far in my research, I'm not seeing a difference between the models.... Is there any truth to this?? Thanks

I just cut the hoses and replace them whenever I'm in there, which is not that often thankfully!

If you can find one of those adapters for the crank that mr510 made, or get one made yourself, you can run all the vg30 @!*% which makes it way easier. Otherwise you'll be adapting the VG33 accessories, at least the Xterra VG33 all the "stuff" is in the same spot.

Ahhh... I guess I didn't read closely enough. Had my hopes up for a second!!

ah slight miss understanding. I do leave the hoses connected to the throttle, what I meant is that the metal tubes under the intake, bolt to the intake which is why its so hard to remove those back 2 hoses. ill get a picture or video for you later tonight when I have time

well guess i need to front end swap my truck now lol https://imgur.com/a/PHAGX4v

I know this is a little late to the party, and MOST of these things are already broken. Instead of just cranking down on the bolts that thread into the plastic, I would turn them counterclockwise unit they clicked, and then tighten them so you're not trying to create new threads in the plastic. And ONLY tighten them snug!! Mine is basically held together by gravity at this point, except a couple of screws threaded into the plastic on the sides. The big ones in the middle are gone gone, except the 2 towards the steering wheel that actually thread into the steering column that provide all of the support at this point. I might could fabricate something with JB Weld if I had to, like I did with my center console, but it's OK for now

Interesting... How well does it perform in the cold BC weather? Better with the cold air, or does it take longer to warm up with no heat going to the intake? I might consider doing this permanently if the pro's are even slightly positive...

The VG33 engine swap, alltogether, is something worth looking into. My engine has 320K miles on it and I'm not entirely sure that it is original. I have my suspicions, like... it had all Nissan badged belts, hoses, and ignition wires, in good shape, when I got it. I'm not sure how much the additional HP and displacement would preform, but it'd probably be worth it, with injectors that are less unobtainium at the moment...

just cut them like I do and its easy. if you unbolt the hoses from the plenum and on reinstallation don't put them back, it allows you to remove the plenum by just unbolting the throttle and not having to drain coolant next time. allowed me to reseal my injectors in 45 minutes with no headache on a SC!

Thanks for the heads-up, not looking forward to it when that time comes.

(Oops, that was me, sorry, been meaning to update that post, with pictures, I'll get on it! But long story short, the VG33 injectors work, now I did also use the VG33 rail, so not 100% sure the VG33 injectors slide into the VG30 rail "injector bores", but I'm pretty sure the diameters are the same).

Well, not pretty, but she's holding!

Maybe the final update: Fuel filter didn't do anything. It probably needed it anyway. I think I put the new one in about 12 years ago along with everything else I just swapped out. I pulled, partially, the upper intake and swapped out the No. 4 injector with a NEW one. Took it on another test drive and it ran flawlessly. OTOH, it ran flawlessly until it didn't when I took it for the 20mi test drive... I'll probably be driving it all next week, so that should be a good final test. Will let inquiring minds know

Howdy folks. SO this morning I pulled the sump off, and the filter. I then went about pulling the valve body out, and in doing so - i was gifted two pieces of metal that i strongly suspected came from inside the transmission I did a bit of youtubing, and found a great video of a fellow rebuilding the RE4R01A transmission - it goes for about an hour and is very in depth. As soon as he held up the new band he was installing - i knew what the pieces i found were from. So - it appears as though the issue is that one of the anchor points on the brake band has failed. This aligns with my son saying in the weeks leading up to the current problem, the transmission was slipping a bit. SO - from here i think the plan is going to be: Transmission out Visual inspection for rattle damage. Replace brake band overhaul and clean valve body. Reassemble transmission Reinstall transmission. Unless anyone has another theory, i feel fairly confident that the broken band anchor is the silver bullet. The magnet in the bottom of the trans was quite clean - especially given the km's on the car, so i feel fairly confident that there isnt alot of other internal damage - but the visual inspection is required to confirm. Not a great outcome - but happy i believe we have found the answer. CHeers.

New Cap, Rotor and Plug wires installed. Took it for a test ride (Around 20 miles), and nearly the exact same thing happens. As I get closer to home (after around 15 miles), it starts misfiring. It didn't appear to be as bad this time around, and it seemed to clear up for moments at a time... Just before I parked it, it was running fine again... It seems as though I have used but good ignition parts to swap out in the future now I have a new fuel filter on hand, and I'll give that one last try before I pull the intake in order to swap out the one injector.... Yay, I was hoping it would be easy!!