Earth1

Good info. I have to do the same, at least it's not in the truck. Renting a puller...

Nope not quite that big. See the roll of tape? I put it in the pic for size reference.

I was uploadind photos for the engine swap and thought I'd throw these up here. Can anyone guess what it is? Still a work in progress. Hint: upside down in 2nd pic

new engine up on the hoist got it mounted on the stand some of the stuff off broken exaust manifold stud rust in the water pump area got the intake manifold off my first look into a head rockers off

I thought it might be something like that.

Made my first dumb move tonight. I thought the rocker cover seal was like RTV or something because it wouldn't come loose so I sliced through the middle of the gap. Guess what? IT'S A RUBBER SEAL! I guess I'll borrow one from my old engine. I got the rocker arms and shaft out of one side tonight. Didn't take the lifter assembly off tonight because I couldn't find any wire to hold the lifters. One of the rocker cover screws on the Left side is under the distributor. One of the distributor bolts has a little foil band around it with Japanese writing. Is this a like a warning seal not to re-use? Didn't see anything about it in the manual, and my Japanese aint so good. Just wanted to make sure before I take the dist. off. Here's what I'm talking about. Sorry about the huge pic, photobucket wasn't resizing. I'll resize and get some more pics up tomorrrow.

Thanks for the advise Slick and I see what you're sayin. Heads are still on the new engine. I'll wait until I get a look in there before I decide what to do. If it turns out to be something that I want done, but have to pay someone else and wait to get it back then I don't knowif I'll do it, honestly. IF I think I can do it without much extra $, and can still get er to emissions in time than I will. Thanks. It would be a gamble and I appreciate your concern. I have a lot of digipics- and all the hardware labeled in a ziplock and taped to its corresponding part. Hopefully I don't end up with extra crap or missing anything.

Cool thanks. That's one project i hope to get to soon. You just saved me a headache.

K. Got down to the rocker covers. I'm going to have to clean the garage some tomorrow before I take one off. I can imagine what a mess a little dirt could cause. :oops: I think I am going to chance using the original valves partially because I don't have the money for much more work without putting the project on hold for a while. I'm due for an emission test in 3 weeks and there's no way my current engine will pass. So I'm getting in a bit of a bind. I think I'm missing something here. Why do the valves have to be reseated after the new cams are installed? The manual doesn't say anything about that. Yep I am learning a ton. I already feel like I know so much more about my engine. I never really did too much wrenchin before the Pathy, and never took machine shop in HS so this is like motor 101 for me.

For now I have just velcro straped the handle tight and hooked it to the cargo hooks in the back with a block of wood under the top end. It sets real nice just between the interior panels and no noise. When I have a roof basket it will go on top!

Try ebay. Are those seats more comfy than Pathfinder's mws?

I've seen a couple with chrome moulding around the well. Looks aight. I was planning on putting a bead of silicone or something around the contact lip of mine next time I have them off. Should help if not solve the rubbing/scratching problem.

Spent a while last night cleaning stuff up, removing old gaskets (PITA) and unhooking harnesses, lines etc. It's taking me a while because I'm stoping to take lots of pics and meticulously labeling EVERYTHING I take off with tiny little stickers and listing a description of what the stickers are for. A1, A2,A3, A4... I'm pretty much doing this by myself and asking my friend stupid little questions here and there. Still unpluggin away.

Hey B- Packman5280 is doing a swap with leafs and there is talk of a couple other guys in Colorado that may be doing some SAS soon too. He has started a topic on it at NOR: nissan wheelers of colorado/NOR There should be some good info on his project soon. Hope it helps, good luck.

I think maybe all laredo models have thicker springs.

Well, if everything goes well for me I will have the heads off my replacement in a few days. I'll let you know if I come across anything weird. But I'm sure Slick and Dave will have you taken care of by then!

True. Although with all the problems I'm havin with the engine in my truck now, they may need some TLC. I can't wait to get back in the garage tonight and start taking stuff apart. Hoping to at least get the intake and rocker covers off and get a better idea of what I'm dealing with. When I started taking all the gargbage off, the manifolds were some of the first to go. FSM says to keep the manifolds on the head when removing. The manifolds might still be around, but I kcufed up the stupid little studs getting them out. Should I go find some bolts to temporarily reattach the manifolds? I can see how the heads might get warped during removal if they weren't on. For removing the hydraulic lifters, how do I attach the wire and not scratch the surface of the lifters? When checking the head for warpage, do I just use a regular metal straight edge like a ruler? I have no idea. What should I expect to pay for a dial gauge and micrometer? Oh and what all did that gasket kit come with? Sounds like the way to go, if I don't end up with a bunch of stuff I don't need.

OK, thanks guys a ton for the help. :bow: I'm probably gonna give it a whack. I'll call around & see what it'll cost to have someone else do it, but I think I can figur it out. I have the FSM and a pretty handy friend to help. At this point I'm in no hurry so (worst case scenario) even if I screw something up I can always hire a mechanic to finish up. Didn't get too far tonight, it's unusually cold here and the garage isn't heated.

Per Slick's advice I'm going to start calling some mechanics to get the price on headwork.

Yeah I have upgraded cams. I thought the valves would be OK on this 50K mile engine. So I am officially in over my "head" ?

Nope I am not a very experienced mechanic, in fact I am a very UNEXPERIENCED mechanic. I wish I had my manual here (its at the garage). This is all still so new to me so I have to refer to the illustrations to make sense of anything. So at the least I have to remove the intake mainfold and upper head stuff as a bare minimum to get the cams out/in? If so I'll definately do the headgask. What exactly does a valve job entail and is it necessary when replacing cams? Maybe I should just go to the garage before I ask anymore questions. Problem is there is no inernet at my buddy's place where I'm doing the work.

Thanks Slick! I thought you may jump in. So the valve rail has to be loosened before turning back to TDC? I turned it back a little without doing that first. I'll try and clean up the tstat housing. Is it bad to get gas on the housing hose? Didn't think about changing the coolant a few times, good info. Do you mean take off rocker panels, etc.; or cam sprockets, bolts, and outter stuff? I was hoping to not pull the heads. Oh and the cyls are 5,3,1 back to front pass side and 6,4,2 back to front driv side right?

I just took one of my tranny bolts off to get some longer ones like it. Engine is on the stand and pretty much free of all the unusable hoses, wires, etc. They just cut off everything instead of disconnecting stuff, including the engine mounts which aren't useable now . This engine is amazingly clean. It still had a Japanese oil filter on it which made me feel a little more sure it came from Jap. and not some junkyard in New Jersey. So far I'm down to the timing belt, water pump, and thermostat area. I was alarmed to find quite a bit of wet rust/mineral deposits in the water inlet hose. The camshaft and crankshaft sprockets had a little bit of surface rust, just wire brushed them a little. The thermostat housing looks like it will need replaced, it too has some corrosion. When I got the water pump off, the mating (seal) and inside areas have some surface rust. The waterpump bolts are all pretty corroded, hopefully I can find some new ones in the next few days. The exaust manifolds had 1 broken stud. Rear passenger. It was broken while the engine was running, the area around that side of the hole is black. The broken stud came out no problem with an extractor. I removed a back camshaft bolt and the camshaft sprocket turned just a little, maybe 10 degrees. :X Is that a problem? The FSM said not to let the camshaft & crankhaft sprockets move once timing belt is off. My questions: 1. For aligning the timing belt for removal, both camshaft punchmarks can't really line up at the same time, so I split the difference. Should just one be lined up to the mark exactly, or is this OK? 2. Is some rust in the t-stat/ water pump area normal? A little on the sprockets? Will cleaning these up with some emery cloth and fine wire brushes be OK? 3.There are some burrs on the water inlet on the block. Should I knock those down for a smoother flow? 4. How much can one camshaft turn seperately of the other shafts without screwing anything up? 5. Will the camshafts slide out of the heads without taking off the intake manifold and taking heads off? If I have to take the heads apart I will replace the lifters and probably do some smoothing in the manifold. Since this engine is at about 50K miles I was hoping to leave the heads on and not change lifters. 6. If cams will slide out, how do I get them started? I have never done anything like this. I am actually having a lot of fun with this. I was going to download pics today, but I forgot my camera over at my buddy's garage lastnight. I'll try to get those up tonight. Do any of the free photo hosters offer longer hosting than a month?

My replacement engine showed up today, so let the madness begin. I'm going to have a lot of questions. I'll try to be as specific as posible but I'm learning as I go here so bare with me. Now without further a do, my first hiccup... What is the best way to attach the engine to an engine stand? The FSM mentions an engine attachment and sub-attachment in the "SPECIAL SERVICE TOOLS" list in the front of section EM, but do I have to get those from a dealer? Is it OK to bolt the stand to the transmission mounting holes? If so does anyone know the thread pitch for the transmission-to-block bolts? I got it up on the hoist tonight and started to take off some of the cut hoses, wires, exaust, etc. I'm going to be woking on this a little every night after work until it's done. Should get to the actual install next weekend if everything goes fairly smooth. I'm taking pics but it may take me a while to get them up. This is costing a fortune.

I actually ended up just tapping the hole with the same thread as the stock bolt and it has worked fine for me since then. I suppose a proper fix if it is really bad would be to weld the hole with extra material, drill/tap it out to use the stock thread pitch. If I ever have problems with mine again that's what I'll do. Good luck. Ask the people doing your alignment to keep the impact wrench off those bolts from now on. They have a fairly fine thread.