mws

Oughta work just fine. These appear to be the lower power one speed fan from the base Taurus (at least the one on the right is - I can only see two wires on it). I have have only worked with the 2 speed 3.8L models. I also do not recall seeing the "clipped off" shroud corner on the 2 speed fan.

MY opinion - this and $5 will get you a bitter, nasty tasting coffee at Starbucks... 3+3 with gnarly 31" M/T's looks silly, like it's trying too hard. 3+3 with 31" A/T's looks rather ridiculous. I'm running 3" B/L and 2" S/L, and I think it looks silly. My goal is 1-2" of B/L and about 2" of S/L. Unless I start shredding CV boots, at which time I'll drop down to 1" of S/L. I recommend 2" B/L over 3" anyways. Less pulling and tugging and re-arranging of stuff.

Best value? Find a chunk of nylon or other tough polymer, or steal some hockey pucks. Drill holes. Buy bolts.

Nope. Toyo are Japanese and known for being well engineered and of very high quality construction (very round and well balanced). Kumho are Korean and known for being cheap.

Dammit! After all the checking and double checking, somehow the belt was off by 3 teeth on the crank. I can only surmise that it slipped during the tensioner adjustment. I though we had triple checked the tooth count before buttoning it back up, but clearly didn't. We were rushing things a bit as my nephew wanted to get home... I know better, but still allow myself to slip up every now and then... So 3 teeth off will result in TACK TACK TACK. And a bent valve (I hope). We reset the belt, started it up, and still have an intermittent mechanical noise. Passenger head is off, will be pulling drivers side soon. No damage to pistons, but there is a cleaned spot (knocked carbon off) in the intake valve relief and what look to be witness marks on the intake where they were kissing the piston. No obviously seriously bent (they were all closed when removed) but haven't chucked them up and measured with indicator yet. Trying to find the silver lining.... At least this will let us clean up valves and install new seals! Maybe that will reduce oil consumption somewhat... And we're getting REALLY good at stripping the front of the engine to get to the belt...

Not directly. You can use the shortblock with all your externals, but will need to use your SOHC heads, intake, accessory drives, oilpan, flywheel, etc. Searching will reveal many threads on who has used what.

If the fuse blows immediately when switched on, that is a hard short. Look for wire pinched against metal. If the lights work for a while and then unpredictably blow the fuse, look for a section of wire with insulation scraped off.

I'm pretty sure the factory wattage is 55 watts per bulb. 10A is big enough, but 15 is OK. The solution is to find the short and eliminate it. (2) 55 watt bulbs = 110 W 110W/13.2V = about 8.3 amps If you are pulling almost 30 amps (most fuses will not blow until you are flowing double the rated current....) into a circuit that should be 8 amps, well, you clearly have a short in there somewhere!

I am also glad to hear you're back in the saddle. We all need to take some time off every now and then... You made a fantastic choice in having Aaron take the reigns - he has kept us, and the web site, on the straight and narrow to being the best, most respectful and professional Pathy site on the web. So, what parts do you need for your pathy? I will be glad to donate a few in exchange for all the this site has done for me....

Seafoam experiment is not resolving the problem. I added 1/2 can and have run it 3 times for about 4 minutes then shut off and let cool to let the methanol work on crud. No change. She is scheduled for a little exploratory surgery tomorrow... Running with the hood closed made it sound much more like a classic lifter tap. Just a really loud one!

Depending on how much fabbing you want to do.... I bent and welded a bracket that bolts to the firewall, side wall, and top of fender liner. On this bracket is the oil filter and all the auxiliary relays and fuse blocks... I had a photo somewhere... can't find it right now....

BINGO! Those symptoms are THE classic symptoms for a rotted/cracked or slipped sending unit/fuel pump gasket! So what dag and '88 suggested is even MORE likely to be the culprit. Pretty common problem these days in just about every vehicle ever made. Today's gasolines have all kinds of additives that are rather harsh to rubber (oxygenates, alcohols) and the gaskets are rotting out faster than they should. Now we just need to find out how easy it is to access the sending unit assembly and its gasket. It should be on the top of the tank, most likely near the front. Hopefully the R50 has an easy access plate in the floor of the cargo area like the WD21.... If not, you will have to hope Nissan designed the tank for relatively easy access (I'll wager they did, Nissan is pretty good for design.) Worst case, you'll have to drop the tank.

The newer Cooper STT's should be looked at. The sidewalls are designed to be extra tough.

The Weld-Pak line are dumbed down and compromised to hit a price target set by warehouse stores. Yeah, they're inexpensive, but the reliability and flexibility are severely compromised. If you're looking for something to do a few light duty jobs around the house and then throw it away in 2-3 years when you can afford a nice unit, then they're OK. But only OK. The minimally adjustable power output will be a challenge to you when you're learning. The lowest I would recommend in Lincoln's line is the SP-135 plus. And stick to Lincoln, Hobart, or Miller if you want to be able to get replacement parts a year from now.... As Trailchaser points out, the 115V units are awesome up to about 1/8" max when using GMAW and 3/16" when using flux core but that's it for good solid welds. I chose it because I can run it off my portable generator when in the field. For 1/4", I have an old Lincoln 230V buzz box. Messy and harder to use than GMAW, but gets the job done!

Well shoot.... it wasn't the bolt. The proper bolt is in there with clearance and no evidence of contact.

The really nice Taurus fan came only in the 3.8l models - it has 3 wires. Low/std speed, high/hurricane speed, and ground.

Thank you!

Long bolt? Can you elaborate, please? I take it there is at least one bolt longer than the others and if put in behind the the HB it hits either the HB or something inside the cover? I was not involved with the cover replacement as I was working on re-wiring some things. It has had filter relocation for some time now. I have Seafoam now and will try it one of these evenings.

I've changed them as a matter of course, but I have yet to see one that appeared to really need changing... Unlike an engine that is constantly ingesting contaminants, an A/T should remain relatively sealed and does not ingest dirt and blowby.... The bands and clutch packs slowly degrade and add particles to be filtered, but usually not enough to load a filter up enough to require changing as often as the fluid. As I see it, changing the filter every other fluid change (about every 100 to 150K) ought to be plenty unless there are special circumstances.

Yeah.... but AFTER college is paid for! We will double check the belt timing as well.

Great idea on the fuse! I don't have a way to accurately record a sound clip, and they end up so distorted on PC's, but I'll see what we can do.

I did a 2 speed 3.8L Taurus in the '88 and some aftermarket thing in the '87. The Taurus fan sucked!!!! As in sucked the chrome off the trailer hitch ball of the truck in front of the Pathy!!! This thing moves serious air on high speed. I wired up the low speed circuit off a Flexalite variable speed controller, and then the high speed off a HIGH CURRENT 75A relay as it is rumored to pull over 40 amps on high. I have yet to need to engage warp speed. But it is there, just in case.... It does get over 110 degrees out here. It did require some creativity in mounting to get maximum effectiveness of the Taurus shroud and some creative wiring to use both speeds, but it really and truly moves MUCH more air than any aftermarket fan I've seen. So if you have a dual core radiator, even one of the average aftermarket fans will do 99% of the time. But if you are going to do some sloooooow speed crawling in hot temps, I highly recommend the extra effort to mount and wire in the Taurus.

Under my shade tree, we put the outlet hose into a 5 gallon bucket, let it run, and continue pouring fluid into the dipstick tube until it has pumped out FULL capacity and a couple quarts for good measure. By continuing to fill, it avoids the pump ever going competely dry.

We swapped timing belt and installed Thorley's on my old (now my nephew's oldest son's) '87 grey V6 pathy with just over 200K miles. The new belt had lines, the pulleys lined up exactly like stock AND I did the counting so I am 99% sure the cams are propertly timed. Being an anal retentive and experienced shade tree mecanick, I triple checked everything. Belt was perfectly tensioned (90 degree twist passed with tensioner at 5:30). Was running like a champ at shut down, considering its miles. Been running Mobil 1 and Syntec for last 30K miles - 10W30. We also did some rewiring and replaced radiator, etc. It took two weeks to complete the job (had to take a weekend off for dirt biking!) and we finally started it up. After flooding it due to a wire not being connected, it finally fired up. But now features a very loud TACK TACK TACK TACK TACK sound - like a slightly amplified diesel engine. Appears to emanate from passenger side. Shut it off and checked oil - nothing on stick. Was 1.5 quarts low (she has always burned a bit and the nephew, well, clearly was not topping off often enough). Topped it off. Idiot light was working and never lit up while running, so I don't think it was ever significantly starved. Ran it for about 3 more minutes. Still TACKING and barely idled - very rough. Sounding very much like it is missing on at least one cylinder. #1 suspect: Collapsed lifter that just won't pump up. Like completely bled down and not opening valve at all. Is that possible with this design? #2 suspect: Timing belt woodruff key sheared and pulley shifted on start up and now we have a valve kissing a piston. #3: Miss-set belt and my two witnesses didn't catch it. #2 just seems like a longer shot than #1. Abd #3 even a longer shot. It is running like it is completely missing 1 lung, not just "off" power a bit. It is running ROUGH. It will rev up to 3K, but reluctantly. Has anyone had a lifter collapse or not refill? How loud was the tap, and did it sound like a diesel, but louder? Current plan: Dump in some Seafoam, run it for 1 minute, let it sit, and then run for 3 minutes at idle and see if it clears up. If so, change oil and schedule a lifter change in the future. If not, pull valve cover and watch rockers while turning over engine. Ideas? Suggestions? How messy is the VG30 to start up with valve cover off? It would be nice to watch it run and verify exactly what lifter may be collapsed. Thanks for ideas and suggestions! Martin

Thank you. That picture is exactly what I needed to verify the design. I am still putting my money on a collapsed lifter, but this is number two on the hit parade. Thanks again!