Orangetang

No I sent it to the wrecker stripped of everything I put into it. There is a parts thread above if you're interested. ARB is sold.

I guess we are out of the 'pick-up' region, so I drove it out to the Dimsdale, AB auto wrecker on Saturday. No more Pathfinder

So I've got an 09 Honda Fit and 02' Pathfinder representing Japan in the driveway and an all-American, Microsoft infused F-150 taking up the rest of it. I can't believe how big this truck is for a 1/2 ton... ARB, winch, lights, stereo, scanguage, tires/rims, etc, all coming out of the Pathfinder before they pick it up next week. I drove it around for an hour or so today, probably for the last time Stay tuned for a parts thread if you really want the bumper or whatever. I'll be reasonable. Shipping is probably brutal though. PARTS THREAD YEAH!

I think I probably flattened a rod bearing when I tried to crank it over. That was probably my big mistake, since it pretty much stalled out without locking at first, or as far as I know. That probably covers the knock, that or also running out of oil... The unsteady operation is more than likely wet electric something. It sometimes idles fine for several minutes and then just turns off. Sadly I'm not even going to try and diagnose. Gov't of Canada is giving $3000 to recycle a vehicle such as this when buying a new F-150, and since that is above what I could get on trade-in, or sale. With that and the huge discount my company gets, I'm going to try and buy one. I already miss the Pathfinder and it hasn't happened yet.

The poor Pathfinder got a little too deep, once again and subsequently bogged out in some muddy water. I winched it out and gave it a turn with the starter and it did about a half rotation before stopping. Pulled the coil packs, plugs, and cleaned the wet ones up, turned the engine over and put the plugs back in. It fired up and ran fine after a couple of tries. I checked the oil and there seemed to be no water in it, and the level hadn't chaged. After an hour or so heading it developed a slight knock around 3500 rpm at which point i checked the oil again. No oil. ?! No leaks, no blue smoke and no oil in the coolant. The filler cap had some sludge in it so I figured it gummed up and wasn't being pumped, or somehow burnt up or evaporated? A friend towed me to the highway and I called AMA... Before bed I drained the oil or what was left of it, refilled and started it up. Still knocking, and not idling properly... Will stall on its own in Park. I changed the oil again and went for a drive. The engine is knocking at a lower RPM now, basically 2000 and up, and has little power but feels balanced and sounds nearly perfect. No shakes or vibrations. I might be optimistic in wondering, but could a wet/dirty coilpack or plug cause a knock? My guess is bent piston arm or valve, or worse, even though any case is pretty much a write off with these things. Any help is much appreciated. The last engine I did this to has a two bent piston arms, and thats about as far as I looked at it, though it drank a lot of water, this one not so much.

After it was all said and done, I left the resonator off, and bolted/siliconed a piece of plastic over the hole. Air now enters through a 4" circular hole I cut in the front of the box behind the headlight, until I actually put a cone filter on it.

Be warned that removing the air box resonator from the 3.5L completely exposes the bottom of the air box to water and mud. I made the mistake of removing mine in preperation for the K&N (which was never delivered) and it cost me an engine. How? By driving through a muddy puddle on a trail no more than a foot deep. The fender liner acted as a forced 'water' intake leading to the hole under the air box and subsequently filled the engine with water in less than the distance of the 3-4 foot puddle. An ~$1800 dollar lesson I wish I hadn't learned. FTR, pulling the VQ35 is a major pain in the ass.

Sorry everybody... I completely forgot to post my progress. The kit came, so I pulled out the pump to take it apart. It looks to my like the pulley is pressed onto the shaft, so I bought a puller that would fit (very hard to find), and tried to pull it off. Long story short, I shattered the first puller, and bought a sturdier style one to either make or break this pump. I used a torch, penetrating oil, and a lot of torque, but it would not come off. The pulley began to warp a fair bit, so as a last desperate attempt I dunked it in a pail of liquid nitrogen until it was -180C or so, all the way through, put it back in the vise and put a torch on the centre of the pulley shaft. Nothing! It would not come apart. I ordered a used pump from an 04' at a wrecker in Edmonton that took a couple of days to get here, and it's been working great. No leaks, no weak spots. I would recommend skipping the whole rebuild thing for this particular pump. Maybe it comes apart another way, but I didn't feel like playing with it anymore.

Just a word of warning if you -3.75 to 4.00 backspacing on those rims to be careful while stuffing the tires in the the wells. I went fishing the other day, down a very beat-up and muddy, boggy road. Some of the holes were very deep and at one point I must have gotten a tire jammed under the fender well because it folded the fender well lip outwards and cut some blocks off of my very expensive MTs. I think I'll beat the rest of them upward with a hammer so they can't catch the edge of the tire.

True... It looks okay, but who can really tell 100%? I'll just go with it. She pretty much just lifted me up rather than a blunt blow from behind. Here are the seperated from frame pics.

I did look underneath. Everything looks solid, and I even torqued on the bolts to see if any of them sheared or would turn, but they are solid. This might have been a knee jerk reaction to something I saw at work... While travelling in convoy (too closely, and another company) a tractor trailer rear ended another one... The radiator and intercooler where damaged on the tractor but the other truck was OK, so they decided to tow the broken down tractor to a safe area. In doing so they pulled the entire front suspension, axle and bumper assembly out from under the tractor (the bolts sheared), and the tractor collapsed onto the oilpan and transmission. Not a pretty sight, not an easy situation. Want pics?

My Pathfinder leaked oil on the driveway, and I want to try to get it out. I don't have a pressure washer, but I have heard soda pop, acetone and stuff like that works... How about a good commercial product that you can srub in and rinse away or sweep up?

That sucks. I guess anything with a front end that starts higher than the hitch will still hurt. Kingman, the neon had tribal seat covers, so I'll go with semi-ricer in my case What kind of cool tube plug should I buy to replace mine? Something rubber I think.

The topic says it all, but yesterday my hitch saved my ass, literally. A Neon hit me in a school zone, I don't thinks she even hit her brakes, no skid mark anywhere, just a pool of green coolant left on the road. I'm not sure how extensive the damage is to the her car, but the hitch went all the way up hood, just shy of the windshield, making a giant V grove along the way. Her headlights were probably close to hitting my rear tires. There is no damage at all to my vehicle except that the plastic ring around the hitch that holds the plastic "reece" cap in place, broke. The cap is still fine if you can believe that. I think that if there was no hitch on there, the trunk door and bumper would have been damaged and maybe the impact would have been more violent, but maybe not. For the $200 or whatever the hitch cost, it is still less than the deductable had there been any damage. My 2 cents