Tungsten

Apparently there is a hole there! I'm pretty sure I did not have one there but I have to check again now.

You have to watch it when using oil on cotton gauze filters like K&N. There is a way to properly clean them and then there are ways of not properly cleaning them. Then when re-oiling them, you don't want to use too much oil or that gets sucked into the MAF sensor and ruins it. HKS makes a nice triple layer filter that you never have to oil and you can clean it by soaking it in some water. Wix paper filters work just fine. Any paper filter will work great really unless it's a really crappy FRAM one. The only drawback to paper filters is that any water drops on them will plug the media but that's not a problem on these trucks as far as I know. It doesn't matter where they are made as long as they don't look like crap physically.

Nissan was done but the new CEO saved them by cost cutting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Ghosn Up next, Daimler's acquisition of Nissan... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daimler_Chrysler#Renault-Nissan_and_Daimler_Alliance That's pretty much it. Nissan has sunk to rock bottom.

Diesel conversion...

The one thing I hate about this is there is a piece of Styrofoam lining the box. If the box ever had water in it then mold will grow on there. If the A/C ever fails, take the box out and clean the lining or just remove it.

Yeah if the white plastic nylon delrin starts breaking up from age that would definitely make the shifter fall out of position. I don't think the other pieces matter as much unless they are torn up and squished beyond recognition. Again, a little bit of play is normal and as long as the shifter doesn't wiggle around as you are driving and you can safely change the gears, then it works fine.

Either way the barbs will cut the hose it doesn't even matter what clamps you use. The double wire things will only slow down the process but they will cut the hose from the outside instead. It's really not the greatest clamp and fitting idea at all. Whatever though I'm not going to argue with you about this anymore... The best way to do this is still what andreus did with crimped fittings and custom lines. That's pretty much bulletproof and I think it is necessary for holding oil pressure.

Don't put in water at all. Just keep draining and refilling. Eventually your coolant will be clean. The air relief plug doesn't really do much. It's completely optional if you want to open that. There is a jiggle valve in the thermostat that takes air out of the engine by itself. Just fill the overflow bottle to the max and see what happens to it after about 2 or 3 cooling cycles. It's going to go down! Top it off until it stops going down and you're done.

The drain plugs are really there for servicing the engine on a stand. When you have to basically strip the engine down to the bare block, that's when you open the drain plugs. If you ever touch those things, the threads on them are sealed so you will have to apply sealer to the bolts again and torque them down to specification. These engines can be emptied out just by spinning the water pump and refilled through the upper return hose without even opening the thermostat.

You got that right.

Don't open the drain plugs on the side of the block. That's going to create a huge mess. In fact you don't have to open any of the drain plugs on the engine at all. Drain the coolant through the radiator until the radiator is empty, then close the radiator and start the engine for a few seconds or just crank it to operate the water pump, more coolant will show up in the radiator which you can drain again. Then you can refill the radiator and the engine with coolant again through the upper hose. That should be a pretty good coolant exchange.

Or better yet, tow it from the back with the back wheels on the dolly and the front hubs unlocked. Steering wheel has to be locked from turning obviously.

someone pass the

Most people feel the same way as you do. Sorry to say that there really is no cheap bolt on equipment that will increase performance significantly. Just the way it is. Here are the things you can do as a bolt-on: E-fan conversion Aftermarket exhaust with headers EGR-BPT valve or disable the EGR permanently That will give you a good 10-15 hp increase at the minimum. Before you do any of those though, make sure the engine is tuned up and running smoothly.

If you want more power and gas mileage, it's not going to be cheap. VG motors tend to be very expensive to modify properly since they are already perfect in many departments. There are many extra things you can do like higher compression pistons but other than changing the exhaust and maybe tinkering with the intake, you are going to have to strip it down to the point where you might as well swap a newer VG33E into it if you are serious about power.

That makes sense. There is the answer. Remove the driveshaft. Speaking of which, if you are going to remove that drive shaft, if that pinion seal is leaking in the rear differential, that would be a good time to replace it.

x2 Putting the transfer case into Neutral disconnects the wheels from the transmission. There is a warning in the owners manual about the truck rolling in Park when the transfer case is in Neutral. I think the drive-shaft removal thing is for 2WD trucks.

Smaller tires will improve acceleration because of the gearing but then the engine has to be at higher rpms when you are cruising so the fuel economy difference is negligible. You will only need to change the exhaust. The stock intake is actually well designed. There are still some things you can do to the intake but the difference may not even be noticeable on the good old butt dyno.

The ports are labelled and the factory wires are also labelled and have different lengths. You just can't get this wrong. Maybe if you did not know that the firing order was sequential...

There are solid worm style clamps without the slats, those work the best. The double wire things make sense for a barbed fitting though but that's actually not the most ideal fitting to use anyway. For a regular fitting, the worm clamps work much better. The double wire things just dig more into the hose rather than actually clamp it and over time can actually make the hose tear off as it expands from heat. Who's failing now?

Yeah I get pretty much the same gas mileage as you. I saw 24 mpg before but most of the time when I fill up from driving on the way to school and back after I do the math it always averages 20.7 mpg. I will see what happens to that when I put my electrical fan in. Believe it or not running a Nitrous Oxide system down the intake will help but you will have to run premium gas only and I don't know if that stuff is even legal on the street. What you really want though is just more displacement with higher compression. That should bring the efficiency way up. My ultimate power plan is this: VG33E + street VG30E camshaft profile + small low boost turbo + 2.5" exhaust with headers That should be amazing and still able to pass emissions. I don't know about that. The ECU controls the timing curve and I'm not sure how it will respond to water injection. It already has power issues responding to ethanol in gasoline which can slow down the burning a little. Pure gasoline makes a VG a little bit quicker and more efficient than ethanol dissolved gas. I would imagine water injection to trigger a similar response. This has already been debunked. HHO makes no difference at all. Also, cooling the intake will give you top end power gains but that is only if you cool the intake down completely. http://www.aardvark..../hho_scam.shtml

I guess that's acceptable but those Nissan OEM double wire clamps suck. Solid band clamps are much better. Still much better than zip ties though.

Yeah it's good to have a separate savings account just for vehicle maintenance and repair.

Water injection is only for turbocharged applications as water will significantly increase octane of the fuel. You are only going to be losing power with a N/A water injection setup. If you can keep the intake from heating, the gains would be decent. About 10-15 hp worth of gain. However, if you are only doing that to drive at highway speeds, it's a huge waste of money. The gain is only seen at when the throttle is fully open or nearly fully open. Having cold air at highway speeds will speed you up so you will have to be lighter on the throttle and not open the throttle as much and that's where the problem exists as that will cost fuel efficiency and engine emissions and maybe even get the oil to sludge up quicker. Simply put, you get better efficiency with a more open warm throttle than a less open cold throttle unless you are trying to go really fast.