Indigent

I have no circulation in my coolant system. The water pump was installed a few months ago on the last t-belt change. I have had the heads off to change a head gasket and valves. I have just finished putting it back together, and now there is no circulation. I am pretty sure I have some lines in the wrong place somewhere, but I can't find any actual pictures of where they are supposed to go. There is a good one for the vacuum lines, but anyone know of one for the coolant? I guess I could always resort to cross-checking with another good engine, but thought I would check here first. thanks Indigent.

Doesn't the ECU get the signal to advance timing from the Throttle Position Sensor? That would seem to make some sense. If the TPS isn't reporting a change in accelleration, then the ECU isn't advancing based on those readings. It would increase only slightly in accelleration because of the increased gas flow, right? Someone tell me if I am wrong. Indigent.

I honestly have no idea. I assume they are the original pistons. I don't know the history of this engine though. What I don't get is, why just that piston? I know for a fact that the head gasket was bad because when I pulled of the LH head the outboard side of the gasket was covered in oil, and 2,4, and 6 were all covered in nasty crap (worse that 1,3,5.) Oil has been leaking out of that side of the engine since I got it too. I would assume some damage would have occured to #4 as well.

I mainly miss all of the featurs my TD27T had. I frequently tow large loads up into the mountains here. I.E. my boat or camping trailer, so those rear disc brakes really make a difference. Those adjustable shocks come in really handy when towing in the hills on the pass corners. I am not a knob and switch freak, but I do miss my headlight misters, adjustable shocks and my clinometer cluster. Although they aren't really THAT important, but they sure were nice. hehe. I *normally* only travel ~20 miles a day, but I do travel across the mountains to Seattle alot when I have time off. Is it possible to get at that piston without removing the engine? Indigent.

There is a pinned topic on this in the garage section. http://www.nissanpathfinders.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=7703

a piston not traveling all the way up would affect compression wouldn't it? I know that a simple visual check isn't good enough, but I would expect a fair ammount of visible damage to at least one valve considering how far down that piston is. as for the energy, I mentioned earlier that I have a large budget. That is due largely to substantial ammounts of overtime. also I have a wife and kid I would like to spend SOME time with. hehe. there isn't really any place in my town to take a head to for inspection either. I would really like to give it an all out effort, but considering how much I paid for it, and how much I could sell it for, it would be incredibly easier and more cost effective to get another one. I am also in the process of restoring my 68 bug. I only have 2 hands, and it is a hard decision every time I walk in my garage to pick which one to work on. hehe. indigent.

Has it done it since you bought it or did it just start? If it is new, has there been anything strange happen recently? Give us some background. indigent.

That's what I was looking for. I realize it will cause issues down the road, but I don't really plan on having it forever. Like I said I really want an SE. Like a dumbass, I didn't do research before buying it. I just came from Japan, where I had a TD27T, and I didn't realize that there were even differences between the SE and the XE. Mainly electric shock control and rear disc brakes... I don't plan on doing anything too extreme with this one, and I only drive it about 20 miles a day. If anyone else has some input or prior experience with this situation, any advice would be great. I would be willing to change the piston if I can do it with the block still in. I don't have the energy or time for an engine pull right now. If it comes down to me HAVING to, then that's not a big deal, but if it isn't necessary (i.e. i can run with it like this OK) then I am not going to tear it apart further. I think what happened is the jackass that had it before me did the head gasket and OVER torqued the head bolts. I really hate it when people don't follow the simplest of instructions; especially when it is on something so damned important. I guess I got what I paid for, but it would have been nice to find something a bit easier to deal with. hehe. It wasn't smoking badly enough to make me think it was a leaky head gasket, but it did smoke some. The oil was also milky when I drained it for this head teardown process, so that is a pretty dead giveaway. Also, I was losing coolant constantly. There was no puddle in my driveway or garage, but it was definitely going somewhere (I assume while I was driving...). If it was hydrolocked, wouldn't it have some valve damage or something? I have checked out the head, and it seems fine. No bent valve or anything. I am typically a pay for it now person, because my budget allows me to be, but in this case I am tired enough of this thing to just say screw it. indigent.

I don't even know if it is from water damage. The head gasket was not sealing correctly by that cylinder, so I assume that coolant got in there. This pathy ran like crap when I bought it. I only paid $1000 for it, hoping it would be an easy fix. It is looking less and less likely that that is the case. The truck has 189000 miles on it, and I have no idea how long it has been like this. I am thinking about taking my chances and putting it back together in this condition, but am definitely concerned. That cylinder was off on the compression test when I did it a while back, and now I know why. Any gurus have any thoughts? How long do you think I can run it like that? I basically want to get it in good running order for a while to save up for either a new engine or bide my time until an SE shows up on a lot in town. indigent.

I know absolutely nothing about this vehicle's past. nothing in carfax either. It is obviously a rod, but I guess I am wondering if I should pull the engine and fix it, or just leave it the hell alone. I really don't want the headache of taking the motor out and tearing it down. I would rather get a new rig. I am wondering if the engine will run ok with it like this. Every other cylinder comes all the way up, but that #6 one just doesn't quite make it. indigent.

Well, I have both heads off and found that my LH head gasket was definitely bad. I have finished cleaning everything up, and have the gasket set on order (should be in tomorrow...). In this process, I found something wierd with the #6 cyl. It isn't travelling up all of the way. All of the rest of them come right up to the top, but #6 just barely doesn't make it. There is no valve damage on the head, so I don't really know what happened. My question is, how bad is it going to affect the engine? I know that that cylinder won't have as much compression as it needs, but I don't know the overall effect it will have. Here is a pic of it:

Well, I figured it out! I jacked up the driver's side as far as I possibly could, then I was able to get at all three of them with a 14mm wrench and a cheater pipe from the wheel well. I was able to easily get to all three of them! I guess all I needed was a break and a good night's sleep. Funny how that works. hehe. Indigent.

The book says 8 3/4 qts for 2wd and 9 qts for 4wd. hope that helps

Ok, I posted a while back about my engine running like crap, and I still hadn't really found anything. After much frustration, I finally decided to just tear the whole thing apart. I have found massive ammounts of black buildup EVERYWHERE. I am down to removing the heads and cleaning them out. The question is this: How the heck do I get the 3 nuts off of the exhaust pipe coupler on the LH head? I was able to stick like 6 extensions on a ratchet for the RH head, but there isn't much of a way that I can see to get to the LH head ones. I can't get the bolts out to get to the exhaust manifold either, so that is why I went a bit downstream trying to get at those three nuts. Anyone got any tips? Thanks, Indigent

I don't think it is a leak. When I pull the hose, the engine runs great. I can duplicate the problem with the hose disconnected by blocking the port on the injector manifold with my thumb. It is like the fuel pressure regulator is stuck or something. I am going to pull the regulator out and try to test it manually somehow, maybe even take it apart. The hose is fine and there isn't anything in it. Could this be caused by the fuel lines being installed wrong somewhere upstream?

Google for "1994_pathfinder.zip" thats what I did when I found out the filename from other site that wanted me to pay for it.

One really awesome update! I was browsing other topics that might be similar to mine and heard people talking about the vacuum line by #6 Cyl. so I decided to check it out. I went to pull off the vacuum line to inspect it and when I did, BAM, the engine perked right up! The hose is perfectly fine. I just want to confirm that that vacuum line is for the fuel pressure regulator. Would it be the fuel pressure regulator, or maybe the fuel pump? I hope that is all that is wrong. I am super glad to have found something dramatically wrong! indigent

Well I think I have it all fixed up. I made sure the teeth are 43 and 40 on the belt and it is now running much much better. There is still a bit of a problem though. I think it was a combination of a few things including the timing belt. I definitely found the timing belt off 2 teeth, but now it sounds like it is backfiring. When I give it some gas and let go, while the RPMs are coming down, it backfires a few times. Thanks all for the help on this. I know it has been covered a thousand times, but thanks. Hey 88, if you are ever in the mood, and are up in yakima, give me a holler.

First of all, Sorry about the delay in updates. I really appreciate everyone's suggestions. I put a timing light on it, and there is an arbitrary white mark on the crankshaft pulley. It is about 85deg after the 0tdc mark. I pulled the radiator and the fan out, and turned the crankshaft to 0tdc. Then I pulled the dizzy cap off and the rotor is at the #2 cyl position. Turns out I don't have a big enough socket to pull the crankshaft pulley off, so alas it will have to wait until Shuck's opens in the morning. I am so relieved to have found something. My main question now is how many teeth off would the belt have to be for it to advance almost a whole cylinder? I tried advancing all of the plug wires to compensate for it, but the engine wont even turn over. More updates tomorrow (and probably more questions) after I get the timing covers off. Indigent.

I have checked the timing, but I can't see a definite timing mark. The shop that did the timing put an ambiguous white mark on the pulley, and i have no real idea if it is at 15btdc like it is supposed to be. Also, I can't get that white mark to line up with the 0deg mark post. How would I check the O2 sensor. I have a chilton's but it is one I bought in Japan, and it doesn't really say how to check the sensor. A buddy of mine said that on his pickup, he had to check for voltage there, but he doesn't seem to remember how much. The exhaust looks fine physically, but the last section of the pipe is moveable. I can literally shake it. It is the section just aft of the muffler. It actually looks like it is not really secured to the muffler itself. Would that cause my problems? The main thing I am concerned about is the exhaust pipe sucking. I am hoping it isn't a head. But the thing I don't get is that there isn't a real pattern to it. It is off beat, which suggests that it isn't just one valve, or that it isn't sticking all of the time. Thanks for the fast replies btw. indigent.

Hey everyone. It has been a very long time since I have posted. I was in the Air Force stationed in Japan, but I am back in the States now. I had to get rid of my TD Terrano as I couldn't bring it back with me, but now I have a 91XE. I know very little about the VG30E's. I picked this pathy up for $1000 bucks. Body is in great shape, but the engine runs like crap. Most of the time it takes 8plus cranks to get it to start, and when it does, it just dies right away. When it is finally going at idle, it lopes really bad and dies sometimes. There is really bad fuel smelling smoke coming out of the exhaust, and when I stick a piece of paper in front of the tailpipe, it sucks it in every once and a while. There isn't any real rhythm to it, so I don't understand that. I put seafoam in the gas and in the oil and it started spitting out black liquid from the tailpipe. It runs slightly better on higher octane gas, but not much. Also sometimes there is a severe lack of power from stop, but it goes away when i reach about 25 mph. The previous owner said he just had the timing belt done a few months ago and that was when it started. I know it seems like a no-brainer to check it, but is there anything else it could be? I would like to figure out everything I could try before I go tearing into this thing as it is my daily driver. I have done all the tests, mode3 kicks out a 55. As a last resort, I increased the idle speed so it would quit dying. Any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated. I did search quite a bit, but all I found that was similar was this: http://npora.ipbhost.com//index.php?showto...l=valve+problem but there was no sollution. Indigent.

Just remember though, you HAVE to be in Neutral and completely stopped to get it to go. At least thats how it is in my Terrano. If I have it in Park, and try to go to 4L, it wont budge. It goes smooth as silk when I have it in Neutral though.

The brake pads and calipers for that matter, are the same part numbers between the VG30's and the TD27(t)'s here in Japan. So I would assume that the VG30's here are the exact same truck as the Pathy everywhere else.

Turns out that my squealing problem wasn't coming from the front end at all!!! My rear left outboard brake pad has dissapeared!!!!!!! The pads were inspected during my JCI (Japanese Compulsory Inspection, basically like CA, but 10X more thorough), and all of my brake pads were in good condition and THERE. I looked at the rotor, and it has been severely worn down by the caliper's inside edge. That is what was making the grinding noise, and when I got my terrano up to speed, it was squealing. I could induce the squealing by turning sharply or shaking the steering wheel. That would make sense if a brake pad wasn't there and a rotor was grinding on a caliper. I have asked a few japanese mechs around here, and i guess it is pretty common with these. I have no clue how an entire pad could dissapear, but it happened. If I were you I would check your drivers side rear brakes and see if there is at least a brake pad there.

I take it you mean a skyline. If I could get one to the states I would take one for myself. R33's are way sexier anyway...