adamzan

That's great info! Thanks for posting. I haven't done e-fans yet but have had a set laying around forever. But the clutch fan just keeps going. Xterra comp works great but haven't dealt with the pathy because I am replacing the radiator support. Which guess what, not available AT ALL in Canada, and the eBay store I ordered it from will no longer ship to Canada.

When you had the rear tailshaft off, did the pinion bearing feel okay in the rear differential? Was the tailshaft "phased" correctly?

That's great! Makes sense there was stuff to burn off, when I did the intake gaskets on my Xterra, it smoked for a good 10-20 minutes as I drove it around. People were flagging me down it was funny lol. Eventually it tapered off and was fine.

That could absolutely affect it. Those manifolds aren't featherlite lol.

Ah cripes, if you haven't put it back together yet, note that the RMS retainer comes off and you can change that sump gasket at the same time.

You're so close! I can feel it. At least you'll be prepared for any car repairs in the future.

That's pretty much our only option for a lot of the hoses now, like the pcv ones. Either run a massive loop of hose or use those spring host bender things the parts stores sell. hose bender springs | McMaster-Carr

Could be bad intake manifold gasket?

How are those Trakmotive axles holding up? I'm still on the fence, heh. Nice work on cleaning up the rusty brackets. I swear the early 2000s trucks they must have used the crappiest metal for that stuff. The ones on my 1995 WD21 still have most of their black paint whilst my Xterra looks like a leper under the hood.

Those ebay injectors have caused a lot of problems for a few people. But since it got better after fiddling with the MAF, that would be suspect to me as well, especially the rpm dependant issue. You don't have a spare MAF laying around that you could try, do you?

VG33E was used in the R50 until 2000 here in NA as well. I have one in my Xterra and it is very similar to the 3.0 in the WD21 terrano/pathfinder. Now for the bad news, you need to unbolt the transmission and pull it back to replace the rear main seal. There really is no other way. It is set in a retainer on the back of the engine. I'll find a pic. The good news is since it is not an wd21 or an Xterra, you don't have to fight with the torsion bars in the way. Should be fairly simple to remove or at least pull back the transmission. This is what it looks like:

Have you verified the timing is accurate as well, check the mass airflow sensor, common issue to have the wiring at the connector be flaky.

I don't think they're compatible.

I've got a few of those "Big Shiny Tunes" ones in the 6 disc changer, as well as a Fleet foxes album, plus Frank Zappa's Joe's Garage.

The sensor for the abs on these is on the pinion. Sure you didn't bump the wiring there whilst removing the driveshaft?

Sweet. Always nerve wracking firing that up after doing this job lol.

I know for me at least, it was just lack of knowledge back then, didn't know you could just put different temp thermostats in.

I remember in college with my old 95, when it got even colder in the winters, it was either see out the window, or have warm feet lol, couldn't have both.

I would make sure the transmission is serviced (fluid/filter) and an external cooler is added before doing any towing of that size.

Drop a bit of oil in that cylinder and re test. If it is a gasket or some other failure it'll be the same, but if it is bad rings it should pump the numbers up. You can also do a leak down test to see where the compression is going. That will definitely tell you what is happening.

You probably know this by now, but the VG33 pulley/balancer is put together with some rubber isolator in between. They were known to go bad back in the day, my dad had his replaced 2x under warranty by nissan on his 2000 pathfinder. It would slip, make noises, and cause the timing readings to be incorrect.

On the WD21 I used one of those laser thermometers at the upper coolant neck. On the Xterra I can see it in the bluedriver scan tool in live data. Regardless, the heater barely holds up even in -15C around here.

Mine never runs hotter than 170 or 180 unless it's mid July in stop/go traffic with the air con running. In the winter it barely holds 170F on my VG33ER Xterra which is the same engine. Where you both live 180F is probably a good compromise. The 192F on rockauto was never available until recently, and I've been driving a wd21 since the early 2000s. Back then it was 170/180 only... Where did you find this info? The VG33 in the r50 was a 170 too, but the Xterra they spec a 180 unless supercharged (which calls for a 170). Not that 10F is going to do that much for pinging.

Seals are a standard sizing usually so even if the auto parts store can't get them if you can read the numbers off of them, a bearing specialty shop should be able to find something.

That seems insane.