fishead

I got halfway out of my seat to go take a picture for you... then remembered that it is under my seat, in my pathfinder, on the other side of town, locked in my mechanic's shop awaiting an engine transplant. Sorry dude... anyone else? And I agree. Them Japanese engineers sure thought of the details for us. Right down to those little clips to hang the seatbelts on when you fold the back seats forward. That sparkplug tool ROCKS. I was cursing the engineers trying to figure out how to get at #6 when I happened to glance at the bag of tools I had idly tossed onto my work bench. Schweeeeet.

Squamish? Dude, wish I could have helped you. I am in Maple Ridge. I was able to drill out 5 broken studs on mine. Wasn't too much work actually, but did require the help of a buddy that is a machinist That was before my wife ran low on oil while I was out of country on a business trip. Anyone else find that the dipstick SUCKS to get a good reading off without dipping 10 times? Got a "new" engine from a junkyard, and the studs are worse then my ones. My mechanic tried, then gave up in frustration. He sent it off to the Lordco Machine shop and is going to pass the bill onto the junkyard. Want a REMOTE place to go camping that requires 4X4? Check out Adams Lake. Some buddies and I went up there in the spring and found an abandoned logging road. 6km of running over trees 6feet tall, crossing washout ditches, and chopping up blowdowns gets you to a huge landing with piles of firewood everywhere. Wasn't on the lake, so no water, but was still a blast. Nearest person was far enough away that we didn't hesitate to toss a small (new) propane cylinder in the fire. But that's a different story! The price you paid for the manifold is about what I was quoted by a buddy that's a mechanic.

Dood, right on. I drive past you every morning at about 6:25ish, and park on that thing we call a bridge on my way to Port Moody. We should go fishing some time. So... talked to my mechanic, and he called up his junkyard. They have a VG30E from a super clean looking '94 with 150,000 KM on it for $995 Canadian. I don't think I could get a JDM for that much after exchange, and duty. Plus, this engine comes complete. I wouldn't have to pay for him to swap intake manifold, injectors, or anything like that. I am going to get the engine on a pallet, and haul it into our office with a pallet jack (we share a parking lot with them). That way, I can pull off the exhaust manifold in STYLE!!! Oh man, I just realized that 2 months ago when I drilled out 5 broken studs... waste of time. :-(

Yup, Canada. Vancouver area, Maple Ridge to be more precise. About 25 miles further then Ferndale. I was gonna say "I just DID the exhaust bolts", but that would be on my old engine. Doh, I gotta do them again? I am thinking it would be easiest to drill them out while it is in the back of buddy's truck, eh? Thorleys and oil relocation... I so wanna, but am borrowing for everything already. I guess I would have to do the T-belt though, huh? The water pump on my old one is only 6 months old, so I will prolly just steal that. I am gonna call those guys some time next week. Thanks Casey.

Hmm... I added myself to the Frapper Map, guess I better look in my profile. Thanks. I am about 100 Miles (as the crow flies) north of Lynnwood. I could easily borrow a buddy's Diesel Dodge Ram and go pick one up. I contacted one company, and they wanted $195 to ship it to me. The Cummins TD would cost about $30 to drive down and back. Do you have the name of the company by any chance? I emailed several and got responses varying from $500 to $2400. I would like to go with one that I have heard something about. My wife wants us to wait for a few months before we fix the truck as the Honda I am driving in the mean time gets about 30mpg. That friggen car has 435,000km on it and runs perfectly. My buddy just took it through Air Care and it passed perfectly. Problem is, it has 2" of clearance if even... I wonder if it would make a good Radio Control project...

Thanks Slick, very interesting read. Talked to my mechanic last night, and he said that it would be about $500 labour to swap engines. As much as I would LOVE to do it, my driveway is pretty much the only place I can work, and it is too slanted. Maybe if I buy a house one day... I'm thinking JDM engine too. For the same amount of money, I can buy a parts truck with 250,000KM. As much as I would LOVE a spare... everything, having a young engine would ROCK. Thanks for your help guys. Chris.

Wow, that looks pretty serious. Not sure if I can get a flat spot to work, and driveway is definitely too steep to sit on jack stands. I have the manual transmission. I didn't know I would have to pull the axle and transmission to get the engine out. Maybe I need to re-think this. Thanks for the run down. If you could get the manual, that would be fricken sweet. I have a Haynes, but find they tend to be lacking in detail sometimes, usually when you really need it. Taking her off the road tonight and going to be driving a Honda Accord until I get 'er done. Might get a quote from a mechanic. chris

Hmm... is 2,890 miles (as the google flies) close? Thanks anyhow, Western Canada for me :-) Talked to my mechanic, he agrees with you guys. Prolly the rings. You make the engine swap sound scary. Is it going to be that much more difficult with a slanted driveway? I found a '92 with no transmission for $800 that I might pick up. It is close enough to my house that my buds and I are thinking of buying it, then towing it in the middle of the night using my plates and a buddy's truck. Anyhow, any advice is appreciated. Any links to "how-to's" would be nice too. I have tried searching this site and others, but haven't had much luck. How much is a JDM engine, anyhow? I don't REALLY need all the spare parts that come with a complete truck. Thanks, Chris.

Hmm, thanks 88. I guess I better do a compression test then, eh? What's it like for pulling the engine on these things? I have never pulled an engine before, but am willing to give it a try. I see in the local adds a lot of pathy's for parts. I think I can get an engine for a couple hundred bucks, and if it isn't too complicated, swap it in. Also, would a '93 V6 swap right in without sensor modifications? Thanks.

Hey guys. A couple weeks ago, I had an issue with my Cat being blocked. Before I had it fixed, the engine seemed to get pretty hot. Now, I'm burning oil pretty bad. My dad said that I prolly cooked the heads and burned out the valve seats. Is this likely to happen? Could the bottom end be done as well? In the last 5 days I have thrown in about 5 liters of oil. I put in some "gunk, stop smoke" and it made it 90% better. Not a long term solution, I know. Should I pull off the heads? I have a little bit of mechanical experience, a few tools, and a garage. Or should I pull the engine (sounds scary), and throw in a junkyard engine? Or maybe this is a perfect opportunity to cram in a 350! Regardless, I have lined up a Honda Accord to drive in the mean time. My fuel savings should pay for the repairs to my Pathfinder!!! Thanks for all your advice! Oh yeah, its a '90 WD21, SE-V6, 4X4, Manual, 280,000+Km

This was in Italy, not Brasil. Not too many suntanning beauties in the shipyard I am afraid. Anyhow, I am FINALLY home. Europe has a large variety of small cars I have noticed, but most people own a second, larger car for driving on the highways. I think it is because the roads were all designed in medevil times, and were build for horses and small carts. Compare that to north america where if it is 100 years old, it should be torn down and rebuilt. The delivery trucks are quite common pretty much everywhere, especially in the shipyard. The 3 wheeled suckers are neat looking. They have handlebars instead of a steering wheel. Anyhow, it sure is hard not to lust after that green Land Rover.

Gotta love those European 4X4's. I've seen a lot that are similiar to the ones from Japan, and here they are all left hand drive. Couldn't get many pictures as most of them were driving and gone by the time I had the camera ready. Haven't seen any newer Land Rovers like this in BC. Or this. Man, what a beaut. Land Rover Defender, crew cab, turbo diesel... I want! and... well... it is kinda cute. This is the larger model. What a sweet little commuter truck. Next its off to Monaco for me. Apparently there are a lot of super-cars there.

Where at in Canada? That would be fricken sweet to be able to order crap for my pathy and NOT have to pay huge amounts for duty. Getting a huge bill for duty REALLY ticks me off. Brokerage is the best too, "We filled out the paper work for your steering upgrade kit to clear customs. You owe us $57.00" If you are able to do the importing, and save us Canucks the brokerage, that would rock! Where at? West coast, or the OTHER side of Canada? Canadian Tire is great for generic stuff. The guy at my Canadian Tire gave me the address for 4x4parts.com when I started asking for pathfinder stuff.

What do you do with Electronics? I build navigation cameras for ships. Tomorrow I am off to Italy to... change a lightbulb.

But you forgot to say when you were going to change the timing belt

Theme song to "Pingu". Catchy little beat.

Wow, I have PILES of power now! A combination of timing prolly off, exhaust manifolds leaking, and bad cat have been plauging me since I owned the beast. For the first time ever, I can use 5th gear! I knew there was always a problem, but you can only do what your budget allows I guess. Total bill was about $750 (Canadian). The high flow Cat they threw in was $350. That's about $400 labour. Considering their rate is $80 an hour, they are only billing me for 5 hours which I know is WAY less time then they put into it. Prolly helps that I am fixing the autopilot for his boat. Next project? Oil relocation, or building a new center console. Man I hate that console that I have. No place to put my coffee!!! WHAT were they thinking?

My mechanic finally found the problem. Crapalytic Crapverter. That's the short version. Long version: First. Bought the truck, drove it once, then parked it because I couldn't afford insurance on 3 cars and had a beater Escort plus wife's car. Changed the T-belt, then put the escort up for sale. Sold escort, insured Pathfinder and drove it. Once I was driving it for a bit, I figured it was gutless (mostly after first offroad trip after crawling up some pretty steep hills). So, I changed everything affordable, no help. Everone online says my leaking manifold was to blame. Fixed that, LOTSA power... for 1.5 tanks of gas, then it starts again. Take to mechanic. He is pretty busy, so looks at it when he can and tries lots of things. First he checks the Cat, looks good. He can't get timing quite right, we look at T-belt. Weekend comes, I take it home, but it gets WAY worse on the way home. Test compression, then un-burry T-belt and confirm with marks behind pulleys and TDC #1. I notice Rotor not pointing to the dot, and I can't get it to point to the dot. Pull it out, and MAKE it point to the dot. I set timing to 15º BTDC. No noticeable difference. Today, Mechanic swaps ECU, and a bunch of other junk. End of the day, he says to me "I bet you dropped a paper towell in the manifold when you fixed that". I am crapping bullets. He was ready to kick my (|) if he found it was my fault!!! So, he disconnects the "Y" pipe, and it revs up FAST. It is a pig to pull off, so I told him that I was gonna catch the train home and see him tomorrow. The train station is across the tracks from his shop. I got to the platform, and yelled across the tracks "So?" and shrugged. He yelled back "It was the Cat, not your fault". I yelled back "So you don't have to kick my ass?". He shrugged. So, tomorrow it will be done. I had previously (like last Thursday, a couple days into it) asked what the bill was going to be so far, and he said "we don't work like that. We will wait till we fix it". You know what they say, a good mechanic is worth his weight in gold. I am not unhappy that it took so long to figure it out, I will judge him on how he bills me. I was a robotics technician for 4 years, and know that a simple problem can elude you for a LONG time. It isn't until you find the solution that you can really see how simple it is. But I traded that in for building navigational cameras. Same crap, just a MUCH larger commute. Next week I have a 5,000km Commute. Thanks everyone, I appreciate all your help.

No, pretty sure it is not off a tooth. Like I said, it has been checked a few times. I agree that you can't be too careful, but I am pretty sure it isn't off. Last night when I took it for a burn on the highway, I noticed the oil pressure light come on a couple times when I had the clutch in. I did wet the low cylinder a bit, and it didn't make a difference. I am on my lunch break right now, so I am going to run across the street and talk to my mechanic. I will keep you guys posted as I find stuff out. Chris.

Thanks for the advice guys. I just took it for a burn on the highway and threw in some top grade fuel. Doesn't seem too much different. I will try some of this tomorrow. T-Belt... yeah, I figured the same. My mechanic checked, then I checked. Looks pretty perfect. I tightened it a little bit, no difference.

I was just messing with it, and notice quite a bit of water dripping out of the exhaust. I have it pulled out behind the Cat to see if there was a blockage (I should pull it apart behind the Y pipe next, eh?) and there is a substantial drip coming out of the opening. There is also a drip out the end of the tail pipe. I know water is one of the byproducts of combustion, but how much? It doesn't smell like gas, and isn't slippery. Haven't tasted it... yet. If it looks like my engine has substantial internal damage, there are plenty of local engines available for less then the price of a rebuild. Then I could rebuild this one in my garage.

I can't find any vacuum advance. It seems to be all electronic ('90 VG30E). My haynes manual says that the timing is not adjustable... It runs fine until I rev it up. It hits a certain RPM, then totally bogs and the RPM drops. I pulled the throttle position sensor off, doesn't seem to be that. Thanks for the ideas. Just gonna go pull some more stuff off.

OK, so far this morning I have checked all the wiring I could reach, and pulled at all the vacuum hoses, but nothing changes. I pulled the exhaust off after my cat, and it looks like lots of exhaust is coming out, but doesn't make a difference. Just for good luck I am gonna pull out the air filter... Thanks for the advice guys, but I am just running out of ideas.

I actually read that thread, but was still unsure. Broken piston/headgasket... wouldn't my compression suck? It runs/idles perfect until you hit about 3K RPM. Then it totally bogs down and you can smell raw fuel out the butt end. I pulled each plug one at a time while doing my compression test. They were pretty black. In the past, I have always found a loss of low end with bad plugs. From what I can see, everything is plugged in tightly. I will check more thoroughly tomorrow. Doesn't smoke on startup. Actually, it runs quite well on startup. Maybe I should just put a sparkplug in the tailpipe to burn off all the extra fuel and leave it actually thinking about this... if I do, there WILL be pictures for you.

CTV figures it is his leg. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...60825?hub=World