why3zx

yeah, so if my wife askes, a leaking RMS is a really big deal! i would have never thought that the villager and quest would have different engines, although i have read about ford not wanting the IF motor, i know of one good quest, i will call and find out the mileage and get back to you guys if he wants a reasonable price and i decide to pull it. not thinking i want to spend much over 300$ on a block.

carb cleaner will just evaporate, and its probably a good thing that it didnt fire with that much in the cylinders as it burns ALOT hotter than gas, my guess is by this time it will all have ran past the rings and will be in the the oil pan, just sitting there working on making your oil useless, DRAIN YOUR OIL! carb cleaner is made to break down petroleum, dont run the truck till it gets some fresh oil. as for not starting as long as it cranked over but did not fire there is a chance that you blew most of it into the exhaust, but i wouldnt chance it, if it didnt crank at all, ill bet it will by now, there is no way your cylinders are tight enough to keep carb cleaner in them. just one more question, why would one spray a can of carb cleaner into your engine anyway?

sooo, after reading the write up on how painless the 3.3 install is on a 90-95 WD, the only thing that i can figure is that is really the only logical way to fix my leaking rear main seal so, question to those of you who know, how similar are the long blocks from the different applications of the 3.3?? been through the JYs around here and am not finding any frontier/x/pathfinders, however the quest/villagers are a dime a dozen, im thinking the long blocks should be the same? did they have different cam profiles or anything in the fwd applications? oil filter locations? i just cant think that the LB could be that different?

Thank you precise for posting up the pics! now for some commentary, the first pic is pathy pre G-body springs, it has trooper springs on it in this pic, they were about 1" lift from stock. second is a stock pathfinder spring off of my SE on the left, G-body spring on the right, you can see that it is a thicker spring that is more tightly wound than the pathy one. the second is pathy post springs... i really should have taken some measurements so i could have documented exactly how much lift, but as you can tell its quite a bit, back end sits just higher than the front with the t-bars cranked to the nuts.

just looked at the auction pics, i would bet those seats will work just fine, they look to have a flat bottom, just bolt your rails and brackets on the bottom where they need to be and enjoy!

there out of a first gen car (couple of them actually) there ok, especially with how much i drive the scout (which in none lately, im about 90% of the way done with a Cummins 6BT swap) (which btw, the pathy will be getting a 4BT when thats done, at least if my ambition holds) but they sure beat the HELL out of the old broken down bench seats it came with

ive never trusted gravity bleeding, just too much chance of getting air back in, just go to harbor freight and get a cheap brake pump, makes everything sooo much simpler.

you have any leaks? i have killed calipers in the past pushing them back in, sometimes its all a worn caliper needs to die, and if your getting fluid pushing past a broken seal no ammount of belading is going to take the "squish" out of the breaks.

just do the relay conversion, i know someone will link it here for you, super cheap, easy, and quick.. and its like installing a whole new headlight system on your truck as far as performance is concerned. and it takes the risk out of having all of the headlight current running through your colum switch. whos great engineering idea whas that anyway?

as long as they fit as far as width, you probably will be fine, as most inport companys use a flat seat bottom (meaning the actually metal frame of the seat itself) and then they bolt the brackets to them to make them level. get the R51 seat and see if the bottom is flat, if indeed it is you can bolt your brackets to it wherever you need to to make it work, you will probably need to use a nut and bolt as i doubt the threaded inserts will line up... i always look for inport car seats to start with as they are easy, i actually have two front sets of eclipse leather seats in my scout, one set in front one in rear. bolted S-10 slides to them to make them level... just remember, this is an offroad forum, you can make anything work in anything! just a matter of how much fab

what do you have installed? this may sound like a no-brainer, but why dont you just run them behind the dash? and if you need to go into the firewall find a gromet and put them through? maybe i dont understand what exactly your asking.....

ill send you the pics if you wanna host them and post them.... as far as pulling from the donor, they are front springs and if i am not mistaken they are in a double A-arm style front end, so probably will need a jack, and be able to take the top spindle nut off and knock if free from the spindle. then they should just be out. I got lucky and just found them in a pile. if i were you i would look for any 78-87 el camino or Monte Carlo. or even a buick gran national should be the same. any G-body really, and probably one with a V8. Im pretty sure that the springs are the same in the F-body cars as well.

had just about the same thing happen to me when i was in phoneix one time, 99 isuzu Vehicross, however an illegal actually turned on his blinker to turn into the parking lot and then decided not to and hit me square in the front driver wheel, just destoryed the front end (suspension and steering) and then he covered his plate and drove off, i did get one fist trough the open drivers window as he left tho

and i guess if need be, and anyone is going to head to the boneyard, i could pull one out real quick and get an un loaded measurement.

check out this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_G_platform_(RWD) also check out the link that Mister510 put up to the moog cross referance chart, i really should have taken some measurements prior to installing them, wish i would have been able to see what options the doner car had, but i just found them sitting in a pile of springs and they were marked 79 El Camino. It also looks from the chart like the springs are the same in the F-Body cars (firebird/camaro) from the same time frame, I hope some of you guys hit the j/y s and do some better research than i did so we can get a little more info. all in all these springs are just better than cutting a pigtail off of another spring, they have a flat bottom and top which you will never really get cutting tails off, this allows them to seat fully on both the top and bottom of the spring bucket.

what does it smell like? is it burning oil? is the exhaust a bluish tint? is it burning coolant? white tint?

wheel bearings wont cause your tires to cup, bad shocks will cause cupping in a hurry tho, is every other tread block wearing down? is it across the tire even? only on the inside? only on the outside? another question, how the hell would a front end shop know your wheel bearings needed grease unless they were inside the hubs? its not like they have a dipstick or something to check a quick test of the wheel bearings is to jack the front of the truck up to where the tire is off the ground and see if theres any play, this will tell you if there is any wear, but make sure if there is any play that it isnt the ball joints as well, basically look at the steering knuckle and see if it is moving or if its just the wheel hub. many times in trucks like ours the bearings will wear a bit and will need re-packed and re-tightened, not necessarily replaced, however if when you look at the bearings clean them off, and replace if there is any discoloration of the rollers, if they look good and shiny add new grease and throw back together, i have had best luck with the Lucas wheel bearing grease! good luck

rafters are actually pretty strong, i use a piece of metal pipe casing across 4 rafters and have lifted 6bt Cummins engines without a problem, and a chain hoist works wonders, i have a cherry picker and dont use it, as most trucks are too tall to use one anyway.

Good post, THANKS!

drain a quart from the tranny and try the Lucas, it is a band-aid, but will increase the viscosity of the tranny fluid and force the pressures higher, I have had really good luck with it in GM transmissions. one actually that was slipping and i was able to get 20k more miles out of it with the Lucas.

check out my thread on the G-body springs, no pigtail to cut off and easy to install!

if you are comfortable doing all the finish work, why not just sand it down to bare metal, then take it to the body shop and have them pull the dent, they have a tool that spot welds small studs to the panel, and they have a special slide hammer that will grab these studs and pull the dent, then you can finish it, drilling holes will just cause you a headache in the end, mainly because when you use a slide hammer in the holes to pull the dent you are going to flare the holes towards you. they shouldn't charge you too much labor to do it, especially if you find a small body shop that needs your business.

Just went and checked, the rear end does come in contact with the bump stop, but it doesnt compress it much, i think it is spring tension that is pulling the tire, not a pivot on the bumpstop. that said, I am using stock length shocks so im sure that if i had a longer shock i could drop the rear tire further, as it is hanging on the shock when it pulls. to test i went and found some speed bumps to drive over and these springs really don't feel all that stiff, not even close to as stiff as the 919 OME springs that i have used on a couple of troopers in the past. one very positive thing about them, yesterday when i did the first test drive i had the rear sway bar disco'd and it cornered like a dream, no noticeable body roll at all, today with it connected it was a little firm around the corners, i think im just gonna get rid of the sway bar all together. one thing that does need to be tested will be with longer shocks if the spring will continue to stay put in the buckets at full flex, but i don't really foresee a problem as they really arnt that much shorter than the stock springs, and quite a bit longer than the f100 springs. I took side by side pics of the pathy/g-body springs if Precise1 would be so kind as to post them.

yeah, they are stiffer, but not as much as you would think looking at them, the F100 springs that some people have used are even shorter than these when you get done trimming off the pigtail. for being of such a higher spring rate, they really dont ride that stiff, i drove through a bumpy dirt lot to check them out and the ride was fine, and the added stiffness helps in the corners quite a bit. Oh and I e-mailed the pics to precise1

went to the junkyard this morning, was looking for a set of f100 springs or JGC springs to level out the back of my pathy, well i cam across a set from the front of a 79 El Camino, very similar to the F100 springs with the exception that there is no Pigtail to cut off of the springs, i came back and installed them this afternoon, worked perfect, easy to install as they are about 2 inches shorter than the stock springs. Got about 2.5 inches of lift out of them, they are a little stiffer than the stockers, but not really noticeable in the ride quality. was able to flex it out to the point of pulling a rear tire, and the spring was still firm in the pocket, dont think there will be any worrys about spitting a spring on the trail. I took some pics of everything, but looks like on this board you must host them on photobucket or whatever, dont have any accounts so if someone wants to post the pics let me know and i will send them to you so if you are looking for some plug and play springs on the cheap for some good lift, check these out, i would imagine they would be the same on any 78-87 G-body car, and probably all the full size chevy cars from the same time period but i could be wrong. cheers!