porsche4786

I've been thinking about using that stuff on my Xterra. Just wasn't sure how good the material is. Any input on the quality?

Finally.....found an Xterra with a manual transmission, and just under 61k miles. Glad that is all over with. When I sit at a computer the first thing I do (without even realizing it) is get on craigslist and see if anything new is on.

Pretty much .680'' exactly, unless I tighten it down on the lifter. Then it is slightly under .680. But mine only show me .XXX, after that you are guessing. Mine are not digital. I wish!

Okay...here's some photos of what the ruined lifters look like, they are pretty much all the same. The scratches on the bottom of the lifter are pretty hard to feel with your hand. I tried to get a descent shot of the cam lobes, but was having trouble with the light reflecting too much off the steel. I double checked the old lifters, and they are all flat as far as I can feel. edit: They all seem to be pretty darn close to .628''

Maybe I'll just throw a rotary in it and be done with it I'm getting antsy to get home and start looking more into the lifters themselves...I did buy the cheapest ones rockauto had.....Next time I'll make sure I get made in USA. edit: I still have the old lifters. What would happen if I tried a couple of those in place of the bad ones? I don't know which of them came from where though...

The old lifters that I took out didn't have a rounded bottom, they were all very flat by feeling them. These new ones are very obviously rounded, I'll try and get a photo when I get home from work. Just weird that the old ones were fine, but all the sudden the new ones are junk.

I check craigslist every couple hours lol. I did look at one xterra with manual, but it had some funky engine noises, and timing belt hadn't been replaced yet and it's at 130k miles...Not that's its hard to replace, just the time factor. And the noises I wasn't sure about.

Okay, what is the deal with finding used manual transmission pathfinders (97+), frontiers 4 door (99+), and xterras with a manual transmission? I've been looking for weeks and nobody seems to have much of anything (that is also 4x4). Do most of you drive auto's or manuals? I refuse to drive an auto, so I always end up looking for almost a year to find something decent.

I'll have to double check, but I'm pretty sure yes they do. Because there were two worn lifters on one far side, the middle two were fine, the other end has one fine and one bad. I was also wondering if a rocker arm shaft, if not perfectly straight, could cause extra wear on the lifters. Or if the shafts were not torqued down properly. I turned the engine over a little and one of the lifters pushed up and took the slack out. So yeah, you're right. I did notice the angle on the cam. How does the cam cause the lifters to get caved in like that? I thought it would be due to not enough oil getting there? As I understand, the cam is a stronger steel than the lifters. Too bad you can't write off a loss on your car in your taxes..... I've spent probably double what I paid for it a little over a year ago...

Ok, pulled lifters, 3 out of the 6 are rounded now, not flat.....what causes this? No oil? The cam looks to be fine, but I can't get my micrometers in there.

Ok...while my hands aren't oily I snapped a couple photos of the lower set of rocker arms (I don't know if they are exhaust or intake). The long arm pad of the rocker arm is very worn compared to the lifter pad side. The valve ends also have markings to match the rocker arm pads. I haven't pulled the upper set yet. The rocker arms and shaft mic'd fine.

Or maybe (when I take it apart) it will be one of those things that is just WAYY too obvious to see/take the time to look at. I did see a fairly worn looking spot on the drivers side cam, you could feel a slight wear on the cam (which, if you can feel it, it's probably too much). But that's by far the worst spot I've seen. And that isn't the only place noise is coming from. The lifters themselves (old ones) look ok, didn't see obvious highly worn spots.

I'm hoping it's something to do with the rocker arms or shafts, because that's easy. You have to disassemble the front of the engine to get cams out and measure them right? Or can you actually fit a micrometer in there? I'll see if I can get around to removing the rocker arms and shafts and mic them tonight. I don't remember seeing a measurement for the rocker arm pads, but I'll give them a good look over. I'll re soak the lifters as well.

I'm wondering if it was like that before I changed them...I put every bolt back in the exact hole, and rocker arms in the same spot.

Is this movement supposed to be there in the rocker arms? A couple of them move back and fourth and side to side a little. Pretty freely. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CygNJK1bqv0

So true. You could always add one more thing "while your in there".

Okay, replaced oil again with new filter (different brand, different store). I was recommended by a mechanic to use straight 30 weight oil. So I thought, what they heck, I'll give anything a shot once. Oil pressure is up to 65 at start, and holds it there for much longer than before, and drops off to about 24-25 at about 750 rpm. Sounds pretty high to me at that rpm. I think the next step is to pull it all back apart and try again.

I finally got around to do the oil pressure again....At warm idle it's about 14psi (not sure how accurate the gauge is I have). And at about 3200 RPM it's at 50+psi. But it does still go up to over 60psi at start, then down to about 28-30ish after 5-10 seconds. edit: will probably try a different filter and oil also.

I will never again used a reman water pump from a supply house, I went thru soo many napa waterpumps on my rx7 before having one rebuilt. They said whoever rebuilt the waterpump had used cheap seals. I had one last a minute, one last a couple hours, and one last a month. Then I finally had it rebuild properly.

I'd do the main front seal too. As far as cam seals, when I did my timing belt and water pump, I didn't use the cam seals I had bought because I lacked a way to get the bolt off that holds the cam gear on without turning the whole cam. There is a special tool you can use to help, but I didn't have one. The bolts are fairly tight. I didn't want to risk bending valves when all looked fine. I did try to get the bolts loose with what I had, but they didn't budge. Also, when putting everything back together, make sure when you put the harmonic balancer on check to make sure you don't bend/break off the lowest screw hole (for the timing belt cover) that is part of the oil pump casting. Somehow my balancer went on too far or something and bent it. Still not sure how that happened....

I'll try and get thru the horrible sounds and let it warm up tonight . Also will see what it does when reved up. Yours ran 60 PSI till it got warmed up? Do you know what it runs when warmed up at idle? Could be, I'm also thinking the pickup tube screen. Which looks like fun to get at.

Okay...I haven't had much time lately. I've been running around everywhere trying to find metric adapters for the oil pressure gauge I have. Nobody seems to have anything, I finally got the right one! I put the gauge on and when I start it up (cold engine) the psi jumps up to just over 60psi for about 5-10ish seconds, then drops down to about 30. I have not removed the valve covers yet. I wanted to check oil pressure first. Does 30 PSI seem low at cold idle? My rx-7's oil metering pump decided to go out a couple days ago so I've been franticly trying to locate one locally and find out if there were any other problems with that. I'm scared to drive any working vehicle now because it might break! New the oil metering pump is over $1500! Found a used one for $125 and it's working fine now. (thank god!)

I've heard a couple different things people have done to pass. First one was to put some moth balls in the gas tank and go thru DEQ. The other was to take a wet towel, and stuff it around the outside (if I remember correctly) of your air filter, and go thru (do this right before you go thru). But I haven't had any experience with these methods. Luckily, the only car I've had to take thru is my rx-7, and it's passed without problems, except for being too loud once. It's actually registered to my parents (don't want to pay the $200+ to switch it over to my name), and now their residence is away from DEQ, so I just mail in a check and they mail me my tags.

Yeah...I know. I'm just lazy and tired of the bs with this thing. I'll probably do it tonight after work.

Are the rocker arms supposed to ever be "free" and move freely at a certain spot during a revolution? Or is there always supposed to be a certain amount of pressure against them? Thru the oil filler hole, I can move one of the rocker arms with my finger. This pathfinder has been a real test for me. Since it has need SO much work. I'm really considering buying a frontier (since xterra's are soo hard to find with a manual transmission around here). Getting the nissan to run proper, and sell it before something else breaks. I'm probably into it as much as I paid for it now. Only put about 11k miles on it. 158k on it now. edit: I say that about the xterra...then I see this... lol http://portland.craigslist.org/clc/cto/2267729258.html