sewebster

I think the standard is the so-called "hoo-haa" centrelink, avaliable at http://www.grassroots4x4.com/ Idler arm brace is another popular upgrade.

Maybe the manual hubs are more aerodynamic

I hope you didn't lose the smoke! There is a how-to on replacing your radio I think. I forget, but maybe there are stock amps in the truck somewhere designed to work with the stock stereo and now you have two amps hooked up causing problems? Not sure if that makes sense. I would look for that how-to.

I cleaned the MAF recently, wasn't very dirty. Wiggling the wires didn't do anything. I've sortof stopped caring so much about the slightly unstable idle. Before I thought that was why I had the oil light come on (low rpm) but now I just want to find the oil problem. Anyway, to that end, I took off the oil pump today. I had tried blowing in the bottom (where the pick up tube attaches) and heard some air seemingly coming out nearby, which seemed bad. Once I got it off and blew through it again, I could tell that the air was leaking out between the gear and the cover plate where the crankshaft goes through. This is likely my problem. Cover plate must have been worn down over time by the gear and now it doesn't seal. So, need a new pump. Tried taking the CVs out the inside while I have the front diff off... haven't gotten it yet and not sure if it can be done. There isn't much room between the shock, lower a-arm and sway bar. Maybe if I take the shock and sway bar off it will work, but the problem is that you can only jack up the lower a-arm so far before the tension in the t-bar starts lifting the truck. Now to see how fast I can get an oil pump. Unfortunately the truck is in a friends garage and I don't want to overstay my welcome too much!

Pulled the oil pan today. Took about 6 hours. In some ways it was actually easier than I expected. I didn't actually have to lift the engine to get clearance at all, so if you do it, you can try without unbolting the engine and transmission mounts. CV joint bolts require 12 mm 12-point by the way. The o-ring wasn't quite as poorly sized as I had remembered though, so I'm not so sure that was the issue. I guess now I need to debate whether I should take my oil pump off to look at it again... though it seemed fine when I inspected it a couple months ago during the rebuild. Taking it off requires removing the timing belt of course, so another couple hours there. Hmm.

I've had the top off for a variety of reasons, bad lifters, stuck valves, bad injectors etc. but all those problems should be solved. I shouldn't have worn bearings since I just replaced them all. Anyway, I'm going to see if I can fix my o-pickup tube o-ring this weekend since I know it isn't particularly good right now. We'll see if that helps with the oil pressure, if not, I'll see where to go from there.

I think it goes to the EGR solenoid? Can't remember exactly right now. At the very least you would need to plug vacuum leaks. I would replace it. Presumably the FSM has vacuum schematics too.

The rockers should basically always be tight. That is likely the source of your ticking sound. Now, the lifters do change height somewhat with oil pressure, to take up the "slack" but my experience is that new, properly functioning lifters won't be collapsing in any short period of time. I would find out if they are all like that or just one or a couple. If it isn't all of them then you should be able to figure out what the difference is. Worn rockers? rocker shaft? cam? lifter? valve? It's only like 10 minutes or less to pull the passenger side valve cover I'll add this, in case you're having the same problem I did: I recently replaced my lifters. Put the new set in and ended up with terrible ticking. Took it apart and two of the lifters had seized in the lifter guide plate, destroying them and the cam lobes. Turns out the were too large (diameter, only slightly). In the end I have purchased 36 lifters from a variety of manufacturers. 14 of those were oversize. I highly recommend measuring any lifter with a micrometer before installation. Anything that doesn't fall within the tight tolerances in the FSM should not be used.

While doing the run in is a good idea, and maybe your lifters are pooched, I'm not convinced it's that for sure... and you should still be able to find the source of the noise and decide if you need to replace them... I mean, are the lifters worn (mic them), are they loose in the galleys? Galleys worn? Cams? you can measure all this stuff, or even feel to see if anything is loose. Might require disassembly of course. Lifter height? I dunno, I'd just hate for you to buy another set of lifters and have the same problem.

One time I forgot to tighten down one of the rocker arm shafts (I had just snugged it up). Got pretty noisy... Anyway, I'm not there to hear it, but it might give you a better idea if you take both rocker covers off and take a good look and feel of everything. Sticking valves might also cause ticking. I believe it's only the intake valves that are "interference".

A 1300W heater running 24/7 will use under 1000 kWh per month (1.3*24*30=936). I have one of those 500W work lights and it is fairly bright... almost all the power in incandescent lighting is given off in heat though, so it will produce basically the same amount of heat as a 500W heater. If you switch your 1300W heater to a 500W light (used for heat and light) then it will be colder in there, but maybe that is ok. Not sure if this is helpful. I think its kinda hard to tell exactly how much heat and light you need for your setup without being there. I find the work light is quite handy to be able to move around and set up wherever, so maybe you could buy one (should be pretty cheap?) and even if you don't end up using it as your main light it could come in handy.

Dealer.

10w40 is much thicker when cold then when hot. It has the viscosity of COLD 10 weight oil when cold and the viscosity of HOT 40 weight oil when hot. The viscosity of cold 10 weight oil is greater than the viscosity of hot 40 weight oil. It's just at the same temperature that lower weights have lower viscosities.

You could pull the passenger valve cover and see if there is any play in any of the rocker arms. Push down on the lifter side, they should be very hard. Did you try pushing down on the lifters before you installed. If they are soft it should be fairly obvious, the top will just easily collapse...

Hmm, interesting. Well, hopefully my rebuilt engine is not ruined already! Can I get these new parts? Does the gasket thing work with the old tube at all?

Cool. Nice write up. Hope the new configuration is good!

So, as I mentioned in another thread (http://www.nissanpathfinders.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=29744) I think my oil pickup tube o-ring is no good. At the very least I know it is not really fully appropriate. So I think I will replace it. This requires pulling the pan. The FSM write up seems pretty good. Basically I have to remove the front diff and starter, and then apparently unbolt the engine and transmission mounts and lift the engine. Couple questions: -it says I don't need to remove the front crossmember (which requires dropping t-bars). Is this true? -why do I need to remove the idler arm? -any hidden difficulties awaiting me here? and finally, I have a torn CV boot. If I remove the auto hubs and the snap ring, can I just pull the CVs out from the inside once I have the diff off, or is there something preventing that? If anyone remembers the 12pt socket size I need for the cv bolts that'd be nice too. I did search with google a bunch on this site, but didn't really find anything conclusive. Maybe I should make a how-to. EDIT: WD21 VG30E

It was already set "incorrectly" before so part of why I wanted to turn it now was to just set the screw "properly"... You just mean the throttle? I don't think it's that dirty, but easy to pull the air filter and check. I'm tempted to take apart the idle adjust body, but I'm loath to take off the upper plenum again (already had it off a half dozen times in the past few months).

Yeah, the hose pinching thing is the 8th step in the unstable idle diagnosis. "Check for intake air leak. When pinching blow-by hose (lowering the blow-by air supply), does the engine speed rise? If yes you have an air leak. The picture shows a dude pinching the pcv hose with pliers. Anyway, the oil thing is a bit of a sideline. I'm more wondering why I can't adjust the idle speed with the screw. Anyway, more searching I guess. There are a ton of diagnostics in the manual... the EF & EC section is quite good, it might just take a while, especially since it rains so much and I have no garage

It's a manual transmission. Hmm, alternator might be a possibility. As for the oil, if there is a problem my guess would be the o-ring at the top of the pickup tube letting it suck in air. The o-ring I put in there when I replaced it wasn't very good. In hindsight...

Yeah, makes sense. Do you know if the procedure of pinching the hose that leads to the PCV valve is accurate at detecting vacuum leaks? Or just finds some of them? I guess I need to do more reading on the EGR too. I know it moves by hand at least. If I pinch off the vacuum tube to it would that leave it open or closed. Obviously it isn't really necessary to eliminating EGR for diagnostics would be fine.

Any ideas on whether the dealer would be a reasonable place to take the truck for a problem like this? Or just a waste of time/money? I have no idea how much they'd charge for basically poking around at the engine trying to figure it out...

I don't know much about VG30i (but I did rebuild a VG30E stock) but I think it's common to put VG33 heads on VG30 blocks? Possibly boring the cylinders to make a "VG34". There are also some alternative cams available, or you could get a shop to grind some to your specifications. My 2 cents.

So, once my truck (91) warms up, it idles at just about 750. This is the correct idle speed. Unfortunately sometimes the oil light comes on. I have a gauge and it's pretty much bottomed out. Of course, I'm not really sure how accurate this gauge is at low pressure and the light is tied into the aftermarket gauge too. The oil pressure at 3200 rpm is around 50 psi, which is just below the recommended 53-60something. Anyway, sometimes the rpm drops to almost 500 and then goes back up. When stopped, even when it's at 750 it's actually really moving around between 700 and 800. It doesn't obviously miss or anything, and it sounds fine, but just changes speed slightly. I decided that, as a possible short term solution I would increase the idle speed to try to insure that I have enough oil flowing around. So I followed the procedure in the manual and unplugged the AAC valve and turned the screw in the increasing (counterclockwise) direction. Nothing. Maxxed it out and no effect. So I thought that maybe my AAC valve was toast so I looked up the test procedure for that and it says that if the idle speed increases when you plug it in, it's good. This works, jumps up about 50 rpm when plugged in. I also measured the resistance and it's about 10 ohms as expected. Any reasons you can think of as to why I can't adjust my idle? There is an unstable idle diagnostic in the manual... but I've kinda done most of it already. I have new plugs, wires, rotor, cap, injectors cleaned and not leaking, fuel pressure checks out. Wiggling maf didn't seem to do anything. New o2 sensor too, no codes... HMM.

You are trying to get the muffler and tailpipe out as a unit right? I had some trouble, but eventually with the proper jacking and some substantial kicking I got it out going "forwards." I'm guessing that you are "supposed" to disconnect the tailpipe from the muffler for removal.