sewebster

Uh, what I meant to say was stick a tube in through the fill port, if your drain plug was the only one stuck. Perhaps this is supremely obvious, and obviously my poor typing didn't help. You'd also be limited by how deep you could get a tube, but probably you can weasel a small one down pretty far... On a side note, I just replaced my transmission fluid on my new (91) pathfinder. I was dissapointed to find only the 3.6L in there, and the transmission makes terrible sounds, so presumably it's going to die at some point. Anyway, my information is that by jacking the truck up as far as I could conveniently I got the frame on the high side 2 feet off the ground. This allowed me to put in just under 5 quarts. So I'm a little low still (target 5.1 L = 5.4 US quarts), but a lot better than before. Maybe the MT-90 will perform better than the worn out dino oil that was in there before too.

So are you suggesting that the lifters could have seized, and the reason for the noise is that they aren't getting long enough?

The bolt I forgot about was a short one near the starter that has the head on the engine side.

New rockers... I guess my concern at this point is damaging the valves, since I just replaced them and I don't want to pull the heads again (or re-do the valves again... $$$). They should really just ship the lifters sealed in oil somehow (in a sealed plastic bag etc.). Do you think this is the most likely problem then? I guess so. Not sure what else would cause valve noise...

My '91 FSM says t-case 2.2 L.

1. I kept the lifters upright from the time I received them, but they were shipped randomly in a box. They were just in cardboard. They are sealed power brand. 2. I used decent assembly lube, but I don't think any got inside the lifter, just the outside. 3. I used RP Break in oil, which apparently has high zddp. I did not idle the engine on initial start up or until after it had run for at least 20 mins. I installed a real oil pressure gauge and it was always nice and high for the initial stage, like over 50 psi. I didn't follow your break in procedure exactly down to the minute, but something fairly similar. So I need to figure out if I should: a) assume it is the lifters and try to "break them in again" or just wait a bit to see what happens assume it is the lifters and pull them out to soak them c) try to figure out if it is some other problem I need to decide if I want to drive about 200 miles this weekend with the truck or not pretty soon. Hmm.

You could stick a tube in through the drain plug to the bottom of the transmission and then siphon the fluid out.

The TSB for the transmission says 5.1 L (litres) not quarts, so I think that needs to be updated? We should pin this thread, I keep having to look around for it I think the t-case capacity is missing?

Not removing the radiator? Crazy! But I guess I didn't remove the fan, so that would give you extra room up front

Hmm. But isn't oil basically pumped into them whenever the engine is running? I guess if there is air inside then it might not be able to get out under the oil pressure. I guess I have to drain some coolant to take the plenum off... anyone know how much?

Hmm. Didn't do that. Didn't see anything about that anywhere. I guess the question is, "now what"? The right side is easy to get to, but the driver's side... can you even remove the valve cover without taking off the intake plenum? But possibly if the only thing is I didn't soak them then it could get better. But I almost think it's getting worse... hard to tell without having run it for very long. I'd just like to avoid a problem if possible. I don't want to have to replace the valves again. It's got new valves, lifters, rockers and rocker shafts... I am using RP Break in oil, which supposedly has lots of ZDDP

Using the "hydraulic grease jacking" trick to remove the pilot bushing was lots of fun; I recommend it.

Finally have my '91 running again after a total rebuild. Unfortunately my valves, or at least a couple of them, are making some noise. It isn't super terrible, but louder than I think I should get for these hydraulic lifters. Now, the lifters are all new, so maybe they are just still getting sorted, but I've run it at 2-3k rpm for a while (20 mins over a few sessions?) and driven it around a couple miles, and it hasn't stopped... any thoughts? It also misfires a bit, but presumably that is unrelated. Thanks for any advice. After doing the whole rebuild, it'd be nice if it ran really well.

I dropped the t-bars and popped out the lower link spindles to get access to the bolts for the front crossmember, which I then removed in order to get room to pull the engine. This was a bit of a pain.

Or you could just get a 1/8 BSP to 1/8 NPT adapter. One comes with that Equus gauge I just installed, or they are available at hydraulic equipment places...

I just installed a "Equus" pressure gauge. Works with the factory warning light too.

You should figure it out, because oil is important The sensor measures pressure, not level, so you can be full of oil, but if your oil pump is not working for some reason, then light would come on. Oil pump failure should be way less likely than the wire or sensor breaking I think though, thankfully.

Rockauto has them for under $100 for 1998. Though it seems there might be more than one? (it mentions left and right)

Which voltage regulator?

Is the motomaster any good? I.e. better than the orange fram?

You can barely see anything... surprising that it would be clogged just by that? How did you test, blow through it?

The new clutch is about 1.55 mm above the rivets, so I guess my old one wasn't really very used up. Oh well. I think I needed a new release bearing anyway. I'd still not really recommend reinstalling one that only had 0.3 mm left though.

The ECU has a O2 sensor test mode right? You should be able to use that to see how messed up it is? Or if it just isn't working at all? My understanding of the sensors is that they do a little "oscillation" when working properly. The test mode blinks the light when it oscillates and you count the number in 10 seconds. The manual tells you how many is acceptable. If you get none then that's bad for instance. Kinda going off memory here.

My FSM says to use "Dexron" for the transfer case (1991). But I guess it's ok to use the GL-4 stuff. I've heard people saying they use the same thing for the transfer case and the (manual) transmission... I assume this is ok? e.g. Redline MT-90? How about using 75w90 in the front and rear differentials? Seems way easier to find (and shouldn't be too much different) than 80w90? It even has the identical diagram on the "viscosity index" page of my FSM...

Looks like I will just place an order from Redline, way cheaper online. Also, I don't need to pay $72.50 for 5 bottles when I can get the same amount in 1 gallon + 1 bottle for $62.50, right? But I was gonna get fluids for the diffs as well, but they need 80w90 right? Which redline doesn't have? Then there's the transfer case... sigh, too many fluids! Amsoil has synthetic 80w90. Is that good? Probably this should be in that "lube" thread in the garage section.