Nefarious

well my ladys pathfinder has had the tailpipe snapped off the muffler and just dangling around now for a while...had the day off by surprise so we took the opportunity to fix up her trucks exhaust system. We took out the tail pipe section, and inspected and not only did it snap off the back of the muffler (some straight through type, cant tell the brand) but there was a hole in the section of pipe immediately following the muffler. The exhaust pipe after that hole looked brand new though so I chopped off the bad stuff, ground down the nasty broken off bits on the muffler and filled the gaps with fresh new pipe. Also took the time to add a 2``-2.5`` flare so her truck has a 2.5`` tail pipe now. Also gave the rear section of exhaust a coat of black rust paint so it should hold up now, also looks really nice. Holy it sounds so much better now! Much quieter but has a nice throaty undertone with the 2.5`` tip. All the low end power is back as well as I`m sure the gas mileage. The cat isnt banging around on the cross member now, either. Total cost for todays repairs = 4.51$ for the 2-2.5`` flare adapter, some wire in my welder and some leftover black high temp rust paint we had kicking around.

Yikes... 120 of gas in a day. That's steep! lol. I was forced to work on my 240 today instead of my pathy. Went to replace my rear sway bar bushings last week and the end links snapped in half on both sides...so I fabbed up my own end links to fit the poly bushing set I got...also had to bore out the d-bracket bushings from a 15mm (stock 240sx rear sway bar) to 21 mm (hicas 240sx rear sway bar). painted it all up and ill install it tomorrow. Then I can work on my pathy more!

Definitely make sure you get Class 10.9 metric bolts in there. Don't trust anything else for your suspension! Look for an industrial fastener place in your area. They should be able to help you out. Most hardware stores or auto parts stores won't carry a long 10.9 metric bolt like that... although you can get lucky occasionally. Try an industrial fastener store, they have a lot more stock like that.

I have the standard Monroe shocks on my truck but I run Ford bronco II shocks up front and Ford f350 shocks in the rear. I have a 3" torsion crank and 3" lift VIA jeep grand Cherokee 5.9 litre springs. My truck rides extremely nice town the road. I also run 33s so that probably absorbs more of the road but it drives really controlled and really comfortable. No bouncing of any kind and it absorbs the bumps like nothing. If I go 15 km/h over speed bumps I don't even really feel them. Been rocking this for 2 years of city and off-road driving. Love the setup and it was cheap.

35x10.5 tires will fit easily with the right rim offset and a 3" suspension and 3" body lift. I would also build or buy an Idler ARM brace and a steering damper to keep the steering together. I'm going to run 35x10.5 or 35x12.5 on my next set of tires but I have a lot of clearancing done to my fenders as well as around 7" total lift. So yes if u don't mind cutting some sheet metal then u can make em fit

I'm also in electronics engineering tech school. Going to specialize in automation next year and get into robotics or renewable energy depending where the jobs are. What are you specializing in?? Nice to see some fellow tech nerds on the board.

Your truck will run well with just the vg33e swap and a stock vg30e efi system. You will definitely have more power than stock with the swap but I'm just trying to extract as much tune and bolt on performance I can get out of the vg n/a setup (for now). There is a lot of power to be had after the vg33 swap to extract the most performance and efficiency from the tune. I know from personal experience that my factory 3.0 tune and efi system are not up to the task of getting maximum performance out of my modified 3.3 setup. Once the wideband and eeproms are in I will log and show my progress.

Worked on the lady's rig this weekend. Cranked up the front torsion bars to match the rear JGC springs we just put in. her truck is around 2.5" suspension lift now and it looks and rides great! Her truck is coming along nicely, it's just about ready for the VG33E swap, we have the new block all cleaned and painted. Ill get some new pictures up soon. I'm slightly jealous, we get to spend so much time cleaning up each part and repainting everything for her swap. Mine had to be done fast and in a pinch so it doesn't LOOK as nice. We also installed energy suspension front sway bar kit (extended end links, new poly bushes) to get the front end all sorted out. Next weekend is my truck, fix the little spot on the frame, fix up my alignment a bit, and get a day pass of insurance to take it up the mountain.

Maybe your distributor is just off a tooth? Has it always been like that or is this a new symptom??

I had the exact same thing, was maf wiring (loose connector pins) so it was intermittent and would run rich normally but livable but doggish and then when coming to a red light to stop it would try to die or...die. tightened up the pins and its been great ever since... could also be fuel pump but that would be dying cause of too lean rather than bogging from too rich from bad maf wiring. A wideband o2 is really nice to diagnose problems...

Is it really close? You may be able to take a grinder and skim down the plastic a bit on the shroud of the e-fan and have it snug down (if its close enough). I have had to do that before when I put a massive mopar e-fan in my 240sx.

Well I found an engine hoist for 70$ on craigslist. The thing is beast and adjustable for throw and length. Someone's well done home project and it accepts any standard bottle jack. The shop is really getting setup now! Just in time for the VG33E swap in my girlfriends truck. No more renting! Setup some shelving in the shop and got most of the tools and equipment put away now too. Not exactly work on the pathfinder, I know...but it relates to ...work on the pathfinder. lol

I have some very very minor corrosion starting in a couple spots just on the surface of the welds. That's after almost 3 years of mud, abuse, rivers, ocean beaches, you name it. I think they are holding up well. I only paid 100 after shipping too a few years ago.

.

Yeah its time consuming, it's just the nature of the beast. I plan to get started by reprogramming the chips. Once I get going, I will probably start using an 8bit emulator to do live tuning and datalogging. Once I have a solid tune for each setup (vg30, vg33e, etc) and the performance is maxed with no knock detected then I can just hard burn a chip that contains the tune file from the emulator and the ecu can then be socketted with that eeprom. It is a long and tedious process but the benefits are worth it to me! There is a lot of room in the vg30 tune for more power and more economy. It is conservative in timing and quite rich as soon as any real throttle is applied. Adding larger pipes, maf, intake and cams only sweetens the deal. I'll get my truck on a dyno once this is all done and see what happens!

I don't think Dave is active on this forum much these days, maybe try shooting him an email over at Experimental Engineering (vg30.com).

The stock pathfinder maf is fine for a stock truck, but it is no where near adequate for maximum performance on an engine with opened up flowpaths and larger pipes. There is definitely power to be had in just getting the maf itself swapped over. There is a reason they use a nearly 90mm maf on the vg33e pathfinders as well. The stock VG30 maf is TINY and definitely not even close to adequate for a modified VG30 or VG33. I'll also be working on modifying the VG33E intake manifold to fit in a WD21 chassis, it has much better flow as well as a larger throttle body. Should all stack together for quite the nice power/efficiency increase when coupled with a good set of fuel and timing maps as well.

Yeah there are companies that over charge for less than ideal tunes, which are stuck with one set of maps. My goal here is to experiment and see what I can get out of it with my ideal setup. DIY is just my nature I guess. And to answer your question about widebands; it totally depends on your choice of wideband. If you want to run tandem o2s (wide and narrow) then any wideband will be fine. If you want to run only one sensor (wide) then the only one that I know of that will work is the mtx-l. It has a simulated narrowband output that you can then wire into your factory ecu and eliminate the narrowband. And to update, I got the eeprom programmer in the mail!! Just waiting on the eeproms so I can get started. First order will be to convert to n60 maf and optimize fuel and timing maps. Things are happening!!!

P.s., if anyone wants a guide on wideband install I would be happy to make a write-up. I'll be installing one soon on the rig. (probably another mtx-l, as they are fantastic)

With my light tapping on the splined section while using a puller and heat, I have never damaged anything. My steering box is still super tight and I wheel quite a bit on 33s

Well...no actual work on the rig, but... my EEPROM programmer came in the mail! Just waiting on some EEPROMS and I can get started tuning the Path!!!

awesome write up...i need to do this soon

I have removed a few pitman arms. Trick is to get the nut off first, then apply pressure with the puller while heating the area with mps gas torch and do it in stages. one stage of tightening the puller a bit, keep the heat on it, then tap the side of the splined area with a hammer. Tighten the puller more, heat more, hit with hammer. A few tries like that and they just about always come loose. Only one I couldn't get off was one where the shaft threads were so rusted I count get the main nut off. If u get that nut off the rest should be fine if u do what I did.

salary < enjoyment of life (via freedom to mod to your hearts desire when you are a gearhead lol)