Slartibartfast

From what I've read, the main problem with a motor swap is which side the transfer case ends up on. The Pathfinder has it on the driver's side, and I guess most rigs have it on the passenger's side. If you've got an adapter, or want to do a solid axle swap anyway, then it's no problem, and you've just got the size of the engine bay to worry about. V8path is running a 5.7l from a Trans Am with an adapter that let him mate the 4L60E auto trans to the stock Nissan transfer case.

CO, check your brake fluid level. My BRAKE light and one other light (battery?) came on a couple times when my brake master was leaking. More brake fluid made the lights go away until the fluid leaked back out again. Doesn't sound like you've got both lights on, but it wouldn't hurt to rule out.

Yep, VQ is drive by wire. It was one of the things I hated about my dad's '03, and one of the things that went wrong.

Sounds like just leaks to me. Have a look at the clamps that hold the rubber between the fuel rails, those tend to leak. Also take a look around the gas tank for leaks there. For the oil leak, try tightening the valve cover screws, they leak from the valve cover gaskets sometimes. It could be leaking in other, less accessible places, but try tightening stuff first, wipe up as much as you can, and see if it keeps doing it. Your grinding noise sounds like the automatic hubs are going out, but it could also be CVs or something else in the front end. I would pull the hubs and see if the noise goes away. If it does, either pick up a better set from a wrecking yard or buy manual hubs. Manuals are a great upgrade IMO and aren't that expensive or hard to install.

Good to hear you got it! As for the locks, the power lock timer goes out sometimes (few threads on resoldering those). I repaired my timer and the locks seemed to calm down slightly, but I think I'll have to do something with the contacts in the lock cylinders on the front doors to fix it fully. I shot some powdered graphite into the driver's lock once... that was probably a mistake.

Manual climate control, right? I would suspect a problem with the fan speed switch or the resistor pack, most likely the switch, given that it was evidently acting up before.

Reminds me of a story I heard a while back. Some US agents in Mexico got stopped and surrounded by cartel guys, put their armored SUV in park, and the doors auto-unlocked. Turns out armor's a little less effective when the enemy can just open the door.

IIRC you can see that door pretty well if you take out the glovebox door, which would let you see if it's moving all the way. I haven't run into this with mine; it's got a fair bit of resistance behind the levers. Maybe there's a little tension spring or something that's gone?

I remember a guy on here took one apart, ran the spring in another couple turns (it's a clock spring, like in a wind-up toy motor) and said that did the job. IIRC he had pictures as well. I didn't find that thread, but I did find this one: I've had a look at my belts, and I think the gunk in the belt hangers is probably part of the issue. I tried cleaning it out with a paper towel (not really possible) and a piece of .035 welding wire (also not great); I think a piece of unwaxed dental floss or heavy thread would work pretty well. Whatever human slime is on the hanger is probably worked into the belt as well, though.

Don't work up a sweat under there, you'll freeze to the driveway!

Some plugs come with little cardboard sleeves on the ends to prevent the electrodes getting knocked around in shipping. Checking them's not a bad idea while they're already out, but as far as solving your starting issue, IMO it's the wrong tree to bark up. I've read stories on here of rigs running fairly well with the plugs burned way out of spec. Somebody (B?) had the center electrode on the cap straight fall out and the thing still ran, arcing from the coil terminal to the rotor. If it'll overcome that, a few thousandths plug gap is not going to keep it from starting. Ether goes into the throttle body. Basically take the filter off, hold the throttle open, shoot a little of it (couple seconds at the most) down its gullet, then try starting it again. The hope is that the high volatility of the ether will mean that it'll fire where gas won't, even if the spark is weak, the compression is low, the gas is iffy, the starter's weak, or the system is flooded. It can be a great help on carbureted cars, but it shouldn't be necessary for a fuel-injected engine, and I'd be a little leery of using it around MAF sensors and whatnot. It's also what Richard Pryor set himself on fire with, though to be fair he wasn't starting his car with the stuff. Try starting it when it's below freezing with the throttle opened a little (hold the pedal down a bit). If it starts and runs that way, but dies when you let off, my bet is still on the idle air control.

^^That's probably it. I would be surprised if the ECU was different for the 2x models, or at least if it was different enough to cause problems. The cluster might be, though, unless the 2WD just has an empty bulb hole for the 4x4 indicator. Probably the cheaper way to do the conversion would be to pick up a Craigslist 4x4 organ donor like daczone said, except with a blown motor/snapped T-belt instead of a dead trans. Probably best to avoid frame rot victims unless you enjoy removing the parts you need with a torch.

Yep, that's the one behind the intake. Hopefully the new pump fixes it. If not, I'd look at the regulator next.

Hoses wouldn't be a bad thing to check, but any hoses between the pump and the motor are under pressure, not suction, so any leakage would mean escaping fuel, which I think you would've noticed by the smell. I would also be surprised if a fuel leak like that made the fuel filter buzz. My bet is still that there's a bad seal somewhere in the tank between the fuel pickup and the pump which allows it to suck air from the tank, which then makes noise as it goes through the filter. My only reservation with this theory is that it doesn't really explain the time delay where it runs fine. Maybe there's a very fine crack that fills with fuel when the pump is off, more or less sealing, but dries out and lets air in after a while? Or the pump only starts leaking once it's warmed up? You might also have a look at the fuel pressure regulator and the vacuum line that goes to it. They're behind the intake towards the passenger's side. I don't think air would get into the fuel line there, but if the regulator part is, I don't know, leaking vacuum and fluttering somehow, it might be causing enough variation in fuel pressure to make the buzz, and enough pressure drop to make it run funny. That's a complete shot in the dark, and it still doesn't explain the time delay.

'88 is throttle body injected, not carbureted. Cleaning the throttle body may help, though, if your idle air setup (I'm not entirely sure where this lives and how it works on the TBI models) is gunked up and/or not opening properly. A functioning idle air control setup lets a little air around the throttle plate, similar in effect to holding the gas pedal down a little, until the engine's heated up and can idle on its own. If it's not working, the engine won't want to start or idle when it's cold. I think the same mechanism boosts the idle once the engine's warmed and idling when the A/C compressor kicks in or the power steering is working hard, but I could be wrong on that (especially given my limited knowledge of the TBI models). I tried Seafoam on my rig, and the throttle body was still filthy when I got into it. I'm not sure if I did the Seafoam wrong or if it just didn't do the job. I ended up cleaning it by hand, and noticed a nice power increase from getting all that black gunk out of there.

Yep, I had to router mine out a bit to fit around the Milemarkers too.

Is the alarm system stock? I don't think the factory box does that. Mine don't, anyway. They do plenty of weird things but that's not one of them.

+1 on it not being the fuel pump. If it comes and goes, it's not a bent valve, a bad pump, or a compression issue. Those would make for a constant miss. This sounds electrical to me. You're ruled out the coil packs and the plugs by replacing them, so the problem must be between them and the ECU. I would check the electrical connections and wiring for the coil packs, looking for nicked insulation, blue copper, crud in the plugs, anything out of the ordinary that would explain lost spark. I guess it could be a vacuum leak on cylinder 2, but given that it acts up under load about the same as it does at idle, I don't think that's very likely.

I remember seeing a 2WD to 4WD upgrade thread around here somewhere. I don't remember how detailed the thread was, or how much stuff the guy had to swap out, but he did manage it. I seem to remember there being something different in the frame or the suspension that he had to work around, but I could be entirely wrong on that.

That is a cool bit of ice! Anyone played around with sand ladders? I've DIY'd a set of them for snow and ice, and I'm hoping to give them a good test sometime this week. I'll put a build vid together if they work. Can't be worse than cardboard and cat litter, right?

The buzzing and surging fuel line sounds like some air is getting forced through the fuel system. That would suggest issues with the fuel pump. Did you replace the pump chasing this issue, or before it started? I can't think of where else air would be getting in. I can't think of why it would take twenty minutes to become a problem, either, unless it happens at a specific fuel level and just took that long for the fuel level to drop to where the leak in the pickup tube was. You might also take a look at the vacuum line going from the back of the intake to the fuel pressure regulator. It can't hurt to run the codes and see what the computer thinks is wrong too.

I bought a plastic one off Rockauto, which was marked for a Sentra (they swore the part # was the same) and didn't fit until I switched mounting plates with my old one. Then the other handle snapped and I replaced both with new metal ones from eBay, which bolted right up. The install's not too bad when you've got the right part. I think I spent more time fighting (and then repairing) the fiberboard panel than I did on the door handles. IIRC I ended up rolling the windows down to remove the panels, rolling them back up to get at the handle, then rolling them down again to put the panels back on.

The switch for the back hatch is in the latch, in the hatch. It's a crappy design and a common thing to have fail (the cargo light will start coming on randomly). I ended up rewiring mine to a different switch rather than try and fix the weird little rubber wedge thing.

Is there some way to change settings on the unit you got? My dad's Frontier auto-locked and there was some Konami Code of turning the key to various positions and poking different buttons that made it act normal again.

4x4 engaged, trans locked, one wheel spinning, the other should spin the other way. One shaft on a diff should never be able to turn without turning at least one of the others. Blown spiders would be my guess. I would've expected a knackered front end to make noise and cause all kinds of drivability issues, but my dad's Tundra sheared its front pinion off the other day (we're still scratching our heads about how and why), and it drove and sounded fine so long as the transfer was in 2HI. I have heard of some axles having a vacuum disconnect, which disengages something in the front diff of some domestic rigs. I don't know if Isuzus use it too, but if they do, and it's out, I imagine it would act like what you're seeing. Worth checking into, anyway.