Slartibartfast

^^That's only true for the HBs. In the Pathfinders it's in the passenger's rear quarter behind the trim. IIRC it's even marked.

Awesome, thank you!

Certainly doesn't sound good. Maybe before giving up on it, try swapping in the trans computer from the red one? I doubt it's the problem but at least you could rule it out. No idea on the oil leak. I know mine's leaking from somewhere but it's so slow that I haven't been bothered to find it yet. But it runs just fine, right? I'd start comparing its engine to the engine in the red one, especially with the timing. Probably easier to get the red one running right than to swap its transmission into the black one.

The flickering door light is usually the rear hatch sensor. Apparently you can shim it or something. If that doesn't help, check the contacts behind the steering wheel. Mine were so gunked up that the horn didn't even work.

Pretty sure any VG is interference, but yeah, it would fit. Fixing the valves on your #4 would probably be about the same amount of work though.

Do you remember the part number for those cups?

My understanding is that you do. The stock ones aren't that good. Apparently you can weld bearing cups or something on there instead to hold the bushings. I don't have a part # for that though.

That's got the same engine (almost) as the Pathfinder. Does the guy give any details on his setup?

Or get a straight one and have it bent.

You'd probably be better off with a high-flow cat and a louder muffler, maybe headers. From what I remember somebody on here had dual exhaust and complained of power loss.

Discovered that the loudspeaker attached to the factory alarm can be connected to other things... PA system anybody? I've got mine hooked to the chicken dance ATM...

If it was the TC I'd expect it to do the same thing in forward gears as well. And yeah, if it's gunky enough to bind up the valves, a solvent flush might just loosen the clog and put it somewhere else. Maybe drop the pan when you drain it and see how it looks inside?

KBB for my area says up to $2k for a nice one... dunno if I'd pay that but I wouldn't lowball the guy either, unless it's got serious issues. And yeah, the catalytic makes loads more sense, especially in California! Probably what it is.

Does sound like the timing belt broke... usually takes the valves with it. Not necessarily a bad thing, in fact it means there's a lot of stuff recently fixed! I'm a little surprised to see the torque (?) converter, maybe ask what went wrong with it. It should have a new timing belt, tensioner, water pump, cam seals, thermostat, etc. I'd check the fluids and double check the frame... I didn't realize that mine was rusted at all until I took a wheel off and thumped on it. Make sure the trans engages reverse smoothly. If it runs and drives properly, it sounds like a good deal to me. My dad bought mine for $1600 and it needed all kinds of stuff.

^^What he said. You can take the headlight switch apart and clean the contacts, which should solve the problem, but the relay mod keeps it from happening again. I don't remember what doing mine cost, but it took a couple evenings, some wire, some plugs, and two junkyard relays ($2 each!).

Did you check the linkage yet? If that's not adjusted right (you said the shifter was funny) it might not be opening valves fully, thus not engaging gears properly until you hit the throttle and throw some more pressure at it. Get that working, then look at the trans itself.

I can relate I'd start with the stuff you took out to get to the manifold... chances are something didn't go back together quite right. What all did you remove?

Again... loads of work to swap in a much smaller motor.

+1 on the boot. I tried driving it without any boot at all... once... cold day and I still nearly burned the hair off my leg. I got mine from factorynissanparts. Edit: the part # is 74965-80G00 INSULATOR, TRANS HOLE

Now that you've got one that's how it should be, you can check your red one against it... so you'll have one to drive when the trans eats it. But yeah, sounds like the linkage isn't adjusted right... how hard can it be?

I remember from Mr. 510's VG34 thread that he'd advanced the timing on his VG30 pretty far to get a little more power out of it. Combustion doesn't happen instantly... all engines (at least that I've seen/read about) fire before top dead center. This gives the fuel time to really get burning before it has to push the piston down. (Advance too far, though, and you get knocking.) With a lousy fuel mix, maybe there's more room for improvement. And again, maybe there's something wrong with the dizzy. The engine's supposed to run a little rich during open loop, right?

Yikes. So can you see yet what went wrong? Sorry, second picture didn't load! Wow.

If you've gone through three sensors and two clusters and still have the problem, I suspect neither of them is at fault. Sounds to me like either the wiring is making intermittent connection or there's something wrong with the gear in the transmission that the speed sensor engages. If the sensor gear looked chewed up, this may be the case. Also I think the blue speedo gear and the red speedo gear are about two teeth apart... which to use depends on what tires etc you're running.

And just to throw this in... extreme cam jobs tend to make engines idle rough.