Slartibartfast

4WD Pathy/pickup outer fenders are the same AFAIK. 2WD pickup fenders aren't flared out as far. I remember finding out the hard way that the mounting points for the rear plastic fender flares changed at some point (probably mid '92), not sure if they did the same for the fronts. Inners, do you mean the plastic liner or the sheet metal behind it?

When I pulled the engine out of my donor, I knotted old seatbelts around the engine mounts and ran those up to the load leveler. Found out later both mounts were broken, not sure if I did that or if they were like that before I started. Luckily they held. I was pulling the engine and trans together, so having both straps tied pretty low on the engine wasn't an issue. If you're pulling just the engine, you might want to find somewhere to bolt a plate. The back of the heads have a few threaded holes IIRC.

It'll have to be someone who knows more about the R51 than I do! I don't know much about them to begin with, and that one's a diesel. Looks like a good starting point for what he wants to do with it, though. Bet it's claustrophobic in there with that tint.

Sounds like the coil is getting power, but the computer doesn't know that the engine is spinning. The first thing I would do is confirm that the rotor in the distributor is spinning. That's where the one and only position sensor is in this engine, so if that's not spinning, you won't have spark. That would also mean a failed timing belt, so hopefully it's not that. Are the injectors spraying fuel? If they are, the computer knows the engine is spinning, and the problem is in the ignition circuit. If they aren't, that's another sign the computer doesn't know what's going on. Double-check your wiring and make sure nothing got pinched or smashed during the engine swap, and all the connectors on the passenger's side valve cover are seated properly. You can download the '95 manual here.

Yes. Power locking is its own system. The alarm/keyless taps into that system, but with it gone, the power locks respond to the key the same as they ever did.

Yep, cheapest will likely be fixing the existing VG30, unless it's well and truly buggered. Second cheapest would be replacing it with a VG30 that isn't blown up. Third, and the only cheap upgrade, is the VG33 swap. If you're looking for a direct-fit, exact same engine, you'll find it in a mid '93-'95 WD21 Pathfinder or D21 Hardbody truck. If yours is 4WD, the donor should be too. There are a lot of four-cylinder D21s out there, obviously that won't work. '90-early '93 have the same engine, but with square-tooth timing belt sprockets. '87-'89 have different fuel injection. If your truck has California emissions, you may need to salvage the EGR valve off the old engine, as I don't think the federal version ever got the valve with the temperature sensor that the California-spec computer expects to see. Unless you're sure the replacement engine had its timing belt recently, plan on doing that before it goes in. It's doable in the car, but I'll bet it's easier on a hoist or engine stand. If the timing belt slips, valves and pistons have a party and you're back where you started.

Nissan has their own recall lookup, might give that a go.

If the alarm is turned on, and you turn the key twice to lock all the doors, yes, it'll activate the alarm. I only know because that's all that could've turned it on the one time mine went off. No idea if locking the doors by hand or locking one and then closing it would arm it. Manually locking the front doors locks them all, so, probably. But if the switch is off, it's off.

AFAIK the alarm doesn't arm when the doors are unlocked, so, yeah, that should be fine. When mine still had an alarm, I just left the alarm switch on the console turned off. I only had the alarm trigger once, and that was when I'd accidentally bumped the switch and turned it back on. If the driver's door switch doesn't work, that's where I'd start. They get dirty and corroded inside. They're supposed to be electrically open (door closed) or closed (door open), but if it's got the green crusties inside, it might be leaking enough current to make the alarm brain think the door is open, but not enough to illuminate the dome light. Remove the driver's door switch and see if that fixes the alarm. IIRC the door switch grounds through the mounting screw, so you could remove the screw, leave the door open, and see if it'll lock normally with the fob. If it does, the switch is bad. You might be able to get it open and clean its contacts. If not, replace it. The rear hatch latch switch is an odd design. It's built into the latch assembly. The usual fix when it starts to act up (dome light stays on, or flickers when you go over bumps) is shimming the striker. If yours is working as expected, leave it alone.

Sounds like it thinks a door is open. Might be a door switch, might be the hood pin, might be the light switch in the rear hatch latch that tends to go bad on these. The later alarms had the starter kill relay up in the dash (earlier ones had it inside the alarm brain), so that's probably the click you're hearing. NTB93-036 is the only service info that I'm aware of for the keyless entry/alarm system. If you don't mind losing the keyless entry, the alarm is pretty easy to get rid of. Most if its harness is plugged in between the factory wiring--so you unplug the factory wiring on either side, get the alarm harness out from in between, and plug the factory wiring back into itself like the alarm was never there. The alarm brain is the square box under the driver's seat (not the rounded one, that's for the ABS). You will need to remove some trim to get it all out. IIRC it plugs in between the ignition switch and the main harness, and between the driver's door harness and the main harness, and also intercepts the horn, and then is Scotchlock'd to the dome light circuit (near the fuel door release switch) and the parking lights (inside the steering column clamshell). It's also got wires going into the engine bay for the hood switch and the siren, but those are bundled with the fog light wiring, so don't start cutting until you know which wires are which. If you're not sure if a harness is alarm or factory, look closely at the insulation. The alarm harness has the purpose of each wire printed onto it, and the factory harness does not. Pulling the alarm wiring out of mine got rid of an intermittent weak start that I'd been fighting with for a while. I didn't have the keyfob for it anyway, so nothing of value was lost.

I'd be very surprised if the WD21 and R50 floor pans were similar enough for that to work.

Hopefully the obvious surface damage is all there is, then. Most of that stuff is available, and I'll bet some of it could be brought back around with some epoxy and some strategic hammertime, depending on your skills and standards. The hood's a bummer, though. That was in way nicer shape than mine.

Yeah, I was surprised at how easy that switch was to replace in my '93. Good to hear it's similar in the R50. Hopefully the fix holds.

Some modern trash can be stolen via scan tool. These are too old for that. Unfortunately it looks like yours is also too old to have the factory immobilizer (looks like that started in '99?)--though that's not all bad, as you don't have to pay through the nose to get a new key cut. A kill switch for the starter, fuel pump, or both wouldn't be too hard to rig up. Mighty Car Mods and Chrisfix both have youtube videos on installing kill switches, and you can get the wiring diagrams from Nicoclub to see what runs where. Just make sure you do it cleanly, with minimal harness hacking, in a way that's not going to give you problems later on. Things designed to make the truck not start have a way of making the truck not start when you'd rather it did, especially if they're poorly done. I removed the stock alarm from my '93 because it was interfering with the starter circuit intermittently--and that was port-installed, not even aftermarket crap. Make a note of what you did (which wires, what color, cut where) in case you (or someone else!) need to troubleshoot an electrical fault later on. Sounds like the switch in your friend's D21 is breaking multiple circuits. Probably just a double-throw switch, with one side cutting the starter circuit and the other side cutting power to the dash. I too have removed the fuel pump fuse when parking somewhere I didn't trust. I've never had someone try to steal it, so I don't know how effective that would've been. Depends on the tweaker, I guess.

What codes is it throwing?

That's not bad. What damage did they find?

Some people see their lives flash before their eyes. Others see their truck's maintenance history and known faults.

If it's not throwing catalyst efficiency codes, I wouldn't worry about the cats for now. I wouldn't expect a clogged cat to cause a misfire on one cylinder only. I would however expect the misfire to damage the cats eventually. New plugs might clear it up. They wear over time, and foul if the mixture is too rich. If that doesn't do it, try swapping the coil on the misfiring cylinder with one of the others to see if the fault follows the coil (says the coil is bad), or stays where it is (says something else on that cylinder is bad--either compression or fuel). Fuel could be an injector. The color of the old spark plug may tell you what's going on here--white is lean, black is rich. You can buy or borrow a compression tester that screws in place of the spark plug to see if that cylinder is down on compression. The service manual should have a target pressure and a maximum % allowable difference between cylinders. Download the service manual here and have a look at the EC section. It should have a list of things to check to resolve your code. It assumes you've got the special Consult scan tool the dealers had, but there's usually a workaround.

Nicoclub has the US-spec service manuals here. Hopefully they're similar enough to what you're working with. The EL section should have what you need. If the R50 is wired like the WD21, the tail lights, front corner lights, dash lights, and license plate lights are all on the same circuit. If you've been into any of that recently, or if any of the lights aren't working, start there. When mine popped, it was because the wiring I'd recently modified for the license plate light had shorted out (the cheap heat shrink slid off a joint, which is why I use better heat shrink with glue in it now). If you have no leads to follow, check the exterior bulbs. Look for corroded sockets, loose wiring, or defective bulbs. If you have a trailer harness, check that too.

No worries! And yeah, that's a hell of a writeup.

In Mr. 510's VG34 build thread, he found that a camshaft retainer bolt had somehow backed out and allowed the cam to walk forward, which he figured was the cause of the weird tick he'd been hearing. Something to look for when you get the valve cover off. I don't know that this would explain the popping, but if the cam journal is gnawing on the lifter, maybe that could be hanging up the valve and intermittently preventing it from closing properly, causing what I assume is a backfire. Only popping when it's heat soaked still has me thinking it's got a sticky valve, but that's not a failure I've chased before so I don't know how common/likely it would be, and I don't know that it would explain the racket in the video. Too bad the snake oil didn't help. If you suspect the injectors, check the spark plugs, see if they're all about the same color on the business end. (The #6 plug is a notorious PITA, but is possible to remove with the right combination of extension/U joint/swearing, or the factory tool kit that may still be under your back seat. Blow out around them first if you can, dirt and mouse crap tend to settle in there.) If they all look about the same, I doubt it's the injectors. Wouldn't explain the tapping, either. If you do need an injector, avoid the cheap ones. Cuong Nguyen tried some and wasn't impressed. Black soot could be leaky injectors, but it could also be a bad temp sensor telling the computer it's colder outside than it is. Condensation on cold starts is normal. I doubt it's the cat. The cat on my friend's Blazer failed and all it did was rattle. We cut it open after replacing it and found that the honeycomb had broken free of the can, bounced around inside, and gradually beat itself smaller so it rattled more and more. I don't think it ever threw a code, it just sounded like something was gonna fall off. Long shot, when it's running, try pressing on that heat shield over the exhaust manifold with a long screwdriver or prybar. If the noise suddenly stops, the heat shield is loose. It doesn't sound like a heat shield to me, but they can make a hell of a racket when they break loose. I once drove back from the coast convinced that something in the drivetrain was about to fail, only to discover that I had a loose exhaust clamp. Wasn't nearly as regular as your noise, though, and didn't match engine RPM like yours is doing. Long shot, have you tried running it with the drive belts off? Not for long (it'll overheat if run too long with no water pump), but if you crank it up and the noise is gone, could be a bearing going. My alt sounded pretty ominous when it started to go. Your noise sure does sound like it's in the engine, but it doesn't hurt to rule out the cheap stuff first.

So that one code means an electrical fault, the coupling (clutch?), or apparently also the computer. Well, that narrows it down, huh? I don't know crap about R52s, or where they go wrong. I would start by checking the circuit, then if that checks out, drain the fluid and look for wear material. A drain and fill did wonders for the transfer in my '95, but of course that's an entirely different beast. Good luck!

Your best bet is to download the service manual for your year from Nicoclub, look up that code, and see what steps the manual recommends to troubleshoot it. The later manuals assume you have the dealer scan tools, but sometimes you'll get lucky and find a "without CONSULT" option, or at least a description of what conditions trigger that code. There is a service bulletin out for that code as well. Looks like they think it's a computer fault. They don't mention a noise, though.

Is it losing oil or coolant? Is the noise louder under load, right after startup, or when the engine is cold? The exhaust popping has me thinking you might have a valvetrain issue, possibly a valve hanging up. I would be tempted to try a Berryman's or Seafoam intake treatment on it, see if that cleans up some crud from the offending valve stem and gets it moving properly again. Maybe add a little ATF to the oil to clean it out from the inside, without the risk of dislodging an oil-passage-clogging glob of schmoo with a harsher crankcase flush. You could also remove the valve cover and dig around for anything obviously visually wrong, but that's a bit of an undertaking on the driver's side because of how the plenum lays over the driver's side head. These are known for exhaust studs snapping and causing leaks at the manifold. Mine's got at least one busted stud and has leaked there for at least as long as I've had it. It mostly makes noise when it's cold and/or under load. If your noise is consistent regardless of engine temp or load, then I doubt it's an exhaust leak. And, yeah, hopefully the last guys who had it apart last used better-quality studs than Nissan did. That said, exhaust leaks can be deceptive. My friend installed an exhaust manifold gasket backwards in his Blazer once, and it sounded like a much more expensive problem than it ended up being. I thought it had a collapsed lifter until I noticed the gasket was sticking out where it shouldn't have been. I also doubt it's the bottom end, but you can test that by unplugging each spark plug lead, one at a time, with the engine running. No spark means no fire, which means much less load on the bottom end. So if you pull a plug lead, and the noise stops, then you know it's bottom end, and you know which cylinder has the problem. This helped my dad diagnose a bottom end issue in his friend's Triumph (which turned out to be a bad small-end conrod bearing). This is also an easy way to zap yourself on the ignition system, so, fair warning there. If you track the noise to one cylinder head, and the snake oil doesn't clear it up, you could just pull the one bad head and either swap it for a used/reman head, or take the old head to a machine shop to see if they can sort it out. Rockauto lists reman heads, looks like they only have the passenger's side in stock though. Swapping a head is a fairly major engine surgery, but I'd expect it to be cheaper and easier than replacing the whole engine.

I hadn't thought about the pinion angle with the lift. That would make sense. Before dumping fluids, you could try loading up the back of the truck to compress the suspension a little, see if that calms the noise. If it does, then you know it's not the diff.