Slartibartfast

It may whip up when you're driving, but it'll separate again when it sits, so the water won't come out until the drain plug is removed.

Good call on the pump! One less thing to go wrong and make you do the whole thing again. Same goes for the cam and crank seals, tensioner pulley, and water pump bypass hose. LC-9 in the '97 manual has a diagram of where the plugs are. Looks like the right one is between the motor mount and the power steering pump bracket, and the left one is between the motor mount and the alty. One of mine was seized stiff enough that I was worried I'd break something and left it alone. The other came out, but water didn't until I jammed something up the hole to break up the crud that had settled above it. I'd assume the crap on the injectors is the same as what's inside the manifold (mix of oil vapor and blow-by from the PCV and carbon from the EGR), though seeing it all on one side makes me wonder if you just bumped the injectors into the valve cover or something while removing them and the ends scooped up some crap. Are they all like that? Probably worth cleaning while you're in there but not a sign of creeping death or anything as far as I'm aware. I never disconnected mine from the lower manifold, so I don't know what mine looked like to compare. I had some cleaning to do when I pulled my manifold, too. The plug wells and the valley under the intake were all full of dirt and rat crap, and I didn't want any of that going into the cylinders when I changed the plugs. There was some casting flash on the heads keeping junk in the plug wells, which I busted out with a screwdriver while I was at it to hopefully keep things cleaner in the future. Not sure if that's just a VG30 thing or if the VG33 heads have the same issue. Good luck with the creeper and the bones!

Yep, sounds like water got into the trans. Maybe the breather hose came off? Hopefully a drain and fill will calm it down, but the whining sounds like bearing damage. Check your transfer case and your diffs, too.

You must have slow fish in Queensland!

Had someone walk up and offer me another one! Apparently she's got a '91, manual trans, new tires, couple of electrical gremlins. Sounded like the mileage was pretty low. $1k. It's out of my budget at the moment but if any of you are interested, let me know. I was just amused that WD21s are old enough to be conversation starters now.

^^ Good thinking to check that. I think the BPT was standard for 94/95. I remember on my '95 the hose coming off the bottom of the BPT was all dry rotted and cracked in the back. Looked fine until I got it apart and went, oh, that's not supposed to look like that.

Are you still talking about the transmission temp sensor? The engine's got an oil pressure sensor (switch really) next to the oil filter, which is what it sounds like the wire's broken off of (which is not uncommon).

My '93 has rear disks, and so did my '95, both SE trim level if that helps. I'm not sure what trim levels were available in Australia or what you're likely to find at the wreckers. Drum to disk threads like this one might give you a better idea of what you're up against, though keep in mind if they're for US models, they might be working with a different axle housing than what you've got--I think all the US V6 models came with the H233B rear end, but the four-bangers C200s. (There's a code on the plate in the engine bay that you can look up to tell you your ratio and what axles you have.) Probably the easiest way to get rid of the drums would be to find a disk brake rear axle with the correct axle ratio (bonus points if you find one with LSD) and swap that in. Make sure you get the parking brake cables while you're at it, I hear those are getting tough to find for the disk brake rear ends. You may also want to swap your master cylinder over to the disk brake version, sounds like the proportioning valve for the rears is different.

I think that dog needs a lift kit!

The trans codes aren't too bad, there's a procedure in the AT section of the service manual (use the '94 or '95 manual). It'll automatically spit codes on startup if it thinks something is wrong, or you can check them whenever (IIRC you ground one of the pins in a connector under the dash). The light in the E-AT switch (or possibly the "power" light on the dash) will flicker, and the long flickers indicate problems. Kind of a hokey way of doing it but that's OBD1 for you. Is the light coming on after driving a while or as soon as you start the truck?

Did the mechanic say what in the throttle body was wallered? There's a lot going on in there on the TBI rigs.

+1 for a lean condition. Check the MAF sensor for crap buildup on the filaments and check the rubber tube between the MAF and the throttle body for cracks.

Wow. Yeah, good thing you caught it before it let go. Looks pretty well reinforced but I wouldn't have wanted to reach over it while it was running!

^+1 on the oil burning, my aunt's '13 Subaru ran out of oil while she was driving it. Fortunately she heard the lifters complaining and stopped before the bearings locked up.

What makes you think it's the throttle body? If it starts when you turn the key but dies when you release it, that could well be an ignition switch issue. Shouldn't be though if the fuel pump primes when you turn the key on. The '89 FSM specs 36.3 psi fuel pressure at idle, so that looks good. Odd that it's falling off when you're trying to start it, I'm not sure if it's supposed to do that. Long shot, but you might try the fuel filter. Also strange that it's flashing the CEL while cranking but not returning codes. Are you turning it off and on again before you check for codes? These ECUs aren't all that sophisticated, they forget a lot when turned off. If you check right after a failed start, you might have better luck finding out why the light's flashing.

Factorynissanparts shows it as PN 92440-01G80 (discontinued of course). Looks like it's available here and here. It looks like a very simple flare, so if those sources fall through, I'd expect an aircon shop to be able to fab one up without too much hassle. Shouldn't take long with a thread pitch gauge and calipers to work out what thread those are, though honestly those nuts look good enough to reuse.

Good to hear you got it, thanks for closing the loop.

VG30 tells you the engine family (VG) and displacement (3.0). The letter at the end tells you how it gets fuel. VG30I is throttle body injection (80s tech), VG30E is multi-port (what you've got). Some engines have more letters to designate other things. A VG30DETT is a VG30 with dual overhead cams, multi-port, and twin turbos. A VG33ER is a VG33 with multi-port and a supercharger.

Fleurys makes a lift kit for the R51. Not sure if the 2wd suspension is different enough that it wouldn't fit, or what would it would take to 4x swap it. About the only thing I know about the R51 is that you want to bypass the trans cooler in the rad ASAP because they fail and dump coolant into the transmission (search for SMOD, strawberry milkshake of death, if you're not familiar with this already). A 2WD vehicle with traction control you can't turn off isn't the greatest starting point, but if you're married to it, a locker (if one's available for that rear end) is probably a good place to start. My friend's Astro van is 2WD, but it's got a factory locker, and that thing does better off-road than it has any right to.

Black smoke means it's running rich. +1 for pulling codes as a place to start, though it's entirely possible the computer has no idea what's wrong either. If a sensor's way out, but not out of its allowable range, the computer trusts it and the engine runs like crap because it's calculating its fuel mixture based on inaccurate sensor readings. My first suspect would be the temp sensor, the two-pin one on the upper coolant neck (the one-pin is for the gauge on the dash). Check the plug for any obvious damage or corrosion, and try to start the truck with it unplugged. That should force the computer to guess the engine temp, and if the sensor's hoopajooped, the computer's guess should be better than the data it was getting. (It'll fudge data for a few sensors if they're not hooked up, I think the temp sensor is one of them.) There's also a resistance check in the service manual for the sensor itself (also the procedure to pull codes from the ECU). If it's not that, plug it back in and do the same checks on the MAF and the oxygen sensor (the plug for the O2 sensor is on the passenger's valve cover, three wires, I think it's two white and one black but I may have that flipped around). Idling fine but crapping out when you boot it makes me think the fuel filter's clogged, but that would make it run lean, not rich. I've heard of the fuel pressure regulator failing and sending gas through the vac line into the intake, but it seems like that would cause the most trouble at idle. Also check your spark plugs. Plugs won't cause a rich condition, but if some are richer than others, that might point towards a solution. Also, running extremely rich can foul spark plugs to where they don't work properly.

Not a bad idea to upgrade now if you're planning to chase power later. Not sure I could bring myself to drop $750 on a rad, though. I remember somebody turbo'd a VQ R50 a while back, and his transmission did not enjoy the results.

Don't trust a tire shop to diagnose engine problems. They might know how to mount and balance tires, on a good day. If the FPR or one or more injectors are bad, you'd have symptoms beyond just a P0420 code. If it's not misfiring, falling on its face under hard acceleration, fouling plugs, blowing fuel through the vac line on the FPR, or throwing codes, it's probably just an O2 sensor or catalyst that's worn out after nearly 200k miles. If it's having fuel delivery issues, do the fuel filter first. Do the timing belt (and all associated seals/hoses/etc while you're in there), put it back together, find the truck's actual issues, and go from there. These things don't eat injectors in batches, or even that often. Valve cover gaskets are a good idea, though, those do tend to crap out. The wheel bearings can be cleaned and repacked if they're not chewed up. If you do find a tire carrier, this should help you figure out mounting it. Good luck, they're not as common as they were on the WD21s. Mine's had the ticking since I got it. Broken manifold stud. One of these days I'll deal with it, but this is not that day.

Your gear ratio choices are limited on an R50, unfortunately. Hawairish explained it pretty well here. If you've got 4.3 gears, you could swap them for 4.6 gears, but those are the only two ratios available for the front diff.

This thread might help show what you're up against. Sounds like that lower one is a bit of a bugger.

Redpath88's link above still works for me. It's not Terrano-specific but covers the engine pretty well.