deltantor

Well, we have pulled apart the first engine that had noise in the head, looks like one of the heads was in pretty bad shape and the valves looked pretty beat up. We are currently considering using parts from both engines together to get one up and running until we can rebuild the other. Any input on this? Thinking the 92 engine with the rod knock will just need the bearings from the 90 engine and possibly the crankshaft if that got beat up. Pulling the rod knock engine out tomorrow and pulling it apart to figure out exactly what is happening.

Interesting, the first engine we had in our pathfinder had a ticking noise that we just guessed was a lifter, but didn't think it was anything too bad, so we drove it about 500-1000 miles until the ticking turned into a loud tapping in the head. Starting to pull that engine apart because it is the one we are going to rebuild, and noticed one of the rocker arms was pretty black while the others were a nice copper color. Interesting.

We had 5W30 in the engine and it had about 130,000 miles on it, had another engine start go bad and swapped this one in from a 92 pathfinder we bought to salvage off of. First engine had what sounded like a stuck lifter in it that just got a LOT worse, had a pretty bad metal on metal tapping sound coming from the head when it went bad, haven't pulled it apart yet to see what happened, but that will probably be the one we rebuild if thats the path we go.

Yeah...Pretty spot on to what it sounds like. Oil levels were fine, and we had just recently done an oil change. Not sure what caused it, but I'm thinking there was a good bit of gunk and grime somewhere in the engine that starved certain parts of oil. This was an engine we had pulled from a '92 pathfinder and put in our '90, it had run perfectly for about a week and then this happened. Really wish I ran that can of seafoam through it now...

Was driving my '90 pathfinder a couple of days ago and went to pass another vehicle...revved up to 5000rpm, passed them, and then the vehicle stalled. Pulled off to the side of the road, and tried to start it back up to no avail. Tried starting it at wide open throttle and was able to, then let off and it stalled again. Started it back up the same way and drove about a quarter mile to a parking lot so I could get a tow home. The tow was about 3 hours away, so I had my father come over and we started it up, and it had a really loud knocking sound and a good bit off smoke pouring out from the tailpipe and a small bit from the engine compartment. Let it run for a minute, and then drove it home like that. Right now it is starting normally, but I still have an extremely loud knocking and you can hear it really well at the oil pan, sounds like it is coming from the engine block. No smoke anymore as well. I'm thinking that it is a bad rod bearing, but wanted to get some input. Considering doing an engine rebuild, any info on that would be great as well.

Alright, checked that fuse and it is okay. Interesting thing though: When I pull it out, illumination stops working BUT the PRND21 lights and clock backlight DO stay on with the headlights. Interesting.

Alright, did some work and found out that the negative wire for the illumination circuit is actually giving off 12v. For the time being, I cut that wire and properly grounded it to the frame. Probably going to have to trace that wire and figure out where it goes and what is going on. The illumination lights are working now, dimmer isnt. The clock now gets lit by the illumination lights as well. Only issue is that the PRND21 lights still turn off when you turn on the headlights, and I really have no clue whats going on. Not having a similar ground issue, so I'm pretty unsure. Is it possible that they are supposed to go out and that is just normal? Otherwise, I am really stumped.

Alright, did a lot of work and managed to fix all of the diagnostic type lights plus gauges, was a few wires being cut. Still have one issue though: The illumination lights are still non functional, plus the PRND21 lights and clock backlight still turn off when you turn the headlights on. Any ideas there? I checked the dimmer switch and it is fine.

Tested fusible link and all fuses, the fusible link was bad, replaced it with the okay one from the 92 pathy, brake and amp lights are off now, no other changes.

They look like they were added on, once I have a chance tomorrow I'm going to start pulling stuff apart and figuring out where all of the wiring is going and if there are any cut wires that might match up. Really hoping that this doesn't end up being absurdly hard to fix. Almost wish I could get hold of who did this and ask them what the hell they were up to, I've done a good number of stereo installs for friends and myself and have never seen something so insanely botched. Hell, at least they got the damn stereo to work.

Not too sure on which wires. Theres a wire by the dimmer switch that I've checked and has +12vdc coming from it, and then a couple of random pink wires that are cut behind and under the dash, although we have no idea where they go.

Alright, so we bought a 4wd 1990 nissan pathfinder back in january, and have had a few issues with it that we have fixed, including a stuck lifter develop into a pretty bad metal on metal sound while driving it @ around 75mph, at which point we bought a 92 pathy with a stuck/bad manual tranny for -$100 (had some pretty awesome tires on it we managed to sell for $100 more than we bought the car for) and swapped the engines out. Had an oil leak after that, so we narrowed that down to a bad camshaft seal and during replacing that we realized we had a completely torn up spark plug cable so we put in new spark plugs and grabbed the cable off of the other (bad) engine and replaced it. Which brings us down to the current issue, ever since we bought the vehicle the majority of the dash lights, the tachometer, fuel gauge, and water temp gauge is out. We pulled the dash out, and found a bunch of cut wires as well as a red wire with a wire nut just sitting loose back there. Was hoping it was just the dimmer switch so we bypassed that, and then had a pretty bad electric smell and the dash backlight came on pretty dim so we undid that. Wired up and put in a new voltage regulator hoping that might clear some of it up and it did nothing, even though the old VR was bad and the new one worked fine (bench tested them). The PRNDL lights do work, although they (and the clock backlight) turn off when you turn the headlights on. They do stay on though if the fuse for the brake lights is removed. The battery light is always on, same with the brake light which gets brighter if you engage the parking brakes. Did an ECU test, only thing it complained about was the oxygen sensor, replaced that with the one from the 92 pathy which fixed it. The turn signal lights work perfectly. Does anybody have any idea what to do? I really wish I could get the fuel gauge working, and am really worried about the oil light not working as well, which might have been enough to save the old engine. One more thing: Considering doing a rebuild on the bad VG30E engine in the next couple of months. Anyone have any information on that?