Mr_Reverse

When the valves and pistons introduced themselves to each other in my original VG30, I swapped in a VG33 from an 01 Xterra. If I had the time and thought about it when I was doing the swap, I would have put the cams and lifters from my 30 into the 33 while I had them both out, for that little bit more. However, the stock 33 works fine for me. I took what I considered the simple approach. I swapped the distributor and upper intake. I then used the Frontier/Xterra alternator, steering pump and a/c brackets. Swapped the pump since my original was leaking and used the alternator out of a Quest/Villager. The brackets would have come with the engine, but it had made a short side trip into a 96 Pathfinder first. With those brackets and matching accessories (all would be right there in an Xterra/Frontier at the salvage yard) the engine was basically a drop-in. I used the injector sub harnesses from both engines to make a single harness to fit the 93 main harness and it was done. Really a simple engine swap that has been totally worth it. Just having the oil filter at the front and not between the exhaust manifold and starter makes the swap worth it to me.

Yep, the off road SE came with 31s, a very good limited slip rear, swing away tire carrier, and 4 wheel disc brakes in the WD21. When they replaced the WD21 with the R50 in 1996, they deleted the rear disc for some unknown reason. Just like the first gen Xterra only had drums out back.

Honestly can't say. Never paid much attention to to the cant of the drum brakes on any Pathfinder. My 93 has rear disc for the service brakes like Pathfinders should have. The drag didn't seem to be a problem with the brakes and hardware themselves, but with the parking brake cable from what you were saying.

Looks like valve cover gasket from the little I can see. Nothing particularly bad. You can try tightening the screws a bit. I have found the valve cover screws on the 3.0 and 3.3 tend to back off a bit over time. That might help. For now, keep an eye on the fluid levels and keep them in the operating range until you can budget repairs.

When the trans let go in my 93, I was down to having only 3rd gear left when I found a local shop that quoted $1500 to rebuild it and that included the R&R. Best price I had found before that was $900 + core for a rebuilt one in Arizona. For the cost of shipping, I had figured borrowing my brother's Subaru and doing a road trip taking the dead trans down and bringing the replacement back. Would have been half the shipping costs. When I got the quote, I figured the $600 difference with more warranty was worth it. When they got the trans torn down, they called me to come in and see the damages. Wound up costing an additional $300 because they had to resurface the drums and replace a planetary set along with some other odd bits and pieces that normally wouldn't have had to be replaced. The trans cooler I had purchased but not yet installed was deemed perfect for it and so they used it along with the new torque converter that was part of the rebuild that also included upgrades for the trans. Was very happy with the work and the trans has been trouble free since other than when I had a band break a few years after. That they took care of for only $500 since it was out of warranty, but not bad for the labor. That all was done about 16 years and an engine ago. Had moved up to 33x12.50's before then, so I figure the rebuild made the trans as strong as the later ones if not better. Might be something to consider, just having the trans rebuilt and upgraded while rebuilding.

Sorry if I missed it, what year is the pathy and is it auto or manual trans? The intermittent nature of the off idle power loss leads me to think of a loose connection at the MAF or TPS. It is also possible the distributor is starting to have a mechanical failure in the bearings, though that tends to show more often as hard start. Easy way to check is to remove the cap and rotor. Then remove the dust shield at the bottom and look for dust in the bottom of the distributor under the slotted disc near the shaft. If there is, the bearings are going out. Other method is to remove the distributor and turn it by hand at the gear. With the cap off, it should turn smoothly without much drag. Finally, any idea of how old the timing belt is? Might be worn and if it is an early 93 or older, it is supposed to be replaced every 65k miles. Late 93 and newer has a different design that has a replacement interval of 105k miles. When replacing the timing belt, I strongly recommend replacing the cam, crank seals, tensioner, water pump, thermostat, coolant hoses, and the bloody $.97 woodruff key in the crank for the timing belt sprocket. Skipping that little bugger cost me my original engine in my 93. I have come across a couple more over the years where that key failed and ruined the crankshaft.

I don't do the install myself, I can't even put a screen protector on without having problems. I had the tinting done at a local shop back in 2011 and want to think it was about $300 and supposed to have a lifetime warranty. I need to find the paperwork on it since the left rear door window is bubbled now. I had the windows and clearbra done on the 2010 Altima I had at the time, and that one I think came out at about $500 I think.

Those pressure numbers sound about right for the ambiant temps. I would suggest washing out the condenser and radiator fins too, but I have seen pictures of your truck so a dirty condenser is not a likely issue. With the window tint, here in Utah, legal limits are 43% +/- 3% for the front side windows, dark as you want behind the front doors provided you have mirrors on both sides, and only a strip along the top 6" of the windshield. With that information, I wound up doing a 50% on my front doors and 35% on the rear doors and hatch glass. I went with a 3M ceramic tint with a high IR rejection in bronze to match the factory tint on my rear windows ( my Pathfinder is an Intermountain SE). It has made a huge improvement in my truck. I had the compressor fail years ago and the tint has managed to keep the temperature down enough that I have been able to survive. Someday I will get caught up enough to fix my AC, but at this point it is a want rather than a need. Too many needs to be addressed still.

Another approach would be to use the high beam wire near the switch to trigger the light bar. That is upstream of the drl module and won't trigger the light bar relay. You could also just get another switch, they are cheap. Would also protect you from official attention since it is illegal to operate a light bar on public roads in most places. Just wire it in so that it prevents the light bar from turning on unless you want it on with the high beams. The factory or dealer installed foglights in my path were wired this way, but triggered with the low beams. I didn't like that set up, so moved the trigger to the park lights so I could run the fogs without the headlights, a more desirable setup in heavy snowstorms. At least it did back when we had heavy snowstorms here...

Glad you got it figured out ?

The adjuster is operated by the parking brake lever, not by the reverse and brake process in most modern drums. Nissan is one of them that only the parking brake should turn the adjuster. In that pic, it looks like the shoes are pushed out. I wonder if the yellow spring is contacting the star wheel sometimes turning it out.

My 93 has the 14 pin. I thought the Pathfinders from 90 got the 14 pin connector when they went to port injection. Sorry it dosen't help.

The original consult was a brick type scan tool that plugged into the connector under the dash. Consult II was the one that came out when OBDII came into the scene in 1996. Nissan is currently at Consult 3+ that is loaded into a Panasonic TuffBook. A quick Google for consult 1 came up with this: https://www.obdinnovations.com/nissan-datascan-i-software-for-1989-2000-consult-i-14-pin-cars/. Might be something to look into. Looks like you will need to get the connector to plug in separate, but found a few listed for less than $25.

Don't worry too much. My 93 has handled towing loads fine back when she still had the 3.0. I have a 3.3 in her now, and even with the 33s, pulls loads ok. A few years back before the engine swap I "rescued" a friend that had an engine failure in his 96 Pathfinder. VG30, 33x12.50 MTs, and stock gears towed his pathy on a dolly 40ish miles on the freeway from near SLC airport to North Ogden to another friends house up in the foothills. Granted my Pathfinder seems to be a little abnormal and has an automatic transmission, but managed to keep up with traffic at 70 mph most of the time.

Odd. Is the parking brake cable for the right side damaged or misrouted somehow? I really can't visualize anything else that would cause the problem. I was also wondering if you had 4WABS and that there was a problem there, but you said it doesn't have that.

From what I can see, it looks ok. The yellow spring is not in contact with the star wheel, is it? If it is, it needs to be bent out a bit so it won't cause movement of the star wheel. Have you looked at the other side? Possible a problem over there is causing more hydraulic pressure in the one that is grabbing. Sorry not much help, hard to tell without seeing things in person.

Yep, the screws will snap if you try to turn them. Easy way to run a ground straps near the O2 sensor is to weld a tab that you can bolt a ground strap to onto the pipe. Dealing with exhaust is always a pain due to the rust. At least you don't have as much rust as those of us who are in climates that see salt slurry on the roads several months per year. Utah salts the roads, but somehow is not a salt state according to Nissan.

You will want to save yourself some aggravation in the future by replacing the strut mounts when you replace the struts. The R50s are well known for the mounts wearing and making a lot of noise. To me, spacers make more sense than longer springs for the front. That way you get the lift, but keep the better ride and the struts don't top out as much.

That fluid is fine for the trans. 195°f is still safe and ok for the trans. The synthetic oil actually lowers the trans temps a bit by itself and reduces wear. The factory cooler issues was the design of the cooler itself. 94, Nissan changed the design, went to a plate style to address the problem the earlier tube style had. The earlier cooler had small holes the fluid flowed through that tended to clog with debris restricting the fluid flow. That caused starvation in the trans causing more wear, making more debris to clog the cooler more. It was a vicious negative feedback cycle. I run an external cooler and bypass the in radiator one because I am lazy and haven't plumbed it back in since replacing the radiator (several times since the original killed my trans back in 2000), I have larger tires and more weight, and have a hard enough time keeping the engine cool. Hopefully this latest work on my cooling system solves that issue for a while. Staying out of 3'+ mudholes should help too.

If I recall correctly, the ECU is in open loop at idle and WOT. The rest of the time it is closed loop when warmed up. I was looking at the emission numbers you have and sorry, but CA does things much different. I don't know what GP means. I figure the meas is what was measured and Max is Maximum, though the numbers there seem low. If I am reading it right, the O2 was at 0 and CO2 was 12.7% with elevated HC, CO, and I assume NOx. Those are indicating a rich condition, not enough air to completely burn the fuel. It is likely your MAF giving high readings from everything else I read in your posts. Your work on the connector probably fixed it. A gentle cleaning of the sensor and screen might help too. With the O2 sensors, they all use the same bung, and 99% use the same 22mm(7/8") wrench/socket. They also tend to look alike as well. It is inside where they are different. I don't remember off hand, is it a 3 wire sensor? If so, running a ground to the exhaust might help as well, since the sensor is grounded by the pipe. Originally, there was ground straps on both manifolds and a couple of other points on the pipe. Those tend to break over time. Here we do the sniffer test quite differently. It is done unloaded, no Dyno. First stage is 30 seconds at 2500 rpm(2250-2750) followed by 30 seconds at idle (600-1100 rpm). For autos and light trucks GVRW less than 8000 lbs in the 80s and 90s maximum HC is 210 ppm, CO is 1.2%, and NOx is not measured. Just for the record, it is counter intuitive, but the emissions tend to be higher when the engine is unloaded than when under load. Most of the Snap-On scan tools that can do OBD1, can read data from your Nissan Consult port if you have the correct adapter. My first one many years ago was a first gen Ethos, and it did well on my 93, main reason I don't recall the nuances of playing with the switch on the ECU and it's lights. Only times had to deal with that in the last 15 years was with the 85 300ZX that I took to the junkyard 9 years ago.

Just to add, factory foglights on Nissans tend to be glass up to at least 2018. Found that odd with all the other lights having plastic lenses. I think the glass lenses are rock magnets too. When at the dealership, broken foglight lenses was a very common sight. Yet my 2004 Sorento has plastic ones from the factory, no rock damage, but does suffer from the clouding issues. I know they are original in that one since my mom bought it new and it stayed in the family.

We put 31x10.50 15's on my friends 99 and he gets some rub near full lock when turning in the front. The tires are rubbing the inner fender near the subframe. We kept his stock aluminum wheels which is why he could fit the tires on his stock suspension. You don't have enough back spacing to fit the tires in there. You need about 4.5" of backspace for the tires to fit inside the fenders from what I have seen.

. .My Snap-On Verus Pro is old, I bought it about 10 years ago, but I do have the many OBD1 adapters for domestic, 1asian, and euros. I have both of the Nissan adapters and when I was at the dealership, I tended to use my scanner more than the consult that they had. It was old and temperamental. From what I understand, the yellow brick finally kicked off shortly after I left. With the emissions programs here, 68 to 95 get a sniffer test, and visual inspection. MIL is ignored. Technically, my Pathfinder is in violation since it has an engine that was not a factory option and by the letter of the law, should have received an inspection and paperwork allowing the swap. In reality, the emissions it puts out are below the limits and the fact that all the emissions control hardware and systems are there and operational, they don't care. Trying to recall the various modes in the ECU(I quit thinking about them years ago because of my scanner) and isn't mode 2 for O2 monitor? Just what were the readings for your truck? Here we measure HC, CO, and CO2. My numbers have been going up on the HC and CO over the last few years, I believe the 17 year old aftermarket catalyst is showing its age. The original one died when 50° water filled the exhaust and hit the 800°+ catalyst ceramic. I learned that day not to shut off the engine when in 3' of water and the exhaust is submerged. Wasn't a big deal for a couple years because it still passed on the readings. Then the government in all their scientific wisdom decided that our fuel had to be diluted with ethanol. My mom who was a chemical engineer said it made no sense in scientific terms, but made plenty when you follow the money on that policy. A couple years later, those of us in the profession of working on autos noticed we went from a couple of bad cats per year to a few per month. Made sense when we got looking into it deeper. The ECU's were mapped for gasoline and are not properly programmed for E10, let alone E15 or higher. The O2 sensors are reading higher O2 levels, so they are running richer. That is leading to the cats working harder to convert the HC and CO to CO2 and water. It also tended to run them hotter, both leads to shorter life spans. If you have an IR thermometer you can check the condition of the cat easily enough. Run the engine up to operating temp, hold 2000-2500 rpm for a couple of minutes then measure the temperature of the inlet of the cat and the outlet of the cat. The outlet should be at a minimum of 100°f higher than the inlet. If it is the same or the inlet is hotter, then the cat is dead and needs replacing. If the outlet is hotter but not a minimum of 100°f higher, the cat is failing. If it is 2-300 hotter, cat is working well and the engine is a bit rich. Finally, double check the O2 sensor. I found with my 93, Nissan made a running change on the O2 sensor types in 93 and they are not interchangeable. It is possible to get the wrong one and the ECU can't use it. Good luck on your project.

Not with the old OBD 1 units. Most of the dealerships have a hard time with anything built before 2000. Just wondering, have you tried running the emissions on your 92 to see if it is really not going into closed loop? Perhaps the 92 California ECM has to be in a different mode to indicate closed loop operation? Just tossing ideas out there. I don't know with that one, mine is a 93 federal with a 3.3 transplant, so a little different. Haven't bothered looking at the indicator LEDs in years. Still passing the emissions tests too (Davis and Weber counties here in Utah).

You can do what I did with my 93 Pathfinder and the 85 300ZX I used to have. I found a local exhaust shop that was not a chain shop. Talked with the guy there and told him what I was after. With the Pathfinder, went with a 2.25" pipe from the Y back with new cat and turbo muffler. They custom bent the pipe and added heavy duty hangers with the tailpipe exiting straight out the back next to the side bracket of the trailer hitch. Still have no idea how my daughter managed to break it, but she does seem to have my abilities to break stuff. The Z got custom bent 2.5" cat back pipe with a magnaflow. Both exhaust systems cost less than stock parts, met my needs and sounded great, low rumble but didn't drone on the highway and was still able to talk at normal volumes with passengers. Also kept my torque curve wide and flat where I like it.