Mr_Reverse

Us professional mechanics call those "extra" parts "over the shoulder parts".

Not much help, but I left the bolts loose between the motor mounts and engine while positioning the engine. Used a lot of swear words and a prybar to get the mounts to line up on the frame. Once I got the mounts aligned and bolts started in the holes, finished lowering the engine and tightened all the bolts and nuts. You could use a jumper wire and just run the fuel pump to pump out the fuel tank. Had to do that with a 2018 Frontier last year when the driver filled the almost empty fuel tank with diesel. Apparently the truck made it about 10 miles before it quit and refused to start again. Also had to replace 4 O2 sensors and 4 cats before it was able to run without setting codes. Don't think Enterprise was too happy with that renter.

With the damage that bad, Nissan totaled the truck when I was working at the dealership.

Easy way to tell is to look at the oil filter. The oil cooler is the oil filter adapter. If the filter threads onto a can that has 2 hoses attached to it, then you have an oil cooler and the o-ring seal is probably leaking. It is very easy to replace the seal. Take the filter off, put a deep socket onto the hex of the filter stud and unscrew the filter stud. Pull the cooler away from the engine and replace the o-ring. Reassemble by threading the filter stud back in and tighten it down. I suggest degreasing the engine and just let it run for a little while without actually driving to see where the oil is leaking from. The most common oil leaks on the VG and the VQ engines are the valve cover gasket and the oil cooler. A commonly missed oil leak on the VG is the camshaft bore block off plate on the back side of the heads. The bolts tend to loosen over time and the gasket gets hard so that the oil will flow out the back of the head. It is often mistaken for a leaking valve cover gasket because it is up high and hard to see.

The axles won't be able to go anywhere, the bearings and wheel hubs prevent that.

I just put a T in my cooler line and installed the sensor there. It is the outlet from the trans so pretty close to what the trans temp is.

P0300 is just a misfire. With Nissan, it is a multiple cylinder misfire. Misfire on #1 is a P0301. P0325 is just the normal knock sensor code that is very common for the VG engines and doesn't really do anything. Sorry I didn't see this thread earlier, but I would have told you that the valves would have been fine unless you had a timing belt break while under heavy load and high rpm. I have done a bunch of timing belt jobs on the VGs, and your symptoms would have had me pulling the timing covers off again and rechecking the right cam timing. 1 tooth off it will start and run just a little rough, but throw misfire codes. That right cam is a sneaky bugger and loves to slip just a little when you are not looking.

Won't hurt anything if it is a short drive to confirm the noise. Some grease is likely to get flung around though. Just make sure you remove both drive flanges, or you will still get noise and movement because of the differential getting power from the wheel that still has the flange. I have heard a variety of noises from worn CVs, I believe that is the source of the noise from your pics and description.

Glad you got it worked out. I guess I just assumed you had the timing right, sorry I didn't think of that. I had a couple cars I had to detune for the emissions test then then turn them back up to give the performance I was after. My 77 200SX was a rolling violation most of the time. Since it was a Cali model, it had the electronic ignition and a catalyst. By the time I wrecked it, cat was gone, EGR gone, larger Webber carb, all vac lines gone but the distributor advance, brake booster and carbon canister purge, air injection system gone, and timing at about 38°BTC. Engine fan gone, replaced with electric. Rough starting when cold, engine ran hot, but nobody could believe the power that little L20B was cranking out. Still miss that car. Almost lost it to my mom, she drove it for a couple weeks while I was out of town and her 79 620 King cab had a bad idler bearing. I came back and she was telling me how fun that car was. The woman who made me promise not to race on public roads before she would sign for my license was smoking tires at stoplights. Go figure.

Yep, us old guys lived with the wire type fusible links. The way to check them for failure is to gently pull on them. If they are burned, they stretch. They are just a lighter gage wire (rule of thumb is 4 sizes smaller than the circuit wire they are protecting) with special insulation that is not supposed to burn. I thought back in the early 80's when I started doing diagnostics, that it was cool that Nissan made them plug into the wiring rather than crimped in like the domestics did. The different colors was a nice touch too. The domestics just had them in black with a tag showing the size. Then they came out with the maxi-fuse style and that was just brilliant. Another future modification to my Pathy down the road.

Sounds like the black and green wire fusible link is bad. New, you might be able to get lucky and find one at a nearby dealership. They are not too expensive, but cheaper in your local salvage yard. 87-95 Hardbody pick up has the same as the 87-95 Pathfinder, so you are more likely to find a good one in the pick up, at least it gives you more options.

If it is like the switch in my 93, you can just crimp an insulated female spade connector on to the wire. It is just a standard 1/4” if I recall correctly. It is the most common sized one. It doesn't need the big square outer housing like the factory plug.

Sounds like the IAC valve is wide open if your throttle is closed.

When my fresh/recirc servo died in my truck, I simply replaced the servo unit. A couple of screws and a wire plug, nothing all that special. For the record, I have replaced a bunch of HVAC door servos over the years in a wide variety of cars and trucks. Not an uncommon failure part and most can be found in the aftermarket.

When my fresh/recirc servo died in my truck, I simply replaced the servo unit. A couple of screws and a wire plug, nothing all that special. For the record, I have replaced a bunch of HVAC door servos over the years in a wide variety of cars and trucks. Not an uncommon failure part and most can be found in the aftermarket.

I have found that a small flat bladed screwdriver helps with the injector plugs. Just have to push the green lock button straight in line with the plug until it locks open. A shot of lube can help the more stubborn ones. My fingers are too fat and weak to push the locks very well, hence the screwdriver.

The not pulling coolant back from the overflow bottle back into the radiator is usually a failed radiator cap. If not that, there is a leak in the hose. The door actuators on the HVAC system are all externally mounted and are just simple motors with reduction gears. The gears tend to break when old preventing operation.

White smoke is coolant burning in the combustion chamber if there is an actual problem. Pop off the radiator cap with the engine cold and see if it is low. If not, it is likely the fuel system cleaning is the source of the smoke and it will go away over a few days of driving. The code 0021can be a bad solenoid, a bad cam phaser, low and/or dirty oil, or an internal oil leak inside the timing cover. If there was a serious problem with the engine, you would have more than a cam timing code. As was said, 200-210°f for the engine is normal operation temperature and nothing to worry about.

Lol, years ago I had an 80.5 210. It was the sport version, 2 door hatchback with the 5 speed and the big engine, the mighty 1.4L OHV. Good times, that car hated me, but loved my wife at the time. She kept wrecking it, but always started and ran for her. With me, not so much. Did like the 28 mpg City and I could pass the speed traps at 80 in the 55 mph days and be completely invisible to the police. Guess they thought that little wreck couldn't really go that fast and ignored what the radar would tell them.

I have the semi-automatic HVAC system in my 93. It doesn't have a control valve for the heat like my old Datsuns had. The temp is controlled with an air mix door in the HVAC box. For hot, the air is run through the core and cool it is bypassed around the heater core. I suggest that with the engine warmed up, feel the 2 heater hoses and see if they are about the same temp. If one is noticably cooler than the other, it is a good indicator that the core is clogged. Sometimes you can do a reverse flush on the core by detaching the hoses and hooking up a garden hose to the outlet of the heater core and letting the water flow until it is clear. If you gave good flow through the core, the servo or the air blend door is likely bad. Most often it is the servo that operates the door that fails.

Well, that is the purpose of the EGR system. It's job is to reduce combustion chamber temps to lower the NOx formation. If the exhaust is hotter now, odds are you might be able to get through the test. An air leak up by the manifolds will cause higher emissions readings because the air that gets pulled into the exhaust will give the O2 sensor a false reading, making it think it is running lean, just like the ethanol does.

Yep, from what I recall, the guy that did it said it was a PITA. The big challenge was to figure out how to attach to the LCA that was strong enough that it wouldn't come apart while in hard use and still clear the axle-shaft. Good luck in your project, you might come up with something better.

Any decent shop should have no problem doing an inspection and rebuild on an H233 axle. They are actually quite easy to work on, but failures are also very rare since they are a very robust axle. You might want to check the transmission mount and motor mounts. A broken mount will cause noises like you are getting. Very common to have the trans mount break on a Titan and it will make a clunk. Replaced more than a few while I was working at the dealership.

The 4wd D21 Hardbody and both the 2wd and 4wd WD21 Pathfinders had the same front suspensions and parts were generally interchangeable. The 2wd Hardbody had a completely different suspension, except for the Desert Runner version I think it was. The control arms on the 4x4's are so short, that the limits are from them and the CV's, rather than the torsion bars.

Best way to check the backlash is to put the trans or t-case into neutral with the park brake on or wheels chocked to prevent movement. Then turn the driveline by hand back and forth to see just how much play there really is. Should be about 1/4", but a little more is not horrible.