onespiritbrain

This sounds great. Those SFD strut spacers have been the major deterrent for me.

I imagine you can probably feel them get slightly warm

You could always take the diff out, get the pan off, and see what exactly is damaged in there. Then just replace what’s damaged without pulling the engine out. Should be much cheaper than any other solution granted you can find replacement parts somewhere. Might require you going to the junkyard and dropping the diff and pan from a donor..

Mine is right under the hazard light button

Is everyone but me aware that the side mirrors heat up when the rear defrost button is depressed?? I usually use the ice melt window washer fluid to defrost the front and rear windows but there’s a clog to the rear or something so I hit the defrost button and to my surprise the ice on my side mirrors melted away.

Mine are not bolted either.

It’s always difficult to tell exactly where the oil line is for me. 3 sides always show full and one will show the actual level. My wife’s flat one is way easier to read.

I wonder if there’s a flat dipstick we could use in place of the wire rope from Nissan. Next time I’m at the junkyard I’ll go on a mission to find one that’ll work.

I’d rebuild it. Unless of course I could afford a 2020 Bronco (IF it’s solid up front), then I’d sell it.

As others have said, you can find them at junkyards for cheap. I don’t remember what I paid but I think it was something like $35. It’s quite beefy and it’s a uhaul brand.

Mine does this also.. I sprayed a can of electrical contact cleaner in there to no avail and my driver door switch is a turd as well. This is all as of recent so I can’t complain on a 20 year old truck!

Well it could be throttle position sensor issue. If it acts different depending on pedal position then maybe the sensor has a spot or section that isn’t right. I think they’re like $20 on Rockauto. https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/infiniti,1999,qx4,3.3l+v6,1355778,fuel+&+air,throttle+position+sensor+(tps),5136 Sometimes the cheapest parts on Rockauto work just fine, then sometimes they are junk.. I would say go to the junkyard and grab one but I got a bad TPS for mine at the junkyard. It’s an important part for it to not be working right. It could also be slow movements inside the transmission’s valve body. There was a person on this forum with a transmission that wouldn’t shift past 2nd until it was warmed up. He pulled a valve body from a RE4R01A that was in a 2003 Xterra at the junkyard and stuck it in his Pathfinder and it completely cured the problem. Id start with the TPS first, then if that doesn’t work then you might consider the junkyard valve body.

Oh okay well the lockup clutch going in and out does sound like a TPS issue. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Does this describe your issue? While coasting at 40-50mph, slightly touching the gas pedal causes a “bump” of forward movement and then letting off the gas again, the same little “bump” but now it’s almost like engine braking with a manual transmission.

I too have been scared half to death by noise from the exhaust.

The only negatives I could find were related to cheap crush washers failing resulting in plugs falling out and catastrophic engine failure but the website you linked looks like they don’t sell cheap plugs. I’d say go for it but be cautious and check the thing for tightness often until it’s proven itself not to come loose.

I have a #6 rod and it is in good condition. The pickup is okay too, but the screen is squished a little. I’ve also got a whole set of intake and exhaust valves with springs and everything. I think I’d use your piston if you can. The oil ring on this one won’t budge (not really sure if it supposed to or not..) and this engine smoked a little bit. The smoke could’ve been the valve seals as well though.. I don’t know what’s best it’s whatever you think.

I had a guy in a squeaky clean wrangler call mine an Isuzu.. he said “that winch on the front of your Isuzu for looks?” I said back “that Nissan has been places you’ll never go” he started saying something about some place he had been but I was already walking away.

I forgot to schedule a PM here at work so me and my one maintenance guy have both been super busy today. I am going to get my old engine out a little later and we’ll see about the rods and pickup. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think one or two rods from my old VG33 were undamaged. Is it okay to use rods from different cylinders?? If it is I’ll grab some pics of them when I get to work tomorrow. Are you going to replace the pickup tube? I don’t know what mine looks like but I’ll check it out tomorrow morning as well.

Wow! How...? Why???? Man oh man... Are you going to have to take that head off? Do you need an endoscope? Where are you located?

I actually feel the same way. 2004 and earlier only for me. The economy was already in serious trouble in 2005 and most of the behemoth companies already knew what was about to happen and started putting out straight junk crap starting in 2005-06 and thru until 2012 or so.. aside from the Camry(Subaru I think was the actual problem..) Toyota mostly didn’t follow suit so I’d still buy 2005-2012 Toyota. Anyways, car trouble sucks. And it sucks even worse for guys like us who work on our own stuff because the burden of fixing it is also placed on us as well as the burden of finding transportation during the repair and not to mention the, albeit less, financial strain. And my wife seems to think repairing the cars is fun for me or something as well so there’s almost negative support there... Yeah I don’t mean to worry you unnecessarily about the engine, but if it is a catastrophic failure it would be better to know right off the bat instead of high hopes crushed at the end of a bunch of hard work getting it out of the car. And messing around in the bottom of the engine seemed a lot easier than the top, to me at least. And if it is something crazy like a bearing, man you can rip the crank out of there, clean it up, and slap some new bearings on! Hopefully it’s just a torque converter bolt though.. have you tried to have someone turn the engine back and forth while you listen close to the starter hole. Is there any scraping noises in there??

Is the new mount fitted with bushings an OEM Nissan part or is there somewhere else we can get them? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

How long did the VG33 run before the squealing/clacking started? I mean like from when you installed it to the time that the issue first started. I didn’t think of this until just now but when I spun bearings in my first engine it would run normal when cold until it got close to normal temperature, then it would start this awful screeching and loud crunching sound until finally it would stall. Then I could let it cool down and it would start normally again and repeat the process. Then I revved it after the screeching started and it got even louder and began to bog down until finally it seized completely. I barely got it broken free.. I’m worried about your engine now. Can you please wipe clean the sump where your oil drain plug is and then drain the oil into a completely clean container?? Then put a paper towel into a clean funnel to drain some oil thru. Or with clean hands stick your hand into the oil and stir it up and then look at your hands. Do you see what looks like glitter?? I am praying for you and your car right now.

Bells Knob October 2018