onespiritbrain

What helped them? You put Amsoil in yours?? I’m asking because I have been thinking about putting it in mine.

You can hardly read this stupid style of dipstick so I rolled it across a towel so you can see the level. Of course it doesn’t matter because I’m a couple quarts low instead of overfilled. What the frig?? This is not super low but I wonder if this is why my trans was doing the weird crap it was doing earlier this year. Anyway, you can help yourself see the level by gently imprinting a paper towel with the dipstick. I say you lower your level and I will fill mine back up haha

Wow... I’m barely on the dipstick at all. I guess it’s been a few transmissions ago that I was overfilled. I wonder what else there is like this...

Yours looks higher above full than mine. Give me just a second and I’ll take a pic of mine.

https://www.amsoil.com/shop/by-product/transmission-fluid/automatic/signature-series-multi-vehicle-synthetic-automatic-transmission-fluid/?code=ATFPK-EA Are you having issues with your transmission that caused you to bring it to a shop? Having the trans overfilled a bit isn’t necessarily a bad thing, at least not with the RE4. I am well beyond a quart overfilled, maybe two.. When I check the dipstick at cold the level is 1/2 an inch up the cable.

That sucks about the junk yard cutting the wire harness. I think it’d be easier to splice your plugs on to the cut harness. I’m not sure what’s kosher but I’d solder the connections and use good quality heat shrink that seals. I’d remove all the looming and douse all the wires/plugs with simple green or purple power and then rinse them very good. Maybe follow that with denatured alcohol, especially inside the plugs where contact will be made. Actually it’d be better to grab a can of CRC QD Electronics Cleaner from Walmart to hit the plugs with. And be super careful to make sure you get the length right. That would suck if you had to extend every single wire because it’s too short.

Unlock the driver door with the key to turn it off.

Preach

My poor engine is indeed beating itself to death. Junk yard said 130k miles.. more like 300k.

If you’ve already got something going on creating excessive heat beyond what the radiator was spec’d to remove, or like what was said above about the fan clutch, you would want to fix that first. I experience excessive heat buildup, I assume from friction of a worn engine/oil pump and I ended up installing an electric radiator fan as a countermeasure. Before that I installed a trans cooler and bypassed the one integrated in the radiator. I did notice that coolant temps were slower to rise after the external cooler but continued to rise indefinitely. Like was said above, the integrated trans cooler just doesn’t have the surface area to overcome the much much larger surface area of the radiator core. Turning the heater on to bring coolant temps down works because that heat exchanger is quite big.

I hope you’re right man. Hey are you using the vg33 starter bracket or the vg30? If you’re using the vg30 one then I wonder if it’s a 16th of an inch thinner.

It’s like being in a different vehicle after the electric fan install. I haven’t been uncomfortable (temperature wise) since. Very highly recommended upgrade. I do think that a smaller and much lower powered fan will likely do the same for poor AC performance if placed on the condenser. I was experiencing borderline overheating issues at idle with the AC on so I went for a complete replacement. I selected an early 90’s Volvo 950 electric fan based on this guide: https://therangerstation.com/tech_library/volvo_electric_fan.shtml I no longer see coolant temps above 215degF in any situation. Again, it’s like a different vehicle. I used all the components in that guide. In addition I used two off the shelf automotive relays to automatically kick the fan into high speed when the AC clutch is pulled in. Here is the wiring diagram: tinyurl.com/y2b9sgh6

Lol As for the starter dragging the flex plate, the exact same thing happened to me but mine was caused by me bending the flex plate (I left the tc bolts in the tc while I bolted the engine to the bellhousing and crushed the flex plate against the bolts— it bent it perfectly so I couldn’t see any wobbling when turning the engine over and watching the flex plate thru the starter hole) Is there any chance the flex plate is bent? FYI I shimmed my starter to get the engine turning but the flex plate drug across the starter housing a wee bit while the engine ran and made it extremely hot. Point is you will have to get it perfect for it to work shimmed like that. Also, my flex plate being bent required the tc to come up just a little bit to meet it and it caused the tc to starve for oil (that’s a guess as to what actually happened) and murdered my beloved flawless transmission.

Dang I wish I had known about that radiator upgrade...

Wow that little plasma cutter is cutting that 1/4” plate?! That’s awesome Everything is looking robust so far. What sort of articulation will you end up with? Those shocks look good and long.

As am I

You should upload a video on YouTube of the current condition, both idling and driving around a bit. First change the oil of course. Have someone hold the phone near the engine bay with the hood up for idling and parked engine revving, then you might try either having someone hold the phone out the window for some slow driving or even find a safe place to sit the phone inside the engine bay and drive around a bit. I’m just very curious about the oil light all the sudden coming on. Have you seen the oil light intermittently? How about a hot start up, did it ever stay on for longer than is normal and flicker a bit before going out?

Did the blinking of the oil light follow the clatter from the engine as you were pulling into the driveway?

Sorry to hear that man. I sure hope my suggestion to add “Oil Stabilizer” didn’t have a hand in the demise of your engine. If it were me, I’d change the oil and send a sample of the oil that comes out to Blackstone lab. It’s $15 I think, and you’ll get a report that will detail the amount of metallic materials suspended in the oil. If there is a lot of bearing material then you can be confident that the engine is toast. The report will tell you what the likely source of each contaminate is. Again, if my suggestion to add the crap helped kill your engine then I am super regretful and I’ll never suggest it again...

I bought new hose from the parts store and ran it from the hard lines up to the cooler.

How many miles does your engine have? It doesn’t sound like this ( ) does it??

You know, with the lifter noise I experience regularly, I have never heard it flare up during deceleration. When I hear valve train noise listed by loudness: >Cold start up (5-15 seconds) >Hot start up (3-5 seconds) >Cold idle (rhythmic cycling fading in and out every 5-10 seconds) >Hot idle (past 3000 miles on OCI— ever present with one loud tap that’s louder than the orchestra of others) >Cold low RPM low load acceleration (rhythmic— harder to hear over sound of combustion) >Normal driving 500-1500 miles in to OCI (ever present but not very noticeable— if I asked someone if they could hear a tapping noise they’d probably say “it just sounds like an engine” but I can hear it because I know it’s the same sound that is heard later on into the OCI) Letting off the gas and getting an immediate clatter sounds a lot like loose heat shielding! Coincidentally I have a section of exhaust on the passenger side that will make a loud noise and it’s only during certain 2-3 gear shifts.

Well apparently the later RE4 transmissions were updated and hold up better than the priors so you’ll be good either way I’d pay $7k for a 500 mile 04’ Pathy Edit: read that wrong. I’d pay $7k for a sub 75k mile 04’ Pathy IF it’s in great condition.

You should just set your mind on a 2004 manual trans R50 and be done with it. I think it’d be worth flying out for if it’s low mileage and a good deal. That’ll be my next vehicle unless I can afford a 96’ land cruiser by then. I should’ve updated this thread instead of the other one... I put Walmart synthetic 10w30 in mine last OCI and it sounded like I poured a handful of nuts and bolts. Horrible horrible noises coming from every perceivable direction, top end— bottom end, pinging— knocking!!! Something is going on with mine so don’t stop experimenting but do be careful. Edit: btw it was dino Delo 400 15w40 that I used to run in my Frontier

So your going to shoot for keeping it at 12”?