IRONFIST

May sound obvious but have you checked the fluid level in the transmission?

That's how I am too, but for some people it's probably best they don't rip it apart. Unless you know what you're doing you're more likely to mess something up putting it back together than you are finding something wrong in the first place.

That's what I was quoted too but I got a JDM engine, which actually looks brand new, delivered to my door for $1250. It has 78000km's on it, and the seller is willing to give me the matching transmission from that vehicle as well for another $800. So that's a drive-train with less then 80k on it, plus tons of spare parts ( spare starter, alternator, AC compressor, etc ) for right around $2000CAD.

I've owned four Pathfinders / QX4's and, not a single woman has ever said anything negative about them. In fact, I've only heard complaints from my other much more expensive vehicles. My wife, to this day, regrets we sold our QX4 and regularly mentions how she can't wait for my Pathfinder project truck to be done so we can drive it around instead of the Mercedes. Keep in mind though, I live in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, and up on the Canadian side. For 4 months of the year my Pathfinder is the only relevant vehicle in my fleet, and, at times it is the vehicle my friends ask me to come rescue them in.

That sounds about right, to be honest I get better gas mileage from my 500hp Trans Am...

Yeah, actually the whole intake manifold can swap over too ( if needed ) but I noticed that it will bolt on. I think you're right, better to go with the newer, nicer, and lower mileage engine. It really won't take me longer then 2 hours to swap everything over while sipping on some beers and taking my sweet time.

The thing is, both are JDM engines and both are low miles, the 03 has about 25000 less miles but if it makes my life easier I can always directly trade my 03 for the 01.

So I'm doing a JDM engine swap on my 02, with an 03 engine, I know I'll have to replace the front timing cover, crank pulley, flex plate, crankshaft position sensor, cam shaft sensors, cam gears, and upper oil pan. I also have access to a 01 engine with similar mileage and my buddy thinks that one will make my swap easier. I feel like I'll still have to swap all that stuff over anyway? But I don't know, so we are asking the experts. What's your guys expert opinion? What one will be easier?

That's really clever, I'm going to see if that works. At this point I probably don't need to go that route as I've done enough ripping apart of the engine to pretty much reach everything, but that's an interesting idea and now I need to know if it would work to put the engine in.

There's a local guy who takes care of everything for a couple hundred bucks, without him I probably would have gotten the engine for less than a grand but I would have had no idea what I'm doing. I'm sure you can find a JDM importer locally as well.

That's good news, I'm hoping to keep this vehicle for at least 10 years, won't be driving it unless it's a real snow storm or I'm going off-road. I did notice that there are plenty of JDM transmissions also for sale for few hundred bucks too, I might just swap the transmission out in the summer just to stay ahead of that failure later. I've actually decided to fix up the parts vehicle and use that as my daily beater, seems all it really needs is a clutch.

The engine was $1250 delivered to my door, the vehicle it came out of had 48689miles (78357km) on it. I was a bit concerned, as the seller could have just showed me a random picture of an odometer and sent me another engine but the engine I got was spotless and the compression was great in every cylinder. I also got an alternator, power steering, and air conditioning pump which I don't need but they were attached so now I got some spare parts which is always nice. But yeah, I did notice some differences guys, I can take some photos to show you today. I should clarify I have three VQ engines right now, one is the broken one in the LE which I'm replacing, one is a manual one in the parts vehicle, and one is the JDM one from an auto.

I bought my original Pathfinder, years ago, because I was poor. It was the best vehicle I could afford, that $4500 used SUV stayed with me through me meeting my wife, getting married, and us buying our first house together. And I'm sure that's how a lot of people get into these vehicles. They buy them because they are reliable and inexpensive and they stick with them. But there's also guys with plenty of money who love them as well. I know two other guys who own these cars, one's a dentist making 300k a year but he loves his 2004 Pathfinder, the other is a mechanical engineer who works for Tesla, after helping me work on my QX4, he had to get himself one as well. He ended up selling his BMW X5 and getting a Pathfinder LE. I personally am expecting to spend a lot of money on my current R50 project because I never had the money to buy a new one when they were available, it'll be way more than I could ever expect to get back. But I'm never planning on selling the thing anyway.

The parts one has an impact on the passenger side, it would need new doors and welding in a new B pillar... I've thought about it, maybe I'll save it. In fact, I think I probably will because it is in great shape and it's a 5 speed, might be a good little vehicle. Ironfist is a name I got back in high school, and I been using it on forums ever since just to keep consistent. I'm now nearly 40 years old, have a wife and a family and don't go around punching anything anymore but the name stuck. Thanks for the warm welcome guys, I'm currently doing a search to see if there are any tricks for getting those upper transmission bell-housing bolts. I'm sure there's been a few posts about it. Power valve failure, well that sounds like it might do some damage. I wonder if that's what happened to the engine in my LE. Looks like such an easy fix too. Thanks for the headsup RainGoat, I'll do that on the new engine before dropping it in.

What you're seeing are the newer R50 tail-lights. They lack the amber coloring of the earlier ones and come in a "white-red-white" pattern. I have noticed there are a couple different border colours available.