Ripple

I have an 04 pathy which I suspected had a blown head gasket. I went ahead and pulled the engine and as I took it apart I found many more issues and decided to swap in a new motor. I was able to get my hands on a 02 3.5L engine with low miles for a good price but I am aware that there are some subtle differences between my 04 engine and this 02 engine. I was wondering what I needed to swap over to my 02 engine in order to make it work for me. I'm having a hard time finding info on this so any links would be greatly appreciated.

I have been through the intake manifold already and replaced the pcv valve as well as adding loctite to the power valve screws so I go that checked off the list! Life has been busy and progress has been slow but I am finally ready to remove the upper oil pan and timing cover in order to get to the heads. I borrowed a hoist from a friend but the service manual says to install engine slingers which I do not own. I was wondering if there was any known alternative to get the hoist hooked up to the engine. I'm trying to have everything finished up for a trip in a few weeks so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I ran the test and unfortunately I do have exhaust gases circulating through my cooling system. I know changing the head gaskets on the VQ35DE is a nightmare but I think I'm up for the task. I've been able to pull up the factory service manual but I was wondering if anyone had access to any other resources online that they think would be helpful. I still have a good bit of research to do but I was also wondering if there is anything else I should replace while I tear the engine down. Thanks.

Thanks for the feedback! I will go ahead and order that combustion leak test and go from there. I have watched a good chunk of your youtube videos and have found them extremely helpful when performing maintenance or modifying my R50.

I recently took my 2004 Pathfinder LE with 188K miles on a 3800 mile road trip with a couple of buddies. After the first few days the pathy started run hotter than normal and we noticed the engine was losing a significant amount of oil and coolant had been spraying out of the plastic cap of the overflow tank. We were in a pinch being so far away from home so we limited our driving significantly and made sure to top off oil and coolant everyday. After further inspection I also noticed oil sitting on the surface of my overflow tank. My first thought was the headgasket leaking oil into the cooling system causing it to overpressurize and spray out. However, the car was running completely fine as long as fluids were closely monitored and I don't have any indication of "milkshake" in my oil cap. There is also no white smoke coming from my exhaust. After more research the oil cooler looked like a possible suspect. I do have a slight oil leak there visible from the underside of the car, so I opted for a bottle of blue devil oil stop leak. In the following day this greatly decreased my oil consumption and seemed to keep more oil from getting into my coolant system, but I was still rapidly losing coolant. I did make it back home without any overheating but I wanted to get outside opinions since I have never experienced this before. Is it possible my head gasket is still leaking exhaust fumes into my coolant and causing excess pressure? Are there any tests I could do that anyone recommends? Thanks.