Pathogenic

My truck definitley did not have the lift like I saw in other pics on that thread, so I don't feel like my coils aren't any bigger than stock.

Had a question about the NRC LR 9447 springs. Just recently bought some on ebay from LK8Parts, and noticed that the new coil was about the same height as my old ones; maybe an inch taller. Got this truck earlier this year and don't know the history. I used my body to compress the coils a bit and felt they had about the same "drop" to them, though I know that's not the best test. I noticed in 03TroutFinder's pic on this thread, his 9449 coils match the height of his old ones with a spacer. Are my new coils fake, or do I already have upgraded coils?

Yeah its weird, I even ordered another new balancer from Partsflow on amazon and that had the markings on the opposite side too!

Yeah I meant the teeth to the distributor. It hardly runs one tooth over and doesn't run on the other side, I've been following the FSM for setting it. The crank pulley is a new one, just has the marks on the wrong side. I made a new mark when I had the engine at TDC and have been adjusting it like that. Also realized I have upstream 02 sensor codes for no activity, so maybe that's causing the hesitation. Glad to hear that the knock sensor doesn't affect timing, did not feel like taking it apart again anytime soon haha.

So I finished replacing the head gasket, and so far it seems to be good! My straight edge showed I had a 0.008" gap on the heads which is twice the spec tolerance. Had them cleaned and resurfaced. I also checked the seal on my valves and realized that one was leaking. Did my best to lap it but to no avail. Had my machinist do a 3 angle grind on it and he also bumped the seat. I put some z31 cams pulled out of a 1987 300zx into it which was good because I realized the old cams were scored on some of the lobes. I also pulled apart all my lifters and cleaned them as they were all stuck. I also had to tap a bigger hole on my coolant top off hole on the plenum as it was stripped and leaking. I also moved the knock sensor to the top of the plenum, but I might move it back as I think I need the ignition adjustments that it would help with. So to finish the object of the initial post, it was my head gasket that caused the issue. Now the only issue i see is my ignition timing, the closest I can set it to 15BTDC is 20BTDC, i messed with moving the splines on the distributor for like an hour but that's the closest I can get it. The power output is meh, seems pretty poor on the low end but pretty good on mid-high end. I was hoping with the new cams to see some better results but I think the timing has something to do with it. It feels strong only at 3k plus rpm. and very weak under that. The truck is a LOT quieter with the exhaust manifold replaced and the lifters cleaned. I'm trying to think of a way to get the timing right, either something is off, or I was thing of getting a bolt that's thinner near the head so the distributor has more room to travel. But at the very least, the coolant is not pressurizing out of the overflow anymore, and there is no coolant loss i can see.

Thanks for that, I'll check the flatness. Any thoughts on the Z31 w series cams? Just saw I might have access to those after getting home haha. They have these specs and shooould fit: Grind Number: Z31 All Intake Duration (gross): 252 Exhaust Duration (gross): 252 Intake Duration (.050”): 194 Exhaust Duration (.050”): 194 Intake Valve Lift*: .393" Exhaust Valve Lift*: .393" Lobe Separation: 111 Intake Valve Lash: .000" Exhaust Valve Lash: .000" RPM Range: 1000-5000

Got the passenger head off finally, was battling the lower middle exhaust bolt. The gasket on this side looked a little scuffed but the leak wasn't obvious; however, my head bolt on the back left was completely rusted so maybe the leak was happening around there. Cylinder 3 looked cleaner than cylinder 4 did. Would you guys recommend I get the heads resurfaced? I don't have a mechanics straight edge but I got them pretty clean and they looks alright to me. Also just picked up the cams from a 93 vg30e and was wondering about them. I put them side by side with the old ones and did not notice any difference in their sizes, would it be noticeable? They also have the same "4" imprint on them.

It definitely has had hose water go through it, between the overflow pipe bursting and the coolant loss, i was desperate for water. Are you saying that's calcium buildup on the pistons? I will make a separate post if I do the VG30 cams, for sure. Would like to get just a bit more power out of this engine, not sure if there is other stuff I'd have to replace or if it's just a drop in upgrade.

So its been awhile but I have updates. Since I had corrected the timing more or less, the truck was acting a lot better. Getting 16.5 to 17 on the highway and 14-15 city. The same drive I would take up the mountains was a lot more manageable and could keep it going 50 at 3k rpms without overheating. Again, as I'd get off the highway it would climb a bit (3/4 gauge) but would come back down and I'd think nothing of it. I could see the coolant rising in the reservoir but it wasn't boiling over anymore. I also replaced the fan clutch at this time but didn't really notice a difference. Lasted rest of winter nicely. Come spring, and 70 degree weather, more problems haha. My coolant overflow elbow pipe burst and I replaced it surprisingly easily. I was hoping this was the cause of everything else and was pretty happy but the day after I fixed, my top radiator hose popped off and I started burning coolant on startup and overheating on steep hills. I religiously bled and burped the cooling system almost every day and was going through coolant fast. The coolant burning was most pronounced on cool humid days, but some days it would be fine. It would also act totally normal once I got up to temp and was driving around. My idle revs also fixed themself at this time, not sure how but now idling at around 700rpm. My fear of head gasket is now realized and I opted to buy some crc head gasket sealer. I got home and read some reviews that were the most polar opposites 50/50 it worked or it destroyed the engine. I decided to not use that and return and buy head gaskets instead. Still not sure if it is the head gasket or the lower intake manifold gasket that was the issue, but I took the driver head off as of an hour ago, and plan on doing the other head tomorrow. I'm kinda glad to do this as I've been wanting to do the valve covers and my driver side exhaust manifold for awhile now. The driver side exhaust literally fell apart in 2 pieces when I unbolted it! Couple other things I noticed was my engine valley under the lower intake was completed submerged in oil? I think that explains my knock sensor codes as the knock sensor was actually melted where it was. I didn't notice anything particularly bad with this headgasket on the driver side but who's to say, the 4th cylinder was spotless. I'm wondering if there's anything I should check for while I'm here, was thinking about performance upgrades, I've heard some people put VG30 cams in this engine but not sure. Cylinder 4 looks clean as a whistle so I'm hopeful(?) that the head gasket was leaking and I didn't waste my time taking this off. Any tips or recommendations for the stage I'm at right now? Should I clean the head and rockers with diesel?

I'm confused where you said the pulley can mount six different ways, on this truck the pulley and the balancer are one and the same no? The truck came with this new pulley because the old one had a stripped removal bolt. I put the new one in doing the timing belt and saw that there is only one way it can fit on the crankshaft as the crankshaft has a little "tooth" on it that guides the pulley on. Perhaps I missed something? Or maybe the pulley can be taken apart? Very easily could be a vacuum leak as well, I do notice a loud "whirring/ vacuum whine" near the air box but can't place where its coming from. At any rate, I'm getting 15mpg around the city now! Major improvement from before.

Thanks for the reply, I messed with the ignition before and after replacing the timing belt. I didn't do the water pump myself, but I did notice a screw loose when I was by there, so kinda scared by it and feel like I should redo it. With the ignition, I just looked at it again and realized I did do something weird with it 2 months ago. I noticed the rpm's were super high when I tried setting it to 15degrees BTDC or the third mark on the pulley, I just set it based on idle speed rpm to make it sound better which was quite a bit before 0 BTDC. I realize i must've masked one issue by adding another issue haha. The marks on the pulley were hand carved by yours truly since the pulley came with the marks on the opposite side, so they may be off. When I just tried setting it to the third mark, the idle goes up to 1800rpm and starts bucking on the revs. I set it to 0 or the first mark instead to keep it stable, and is sitting at 1500rpm at idle. Took it for a drive and it feels really nice driving now, a lot more power and lower rpm to maintain speed. So now I think my issue could be idle related instead, I do have a code for IACV but I didn't think it would mess with the idle that much. Maybe I just need to adjust the idle speed? Thanks for the bleeder screw tip, I've been trying to find it behind the intake, didn't realize it was right above the PCV. I've done that and excited to see how it does on the mountain now. Don't know if it was from this, but right after doing the bleeding I started getting loud crack/ pop sounds from both valve covers that scared the crap outta me, hoping that those were just metal doing metal things haha. It definitely is oil in the coolant, its floating and makes a rainbow sheen sometimes. The coolant below it is light green but not quite milkshake. Nothing under the oil cap, and I've been religiously checking the oil and replacing every couple hundred miles to help clean it out. I'm a little worried about head gasket even though I know it doesn't happen on these engines a lot - though this one has been a bit abused. I'll be doing valve cover gaskets and an exhaust manifold when it gets a bit warmer, maybe it would be worth it to go a bit further and change the head gasket when I do that.

It is, it definitely could be leftover from another time, hard to tell if there is new material being added or not. I've replaced the coolant only once so I should do that again along with a clean/replacement of the reservoir.

Haha that would be some pretty resilient mold.

Hey guys, thought I'd pick peoples brains on trying to find out what this is. Have a lot of black/ grey sludge under my radiator cap and oil floating on top of my coolant reservoir. I tried a combustion gas tester and that didn't pick up anything. Engine runs mostly ok, but gets terrible gas mileage (11 on freeway). Some oil loss but nothing absurd, and oil doesn't look very off, somewhat dark. The car isn't over heating at all except for intense mountain driving. The last 10 minutes of my drive will be a constant 4500rpm - 5000 and the engine will be fine up until I get off the freeway where it'll jump up to max, and slowly come back down. My coolant is also boiling out when this happens. It has a new radiator and water pump - thinking a bad fan clutch might be causing that. I checked compression a while ago and got about 90 psi for 1-3-5 dry and 135psi 2-4-6. Wet is was 150 1-3-5, and 190 2-4-6. I checked back when the cams were off and the timing belt was skipping teeth so I'm not sure if those are still accurate. In regards to the oil, what else can cause leakage into the coolant besides head gasket? If the water pump was installed wrong, could that affect it too? The previous owner did a lot of questionable fixes on this car, so I need to recheck a lot of things he did. Thanks and cheers

Thanks for that suggestion, just checked and realized my rear upper control bushings are non-existent, and probably that clunk I've been hearing haha.

Haha you should have seen it when i got it, guy originally wanted $1000. It barely started and the steering was completely off (straight was 100 degrees to the left). Put some new bushings on the rack and fixed that. Had a horrible running condition and discovered that he replaced the radiator, thermostat and water pump but didn't replace the timing belt, thing had skipped 6 teeth on the cam! Not sure how it was running but it worked great after fixing that. Been thinking about doing the aux trans cooler, somehow the new radiator nipple is leaking on it and figured an aux might be nice. The timing is on point.. I think ~ I replaced the idler pulley with one that came with the car since the old one had a sheared bolt in it, but the new one has the timing marks on the wrong side. Exactly opposite of where they should be when TDC. I ended up just lining the old one up with the new one and used metallic sharpie to hand draw the timing marks, so I'm not sure how accurate they are, but no misfire codes...

Was thinking that was probably the case. Less work to do it all at once. Do you happen to know of any other possible mods people like to do other than suspension stuff that I should look at?

Hey everyone, Excuse how many directions this post goes, its my first one. Just recently bought this 1999 LE Pathfinder and looking for advice on next steps for kitting it out/ upgrades that make sense. It's an automatic 4wd with LSD and has 270k miles. It's definitely a little beaterish (got it for $300) and would like to spend some money to fix cosmetics like a bent door etc, but think it would make more sense to buy performance parts first. So far I've replaced spark plugs, cap, rotor and timing belt. The car has 31's on it and I really want to get a lift for it. I've ordered 2" ac front springs (the front looks to dip more than the back) and I'm currently thinking about getting manual hubs. I'm mostly using this for skiing but would like to do off road stuff closer to spring. I'm looking for ways to improve gas mileage and saw a lot of people get the KnN filter but I'm not sure how worth it those are. I'm sure my TB and plenum need to be taken apart and scrubbed, my mpg on the highway is 11.5 with new spark plugs and wires. I'm also looking to do a SFD because that almost seems to be a requirement for any meaningful and safe lift for this car. I guess it boils down to what should I direct my focus on first, coils/ shocks and struts - SFD - or other performance parts? I also probably need to update the exhaust system as its falling apart near the back. I get strange loud clunk sounds directly under the car when I push the throttle while car is decelerating, I thought it could be the broken muffler but it sounds almost directly under the driver seat.. Maybe transaxle or engine mounts, not sure. Overall though, very excited about this car and love the look of it, my first suv after a life of sedans and excited to see all that it can do!

Hey everybody, just got a pathfinder a month ago and excited to join this community! From the PNW and have taken this thing up to the mountains already where it did beautifully (except for gas mileage haha). Got it for $300 and it was in horrible condition but technically started.. Replaced the steering bushings and replaced a timing belt (cams were off by 6 teeth!) and its running pretty good! Probably will get a newer engine down the road as its at 270k but excited to start lifting it and modifying it more.

@hawairish Am interested in this myself, just picked up an R50 and looking to kit it out! Will keep an eye on this forum.