MY1PATH

Loads of parts available thanks to the 300zx. Yes on differant pistons, weisco and other brands. Eagle among many other brands makes a ligter stiffer rods but they are all same length. Make sure you order for the correct wrist pin; there are 20mm and 22mm variations. Finish it of with Deves Racing Rings. If you get the 300zx pistons make sure your compression ratio stays @ 9:1 the turbo Z's were 8.5:1.

I installed a 97 overhead consloe wiht lights compass and thermometer. I guess anythings possible.

also for reference; the R51 xtera swaybar and front skid are interchangeable with the wd21 pathfinder. My buddy has an X and thats how we discovered that.

Common NOTES; I know not, what vehicle this alternator comes on origainally. Just that it is a Ford 3rd Generation Alternator (Ford 3G) and that the tabs need to be in 120 or 180 degree configureations for this to work. 180 AMP was a rewind and suffers a HIGH Cut in, not enough juice @ idle uness you do some custom work(see updates @ bottom). Ford 3G altys come in 115 to 140 amp variations and many part stores offer 160 amp replacements which would be much more well suited because of the lower cut in. The regulator and brushes are on the outside and can be changed ON the Vehicle so the only time you need to take it off is if the bearings ever fail. Nothing else on these is prone to easy failure(unlike the nissan ones) so no more changing alternators when one fails. Just swap the reg and brushes. I've had a few requests on this one so here it goes (finally). After 3 or 4 altys in 20 years I finally got smart and made the 2nd to last one a 90-95 alty which puts out 70 amps instead of 60. All the previous Alty's faied because the VoltageRegulator(VR) was running full open too often in order to keep up with the electrical load, they would evenually all lock open so when there was not such a load there would be a voltage spike which results in overcharged batteries, blown bulbs etc. Then I got even smarter when somone here sold their 180 AMP R50 alternator. When I got it the VR had been smashed in shipping but there was a sticker on the side for Ohio Generator, I called them and I looked @ alternators online and Figured out that this was actually a Ford 3G alty. Ohio generator had simply re-wond it to 180 amps and made a pigtail that converts the Ford plug to a nissan plug. Knowing this anbody could take the standard 120 and 140 amp 3G and do the same... The wd21 alty has its mounts 180deg apart and the ford 3g that you want will have its tabs 120deg apart (if you can find 180 great) but the bottom tab will be 60deg too far counter-clockwise this would require a longer custom bracket and even then the Tab woul hit the steering box before you could tighten the belt. If you remove the 3 bolts that hold the case you can rotate the front half so the the top becomes bottom and now your 60deg clockwiese this reqires a shorter bracket so I cut mine about 2.5-3" shorter and drilled a new hole to bolt it to the block. At this shorter position the head of the bolt for the tentioner would now contact the belt so I cut the bolt down and had it welded inside the tentioner tab which also got shaved down a little so that I have about 5/16 clearance to the belt and no sharp edges. (the angle of the picture makes it look like there is less clearance than there is) Then I hooked up the wires + and ground to the case and the Ford->NISSAN pigtail for the battery light. If your going to make this connector you'll need the 2 plugs off the donor vehicle and a plug that will plug into the NISSAN battery light plug(unless your hard wireing that end). The Wires colors may vary but locations should not and will go as follows; Ford 3 prong plug Prong 1(yellow/white) goes to Nissan battery light plug Heavy guage wire(white) Prong 2(white) goes to Ford single prong on case (also white) Prong 3(green/red) goes to Nissan battery light plug smaller guage wire(yellow/black) Now before you go and do this, Keep reading... I ran some power tests under various loads and this Ford alty Requires Very high RPM's to generate its peak output (180A) When I got it it had a 2" serpentine pulley on it (from the R50) and was prolly fine but at Idle with the 3" WD21 V-pulley it DID NOT PUT OUT ENOUGH POWER. But going down the road It can handle any power demand I throw at it. It took a 2.5" (smallest v-pulley I could find) chevy pulley machined wide enough to fit the nissan V-belt and an increased Idle(900rpm) to keep up with lights, e-fan, small stereo & blower motor. I may even try to get a 2.3"(Limitations of wall thickness and groove depth will prvent me from going smaller) pulley machined for it. This may just be characteristic of an alty Re-wound so high. Now becuse of that last tidbit I do not reccomend this to anybody running v-belt accessories unless you wanna get a pulley macined or somehow have a larger crank pulley. But now that I have it done, I'm not going back. The Ford alty is completely rebuildabe with all basic hand tools and when I do my engine swap I'll prolly be serpentine in which case I will have no problem getting enough power out of it. UPDATE;Oh yeh, and when I went down to the 2.5" pulley I was able to use the stock length v-belt. UPDATE 6/17/2010; I recently had a 2" v-belt pulley machined It provodes enough power to run ALL accesories @ idle or lower but the belt slips allot under load & low RPM even when tightened to 1/2" the rated deflection.(belt keeps stretching @ this point) It just does not have enough wrap arround to make sufficent grip. UPDATE 7/11/2010; I used a modified T-belt tensioner bolted to the upper tab to give the Belt a little more wrap arround. Slip only ocurs momentarily on startup when belt is cold. I will be adding another T-belt tensioner to the lower tab (when I get one) and this will give pretty close to 180* of belt contact with the 2" pulley for slip free interface that povides all the juice I need from idle up.

Some time ago I decided an E-fan was gonna be on my list of mods. I wanted something that would fill my whole radiator and not draw too much power while still moving lots of air. It was a toss up betwen a summit fan canibalized with my stock shroud or the Flex-A-Lite Black Magic but then I discovered the Black Magic XTREME180 on 4x4Review. After reading the article comparing it to the original I was sold! 16" blades(same as stock) 3300 CuFt per min and only 18amp draw! Fortuate was I that not only was Flex-A-Lite a local company (to me in WA)but one of their re-furbisning couterparts (for waranty repairs) was local too and I happend to get a "refurbished" one for $200 and no shipping charge. (normal new price was $350 @ that time) the thing came I couldn't tell it had ever been opened. Installation was simple; unbolt clutch-fan and shroud and replace Fan-clutch studs with short bolts so your water pump pulley sitll works. The included backets and hardware Make it possible for almost any installation w/ a little creativity. The included thermostat comes in a box with relays buit in. This is unlike other fan models where the thermo is not relayed and is prone to burning out under load. I placed the thermo-relay box next to the main-realay box for the engine. For my Ignition signal I spliced the "Main Relay" trigger (+) wire because it stays on for aprox 15 seconds after the engine shuts off. This allows the fan to run(if needed) for 15 sec after you turn the engine off. Once you have all the wires run; Power, A/C hookup, manual overide (whatever you choose)... It gives you allot of options but without making it complicated because the relays are all built in. The Themo sensor is installe thru the radiator near the inlet so it gets the hottest portion of the radiator. I wapped the exposed part of the sensor in tape on the inside and put a boot (included) on the ouside to shield it from wind. Lastly I set up the Thermo to keep my target temp, I read somwhere that 180F coolant temp is best for the VG. When the fan kicks on the thermo doesn't sut off untill its dropped about 20-25 degrees so mine kicks on @ about 188 and shuts off @ about 163. In the winter I let it run a little warmer cause I know the inlet outlet temps of the radiator are allot more differant than in the summer. It also only runs about 20 sec at a time in the winter to mainain whereas in the summer it takes a minute or 2. I used a Kitchen Themo next to the themo sensor to get my temp reading. And so after it has reached the 170-180 temp range my needle stays between 1/3 and just to the shy of 1/2 at all times. No more bogging down from the fan on hot days and it warms up quicker on cold days. I may be adding a circut so it turns on the Idle up solenoid when the fan turns on so that spike in power draw isn't as harsh(30-38A startup 18A continuous) EDIT:one more goodie I forgot to include; watch how the shop towel gets away from me when I'm trying to hold it in the draft lol.

Flowmaster Doesn't make cats and Magnaflows are made by Carsound,just search the PN on ebay for the cat Mine was 70 or 80 versus 140 list. I guess sombody's got overstock 'cause they kept popping up for a while. Were you the santa? They cut out their info so they really were secret.

Ok, so every so often we get somone who asks the exhaust questions. What should I do? What do you guys have? How does it sound? well rather than always saying "it sounds good" I made a video that should answer the last 2 questions. name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="505"></embed></object> " wmode="transparent" style="width:400px; height:326px;" id="VideoPlayback" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashvars=""> I really like it, It feels good down the road and as long as I drive modestly and don't rev it allot it boosts my MPG. Here are PN's and Diameters of all my components; Thorley-THY-464-1 LongTube headders Pirmaries are 1.5" Y pipe and collectors are 2.25" Nissan-OEM Mid pipe is 1.875" CarSound(magnaflow)-22765-DIRECT FIT CATALYTIC CONVERTER 2.25" Magnaflow-12225-2.25" stainless muffler 2" pipe turn jut before rear wheel.

I use conventional or blended, full synthetic seems to leak on me. but I will prolly swich to full Synth after a re-build.

the dust nipple on my throttle cable used to slide off and get stuck under the wire but on top of the throttle cam. It caused the exact same effect. I think the softness of the old rubber was enough to let the manifold vaccum pull the butterfly open and when the vaccum dropped from it being open it would close again untill the vaccum raised. Vooom Vooom Vooom Vooom. allong those lines check your thortte return spring for breaks, and see if the throttle cam itself is actually twitching.

The Nissan Heated pre-cat O2 sensor (the only one in this case) is most accurate the closser to the manifold it is. Furthrer down the pipe the exhaust cools and appears chemically differant which I think leads to rich mixing. I belive moving it up stream of the Y (so it only reads 3 cyl) will also lead to rich mixing. IMO Your best bet is to leave it in the mid Pipe(right next to the Y) or relocte it to the the Y pipe. Replacing it with a new one may help your performance since it may be old & worn out. Also, for a pipe as short as you want it I'd stick to 2" pipe & muffler you may lose all your bottom end torque.

Magnaflow Direct bolt ons used show up on ebay all the time. I got mine for 70 or 80 bucks, look up the PN on their site as I think it fits other vehicles too.

the square hole in the back center of the caliper is called the "screwdriver hole" using the old pad to protect the piston you can stick a screwdriver thru the hole and lever the piston in. If you think it sounds un-professional Thats actally out of a service manual.

BIG

the speedo needle moves all the time(on the inside) so you can't put it back the same. the only way to set it is to but it one @ speed w/ a GPS or take it to a speedo shop where the turn the speedo unit @ 1050rpm and place the needle @ 60mph. (as printed on the speedo card)

going 75-80+ down to cali (3-4k rpm for hours) I still got 17.5-18.5 mpg. It also seems to leak (or burn) oil when running that high rpm for prolonged periods of time. so what I may have saved in gass I spent in oil. lol

I just swapped my 89's with 1990 hardbody. It didn't have tach so I used my old tach and the white letter tach card I found in a 92or93 pathfinder. both rigs did not have a CEL on their cards (weird) so I cut where the light should be and slid my orance CEL in its place. the clock, I also took out of the 92or93 so that I could be done w/ that orange color for good. Next will be the blue LED's so that its blue @ night. and lastly I wanna find one of those mechanical units that has 2 trip meeters instead of 1.

the normal coolant temp for the VG to acheive optimum eficiency is about 180 degrees and that is also the temp that my elctric fan turns on.(measured w/ an IR thermometer pointed @ the thermostat housing.)

if its tap-tap-tap like a nickel on hardwood than it may be a lifter. the valve may not be fully opening because of this. Or I'm totally wrong and it's something I don't know about.

I belive it works like this;Air goin into the intake has a "charge", it doesn't want to stop going, so when the air hits the closed valve that charge turns arround an goes back up the intake runner where it charges another cyl or turns arround again when the valve opens again. A short runner means less distance/time b4 that(small) charge can return good for higer rpm and HP(more small charges). A lonng runner means more distance/time and also the length of the runner allows for a greater charge better for lower rpm and forcing allot of air in the the cyl to generate torque. with that concept in mind, for the non-power-valve VQ's, could a block of plate installed between the the upper and lowere short-runner side to taget torque with no adverse effects? I assume in a condition where both long and short runners open the charge would take the shortest path in but either path back thus lessinging the "charge" effect.

I am in the school of thought that some power improvements; rebuilds, mild cams, headders & displacement increase (not turbos, agressive cams, injectors, nos etc) can go either way with mpg. If it has more power and you use more power it gets worse but if it has more power and you don't then it does not have to work as hard to acheve the same speeds as an unmodified engine. This is how a full bolt on N/A 5.7L LS1(my buddies) Can get 27 mpg on the higway and maybe about 11 if he spends a weeked @ the drag strip. And stock I belive those #'s were more like 23 & 14. 8222 is the coil MSD specifically reccomened me for the pathfinder @ 45k volts it may be a little hot for the transistor unless you use their resistor card(which they reccomended). but I'm going to get the 8222 coil when I get my MSD igition box so no card will be needed. then my mpg should go back up again.

running a bigger coil made an MPG improvement for me, It also burned my transistor becase it was too hot(55k volts vs stock 28k?). But an oem 240z coil (32k?) runs off the same transitor and may net some impovement. I don't know if the 300zx coil is hotter or not. I went back to the stock coil @ the same time I installed and electric fan. Since my MPG stayed the same I possitive the electric fan provided the same increase in MPG as the Coil had previously. Keep a good tune up, plugs wires, cap, rotor timing. Seafoam may or may not help depending on how much then engine may have needed it. The thorelys helped waste gass when I first got them but now that I'm over the thrill and not as heavy on the gass I think they have iproved MPG.

I'm not saying you shouldn't, I had even considered a double sway bar not to long ago. The reason I suggested shocks is based on my experience; being 3" lifted and only a stock rear swaybar all my swaying complaints ended when I installed rancho 9000's & my panhard drop. I take on-ramps @ 45-55 mph depending on the curve and can do 90deg small intersection turns @ 25-30 mph(faster for larger intersections) and it feels fine. These aren't race cars but they still seem pretty nimble to me compared to other rigs I've driven.

x2 stevo told me the toyota 67"s would be the fit when I inquired about the 58"s keep in mind the outer rail (if you go w/ steevo's) is narrower than the inner rail of the slider. So the visible portion of the 58" would appear smaller and IMO mis-proportioned. I'll make a cardboard tube mockup b4 ordering to decicide for sure. or whatch one of you guinea pigs post pics lol.

better shocks make loads of differance

while your at it, look for oil arround your oil ps sensor. the seal between the sensor and the plug can fail or somtimes the sensor is loose either condition will cause oil to run down the block and into the starter. If it is the starter the oil may have been the culprit.