Kingman

Some tools and your own time would have cut the outrageous repair bills by at least 75%. How many miles are on it?

If you're going to bore a motor, definitely make sure it's a VG33. It's all too easy to overbore a VG30 and have serious problems later on down the road. I do wonder though, how cheap doing a VG34 could be. Taking the time to find a good VG33 for around $100, same with the VG30DE/DETT rods, a lucky Craigslist ad for a cheap VH45, becoming good friends with the local machine shop, etc. A stroker kit on a "VG34" would be epic cool and would bump the displacement up a bit too while giving gobs of torque. I mean hell, they made 383s by stroking a 350... why can't we? People say all the time on here that you can't make power from an old Pathfinder engine. Not true at all, you just have to look a little harder and think outside the box. VG33 engines in general have better castings with less flash and residue, which are better than the W-series VG30, which is better than the A/B-series VG30 (pre 4/87). My engine is an '84 and the crap inside the coolant passages and stuff is ridiculous! It's also been said that the W-series heads alone are good for +10-15HP on a $15,000 full built race motor. Essentially this means there's no difference at all. I like the fact that you can built a VG with a little work to put down more power than the VQ35 and be infinitely more reliable at the same time. Sorry to the thread...

Tons of cars do this, it must make them feel good about themselves knowing that they're smarter than their drivers.

We had that here in Vancouver yesterday, now it's just pouring down rain and the weather report says it's supposed to start snowing in a while again. Higher and more rural areas had about 4-5" of snow. I want my truck running so I can go play in it, damnit!

Did someone go out and sabotage VG33 caR50s?! There's been a ton of distributor failures lately...

Typos I think. VG33 block from the wrecked Xterra with his Pathfinder W-series (4/87+) VG30E heads. I also don't see him mentioning that the VG33 heads have a much better casting than the VG30 heads, and have a higher roof allowing them to flow better overall. The engine combination you see originated by one man working at Nissan Motorsports America (before Nissan tanked and was bought out by Renault) who was designing the "ultimate VG" for NISMO's competition Baja trucks. It was a long kept secret, too.

Search the garage and pinned topics sections, there's TONS of information regarding this.

I've got a Nismo catalog and there's a ton of parts still available. Lockers, front and rear limited slip set ups, 3.70-5.19 gearing sets, etc.

Torque converter or output shaft.

Bearing tolerances. Can you wiggle the rod caps in any way?

Does your exhaust smell funny like rotten eggs? If so then that's a failed cat, and the rotten egg smell comes from running leaded fuel through the engine. It's not supposed to happen with all the regulations and technology nowadays, but it does happen on occasion from some gas stations.

The KA24E/DE is Nissan's newer 4 cylinder motor used in the D21s and 240s. It's the upgraded version of the Nap-Z Z24I. Both are 2.4L engines.

Sometimes. An excessive rich run can blow out a cat within seconds, same with overheating.

A long ass time ago I test drove a '94 4-door at a dealer and it seemed to shift waaaay too high. The little light on the dash wasn't lit up or anything so I thought the transmission was failing.

I've got one with the factory winch plate that has pre-drilled holes. I've seen a Pathfinder running around town with the same bumper and a Warn winch on it, as far as I could see it wasn't bent up at all and it's pretty obvious the truck has been wheeled pretty hard.

I think there's a real electrical component problem, I ran my TBI for a while without any cold start systems, and without the hot pipe, and it never had an issue with stalling or a low idle like that. Check for vacuum leaks anywhere as well.

Sorry to hear about that man. Looks like it was a hell of a nice rig. Glad everyone is alright though, that's really what matters. The new '03 is a good looking and 50K is seriously low miles!

The rear defroster sucks more juice than almost any electric fan out there. And the fan really only needs to come on at idle since about 20 MPH is enough to cool, or the rare time you're grinding up steel hills slowly in the mountains which at that point you're getting around 5 MPG.

Well that's why it gets better mileage, it has the power to easily move the weight. You end up asking a lot from a 140 HP motor to haul 4000 LBS dry, then adding fuel, people, and gear.

Chevron brand 10W30 and a NAPA Gold (Wix) filter. Chevron oil is the most detergent and well cleaning oil on the market. Sometimes it'll get Pennzoil or Castrol if the 5 quart jugs are on sale for $10-12. I am a cheap ass. No VG will tolerate oil starvation or dirty oil, even for a split second. As soon as either happens, the engine will fail quickly. 100% coincidence on throwing a rod with Mobil 1. End of story.

Isn't your VG33 being rebuilt? I see threads all over on Z31...

If it does it when it's cold, check the Cylinder Head Temperature Sensor (ECU Coolant Temperature Sensor). MAF and O2 wouldn't be an issue with temperature or the engine being cold. Those two only adjust things when the engine is in closed loop mode (above 150F). The idle screw won't do you any good adjusting it, it'll only idle where you set it when the engine is actually running correctly. Any other time it'll still act the same regardless.

That's what I was thinking.

Yup. Bolts go through the bell housing towards the front of the truck and thread in to the starter. So like was said, if the bolts are broken the starter should fall out with little or no persuasion...

Well, I had massive zip ties holding the tension on the alternator for a long time until I actually got around to getting another tensioner bracket.