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What did you do to your Pathfinder today?


RedRider3141
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Put the insurance back on it and gave the interior a good clean. Shocked the 27 year old leather seats still aren't cracked on this thing. 

 

Ordered some kilmat for my Xterra and might use the rest on the wd21 if I have enough. Getting old enough that road noise really bother's me lol.

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Pulled the transmission and t-case down tonight. Part of an overhaul on the truck that started on Saturday.  Valve covers and up, fuel injector service, new plugs, main seal, coolant system (including rear crossover pipe and stuff).  Also swapping in a 4:1 t-case and changing the motor mounts.  Dangerously close to proceeding with the SAS at this point…

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  • 3 weeks later...

Bulk update for the past weeks of "What did I do..."  Truck's still apart, coming up on a month now, but it's pretty close to being back together.  Maybe all done this weekend.

 

Here's how things were looking...

 

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Transmission was nasty.  I bought myself a pressure washer at some point and zapped this clean.  I can't believe don't have a pic of the cleaned unit with the 4:1 case installed.  I did do this, though...

 

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Maybe it'll make for a nice junkyard find one day!

 

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Cleaned out the underbelly!  What a mess.  Was loaded with Sedona red clay.  You can't see it, but I also sheared a flex plate bolt at the 6 o'clock position.  That sucked to extract.  I had intentions to replace the RMS, but like many people have discovered, it's not the seal, but the stupid gasket strip of the seal bracket.  After reading up on what all it actually entailed, I said screw it.  Cleaned up the area and laid down some gasket maker all over it.  Should be fine/I'll regret it some other day.  I did pull down the lower oil pan to clean up all the oil build-up over the years.  Everything's way cleaner now.

 

Once I had the transmission attached, I changed out the motor mounts.  Almost didn't because of how terrible access is on the passenger side, but I'm glad I did...

 

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Installed a transmission cooler...

 

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Ran into a snag with some crappy catalytic converters off ebay last weeked...they absolutely do not fit the truck.  After numerous failed fitment attempts, I eventually built a jig with the OE assemblies and fitted the new stuff into the jig to see how bad was and maybe if it could be reworked...nope.  It's terribly misaligned, practically every component of it.  The amount of incompetency feels deliberate.

 

OE units jigged up:

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New units on the jigs.  Holy gaps/alignment/crap!

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Since the upper cats weren't marked L/R, I tried every combination and rotation possible.  What you see is the "best" combination, and also the only one that was close to being feasible.

 

At this point, I'm just planning to clean up the OE units and put them back on.  I'm past the return date, so these are a loss likely.  Not even worth the effort to rework; the catalytic honeycombs are probably crap anyway.  The OE units are probably still fine, but this main overhaul was just to totally refresh everything, since I kept throwing a P0430 (catalytic converter efficiency) over the years.  The upstream O2 sensors were the original sensors, and judging by their condition, it may be the real cause of the code.

 

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L to R: LH & RH upstream (both OE), LH & RH downstream (both aftermarket).

 

I don't blame the previous owner for never changing them.  They're such a pain.  The heat shields alone probably added an hour to the job, because they block the sensor hex.  I still need to get the cats and a new exhaust on...hopefully no surprises there.

 

The other day I also realized that t-case shifter arm is different between an R50 and a WD22 Xterra, which is what my donor t-case came from.  The Xterra arm is longer, which prevented shifting into 2H.  Swapping the arms was a bit of a pain...the pins that hold the arm onto the shaft are wedged in place.  Took penetrant, heat, and a hammer and punch to get it out.  I was able to get them swapped tonight, so shifting operations are back to normal. 

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Also had the engine torn down to change out the thermostats, gaskets on the rear water pipe, knock sensor, rebuild the fuel injectors, PCV, valve cover gaskets, etc.

 

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If you're going to rebuild them, get a kit with o-rings, pintle caps, and filters.  Also get a filter removal tool; I was unable to remove a filter without one.  Carb and choke cleaner with one of those pulse controllers off Amazon worked well to clean them, but it was a little on the messy side.

 

And while not a Pathfinder, I tore down my Frontier on Sunday and got it to the body and paint shop.  Time to bring it back to life!

 

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These pics are of the "good" side.  The hood, roof, and passenger bedside are really bad.  Paint shop will also do a spray-in bedliner (had a drop-in).  Should have it back in a month, then will put new windshields, lenses, and rear bumper on.  Btw, driving it without windshields is a blast.  Driving without mirrors...not so much.

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Got everything back together today.  Cylinder 3 misfire.  It's just dumping fuel...probably something stupid like I didn't fully clip in the coil, but I was too exhausted to troubleshoot any further.

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On 7/22/2022 at 4:16 AM, hawairish said:

 

 

IMG-3055.jpg

L to R: LH & RH upstream (both OE), LH & RH downstream (both aftermarket).

 

I don't blame the previous owner for never changing them.  They're such a pain.  The heat shields alone probably added an hour to the job, because they block the sensor hex.  I still need to get the cats and a new exhaust on...hopefully no surprises there.

 

The other day I also realized that t-case shifter arm is different between an R50 and a WD22 Xterra, which is what my donor t-case came from.  The Xterra arm is longer, which prevented shifting into 2H.  Swapping the arms was a bit of a pain...the pins that hold the arm onto the shaft are wedged in place.  Took penetrant, heat, and a hammer and punch to get it out.  I was able to get them swapped tonight, so shifting operations are back to normal. 

 

Aftermarket parts are SUCH @!*%E these days. It's so hard replacing things on my '95 because you end up returning it 3 times before you get one that fits. My original starter died last summer and they went through 3 units on the tester before I got a good one... Kept the oem one and had it rebuilt at a shop as a spare.

 

Those o2s are a little past their prime lol. I had a 5mpg increase on my 2002 xterra after changing the primaries. Couldn't believe it. Can easily get almost 20mpg on the freeway now driving nicely. Before the thing couldn't go past 15mpg no matter how slow or gingerly you drove it.

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This weekend I fired up the 95 for the first time in a while. Noticed an exhaust leak at the header. Turns out I stripped one of the studs in the head during last years install. Luckily one of the "easy" ones so I pulled it and ordered a heli coil kit just in case.

 

Cleaned it out, found a lot of memories from past relationships and road trips. Hopefully I'll have time in the coming weeks to install:

  • New drivers front fender
  • The other 3 speakers
  • Exhaust stud
  • Spare tire carrier bushing set.
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  • 2 months later...

Finally finnished coating the cylinder heads, 3 types of ceramic coatings on them, transfer grey on the externals, sheds heat 40% better than bare metal, piston coat which deflects heat substantially rated up to 2000 farenheit was applied to combustion chambers and exhaust ports,micro slick dry lubricant ceramic was applied to the head valley for oil drainage, also lowers the parasitic losss.prevent carbon buildup, still have to do the runners in transfer grey, the heads were also ported. Did inside the oil pan and oil pickup tube. Was thinking about doing a slight polish on the runners, Will be putting the transfer grey on outside. May even coat the bottom inside of the block in the microslick if I get motivated enough. Cleaning these parts can take a phenomenal amount of time. So these coatings are properly applied. Degreasing , outgassing, sandblasting. When this VG30e is built it should run smooth5f3f8d112cf4a02bc9058e857148fd79.jpg
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  • 2 weeks later...

Applied a oil shedding coating to the inside of the block, I blended out casting splatter and ejection marks. Eliminated any high spots. Just need some new bearings now. I’ve read that guys using chromoly piston rings required a 600grit fine hone. I tried giving them a 45 degree scratch deglazing with stones but wasn’t convinced I achieved a true cross hatch.

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Haha well I tore the engine apart 2 years ago, and carefully catalogued every bolt and part. I should just make a build thread when I finally have it running, without Npora I would never had made it this far. I’m getting close! just have to finnish the upper plenum. I painted it years ago but I wanted to get at the vacuum manifold underneath it. I will be stripping it and redoing it. c7acf0e503ec05de06e1dddf5dc6821c.jpg
Just finnished the fuel railing5d2ff4c57095af8f3a49ce00e942fc92.jpg
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  • 2 weeks later...

The bracket that bolts the upper control arm onto the frame decided to snap right at where the bolt goes through so had to swap that out today. Stole the one off the hard body I have in my yard as a parts car. While doing that found out both bolts that hold my caliper on, on the passenger side front decided to call it quits and left at some point. No indication that, that had ever happened so that was interesting to find out. Been using the truck daily and still wheeling it when I can so I've been neglecting it too much. I also think I've decided instead of doing a whole cab swap of a hard body to the path I'll just chop the back section off and weld it onto the pathy. Seems like it is an easier solution than swapping the bodies and rewiring everything in my mind at least unless anyone else here wants to chime in their opinion

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I've welded a lot of sheet metal, and I think I'd rather wrestle with the wiring harness than weld/grind/bodywork all the way around the cab.

 

Don't think I've heard of a spindle snapping off like that. At least you noticed the bolts before the caliper joined them!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Pulled mine into the garage for the winter. I've committed myself to a DIY restore of the thing. So that will start with replacing the crunched in drivers rear quarter behind the tire. Had another member here slice the part off of their parts rig so hopefully that goes okay. I will post pictures of course.

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  • 1 month later...

Sanded down my intake and gave it a polish, I didn’t get it perfect by any means but i’m happy enough with it. I spent extra time around all the lettering. If anyone has tips on to to best smooth out alluminum in the tightest of crevices im all ears, did it mostly by hand with plastic scrapers with varying grits of sandpaper, finnished with a white emery buffbe20cdbf01c72d509432e5bd09b25309.jpg
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And here I thought I went overboard when I wire-wheeled mine! For the tight crevices, you might get in there with a pointy buffer on a rotary tool, or sanding sticks for making models (or just emery boards for fingernails, cut into strips). Depending on where the crevices are, baking soda blasting or something like that might get in there more easily. For what it is and what you stared with, I'd say that looks pretty good already.

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Went to drive somewhere today, shut the hatch, and it bounced. No latching action. Shut it a few more times, nothing. Checked the latch with a screwdriver and it just flopped around. On a hunch, I heated around the catch with a little butane torch for a few minutes. Sure enough, it went click, and then it closed again. I guess some water condensed back there and froze the mechanism. First time it's done that.

 

On the plus side, by the time I got the hatch to stay closed, the windshield had finished defrosting!

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

f0b23a8fc9b42d80b7fd549b0b8d4528.jpg
Sanded down my crankshaft journals from 600-3000k then gave a metal polish, ceramic coated the paddles. Once I get some bearings. I’ll put the oil shedding ceramic on them.


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