1987 Nissan Pathfinder No Clue What I'm Doing

Hi I bought another nissan. 1987 Pathfinder, red on red which is the best spec. Pretty sweet, 197k on it. Was owned by a guy up in Utah for like 27 years then moved down to Georgia, serviced at a shop for 8 years and the the shop owners son bought it and sold it 6 months later.

will post some more details in the next few days but not sure my plans for this thing yet beyond cleaning it up and enjoying it. Always wanted to get into this chassis so I'm excited I was lucky enough to find a nice, cool spec.

Wow. That's awesome. They've all rusted away here in Western Pennsylvania.

Looks really clean  

congrats

I had one of these, once upon a time. Two tone light / dark grey. 

Absolutely loved it. I took that little rig in and out of places I had no business being in.

Nice find!

I haven't seen one of those in over a decade!

Very nice!  Other than the low power and bad fuel economy, these rock. 
 

im a big nissan truck fan. The wd21(your pathfinder) and d21 chassis especially.  Im pretty familiar with the chassis if you have questions. 

The cam belt on these is a key to long term motor health, any idea when it was last changed?

This thing makes 138hp and weighs 4000lbs. By far the slowest thing I've ever owned. And I love it for it.

There is a sticker in the engine bay that says a timing belt was done in '09 about 80k miles or so ago. I'd say its probably about due. The OEM timing kit isnt bad, like 300$ or so.

The older models like yours had shorter timing belt intervals. I think 60k-80k. They had squared teeth. The "newer" with the vg30e had rounded teeth on the belt and gears so it got a 100k interval. 
 

they are definitely interference motors, so dont play with the timing belt. Also plan to do your water pump at the same time. The water pump is not driven by the timing belt, but it is mounted behind the timing belt so you want to do it while you are in there.  Do the cam/crank seals and all the other little fun things while in there. 

My buddy had one of those for years and years. Solid axle swap, 35s and more abuse than even something you hate deserves. It was a tank. Slow as hell but still sounded pretty good.

Is it sad that the only Nissans I'd buy now are over 30 years old?  I love that interior, it's tres pimp.  Great choice, it should serve you very well.

Proper 3 pedal too! Take care of it, thats a nice one.

I love these!! Triangle windows!!!!

Sad to say, I had to kill one during cash for clunkers, probably around 2009ish.  It was heartbreaking, as the interior was very clean. It was a 2wd and a bit newer than this, but still had the triangle windows.  Someone traded it in for the $4500 credit on something much lamer. 

I've seen those timing belts go way beyond their service interval. Even seen one break but with no piston to valve contact, a new belt made it run fine again. Not that you want to push it too far. The engines are slow but bulletproof. 3.3's from later models can be installed pretty easily. That's the engine that's in my racecar. 

06HHR (Forum Supporter) said:

Is it sad that the only Nissans I'd buy now are over 30 years old?  I love that interior, it's tres pimp.  Great choice, it should serve you very well.

same!

Ready to follow this adventure!

Haven't seen one this clean in forever. Love the color combo!

Man, I haven't seen an early 2-door Pathfinder around here in at least 20 years, let alone one with a stick! Nice find! 

I can't remember if those early ones have the same V6 as the later ones do (up to 1994, I think) but all I remember is how much of a PITA it was to do spark plugs on them. The rearmost plugs are under the firewall, and near impossible to access. 

Good luck with it! 

Man, how did you find that lol. They have their own little following and any I have seen have been rotten. 

Posting some more details here. Got it registered and drove it around bout half a tank to see what she needs done. Definitely has an intermittent MAF issue. On 2 of my like 8 drives so far, the car wouldn't rev past 3k and didn't seem particularly happy below that either. As is common with these older Nissans, I am guessing corroded connectors or harness damage. Will need to dig into it further. Also seems to have an overcharging issue, the volt gauge pegs at high RPMs. The car actually seems pretty fine with it except I think it keeps triggering some over voltage protection in the head unit lol. Not too sure if this thing has an external regulator like some of the older Nissans or if I just need to get a whole new alternator.

Thr biggest issue IMO is some rust. 3 of the 4 corners have some issues, not enough to rot through or honestly bother me but I am considering my options for repair. I'm trying for this car to be something resembling a restored driver but I am not picky about originality. IE I don't mind some rock guard texture paint to repair the rockers. Or honestly maybe some naval jelly and leave it alone? I can do all the metal work and prep and maybe bring it to maaco for a rocker paint? What would y'all do? 

Otherwise underneath is very clean, some flakes by the rear bumper but that is an easy clean up I think.

Clear on the roof also is pretty gone, doesn't bother me much though. Rest of the paint is pretty cherry but in need of a correction.