2000 Nissan Xterra

I bought this last year for $350. I pretty much paid for the new Michelin tires on it. It's sat around collecting dirt until last weekend.

There is a bit of light rust on the underbody. People from salt states would consider it very minor, people that are only used to cars around here may get tetanus just looking at it. That just means I won't feel bad about driving it on the beach.

Yes, all of those pine needles were on top of the car. There is a bigger pile on the other side.

The issue when I bought it was a dead engine. It's messy.

And it probably has some damage to the valves.

Luckily, I have a much lower mileage replacement lined up and ready to go from a 2004 Xterra.

While it will move, it did hit something hard. I had to employ the sawzall to be able to turn the wheel.

The plan is to swap the good engine into the good chassis. A timing belt/water pump replacement will be done while the engine is out of the car. The lower mile, rust free shocks and leafs will also get swapped into the good body.

Apparently I am going to have to reuse the intake and exhaust manifolds off of the dead engine in order for it to fit into the bay of the 2000. There might also be some work involved with the starter. We'll see.

I'm interested, I've always liked Xterras

I'm in. I love these body style Xterra's

Nice, this should make a great beach buggy! Check out 4x4parts.com for some good Nissan stuff. Not sure why the manifolds would be different...both years are VG33 motors, and I think the differences are mostly with the look of the front end. Good luck, I'll be watching!

I made a bit more progress on the car today. I got the front differential out. There were several sessions of spraying Liquid Wrench and waiting, but after about 4 hours and 16 fasteners, it was out.

I've got to remember to use blue thread lock on the axles and put the vacuum tube back on the back when I put it back in.

The thing isn't exactly light. Getting it back into the truck is going to be fun. The oil pan is also going to be an issue. It is much deeper on the back to fit around the differential, so I am probably going to have to remove it in order to get the engine to sit properly on a dolly or pallet.

Re: intake and manifolds

I've been lead to believe that the intake and manifolds on the early Xterras are different from the post-facelift models and that one of the reasons for the higher hoodline was in order to fit the new intake under it.

Given engine bay space limitations, moving parts is going to be much easier when the engine is out of the car versus in it. Before I do the parts swapping, I'll measure and compare the items to make sure it is really required.

I had big plans to work on this today, and it rained in an aggravating "30 minute downpour, stop, more downpour!" way, all day long.

Tomorrow I have to change the oil in the Forester and figure out yet another power steering issue in the RX-8, but if I have time I'll do some more work on the Xterra. I've been hitting the exhaust with penetrating oil every couple of days. Some are probably still going to snap off, but I've given myself the best chance I can possibly have.

Nice work, I missed this the first time around but will be following along now!

Didn't those have a tendency to do that thing where all the fluid from the engine wanted to hang out in the transmission? Just curious because they shouldn't hang out in there

I'm not sure about that, E46potenza.

I worked on the car today, and I'd like to send a bit shout out to whoever put three different sized nuts on one side of the exhaust (before the cats). I had a 13mm, 14mm and 15mm nut on there. Fun times. At this point, I think have have only the OBD sensor on the back to disconnect before I'm ready to pull the dead engine out.

Nissan didn't see fit to put engine slingers (what they call them) on the engine to facilitate removal.

More progress as it happens.

Brett_Murphy wrote: Nissan didn't see fit to put engine slingers (what they call them) on the engine to facilitate removal.

Probably because these motors only die if you don't change the timing belt or you ingest water--they are tough as nails. They have no power, but they're durable-I've seen a few over 400k at the dealership I was at. Take care of this one and you'll never pull it out again.

nice score Brett. be SURE to change out the coolant bypass hose over near the dizzy. its a short hose but it cooks in the vee of the block, gets brittle and leaks. its a handful to get to unless you have the t-belt off. take care of those spark plugs too, especially #6. we also changed out our heater core hoses which were getting cracked. that's what a life spent in Atlanta heat will do for you.

we did all that stuff when the t-belt was done at 70k miles (it was already 10 years old and the belt was stretching and slapping the t-belt cover) and it was far easier that way.

our '03 is just a baby at 86k miles but as others have said its mechanically a rock. they are crude but they won't leave you stranded.

Does anyone know what the deal is with the cam position sensor codes on those? Someone once asked me to see why the check engine light was on in theirs, and it was something to do with a cam position sensor. They took it in to the dealer and supposedly the dealer said it wasn't repairable and to get rid of it. It was a 2wd so I didn't want it, and I didn't want to throw parts at it with someone else money so they sold it, but that didn't really sound right to me.

The Crakshaft Position Sensor, from Factory Service Manual (FSM):

Component Description

NGEC0220

The camshaft position sensor is a basic component of the engine control system. It monitors engine speed and piston position. These input signals to the engine control system are used to control fuel injection, ignition timing and other functions. The camshaft position sensor has a rotor plate and a wave-forming circuit. The rotor plate has 360 slits for a 1° (POS) signal and 4 slits for a 180° (REF) signal. The wave-forming circuit consists of Light Emitting Diodes (LED) and photo diodes. The rotor plate is positioned between the LED and the photo diode. The LED transmits light to the photo diode. As the rotor plate turns, the slits cut the light to generate rough-shaped pulses. These pulses are converted into on-off signals by the wave-forming circuit and sent to the ECM. The distributor is not repairable and must be replaced as an assembly except distributor cap and rotor head.

There is what they call an OBD on the back of the engine that I am led to understand doesn't directly affect the operation of the engine, all it does is throw codes.

From the FSM:

Component Description

NGEC0213

The crankshaft position sensor (OBD) is located on the transaxle housing facing the gear teeth (cogs) of the flywheel or drive plate. It detects the fluctuation of the engine revolution. The sensor consists of a permanent magnet, core and coil. When the engine is running, the high and low parts of the teeth cause the gap with the sensor to change. The changing gap causes the magnetic field near the sensor to change. Due to the changing magnetic field, the voltage from the sensor changes. The ECM receives the voltage signal and detects the fluctuation of the engine revolution. This sensor is not directly used to control the engine system. It is used only for the on board diagnosis.

The cam sensor is part of the distributor. These things eat distributors like crazy, so find a good spare and keep it. They're expensive, so hunt the junkyard and try to find one that looks new.

Noted, I'll keep the unit from the trashed engine around, just in case.

There seems to be a big hole where the engine used to go. Glad warmer weather is here.

Sweet!

Oh, I almost forgot to post this, then I remembered and got so aggravated I couldn't fall asleep.

The transmission dipstick is bolted to the back of the engine. You can see it in the picture above just below the heater core outlet.

The engine won't come out while the dipstick is bolted on, and you can't SEE that it is bolted on until you try to remove the engine and mangle it a bit.

Alright.

I did some research on the Axle code for the truck. I have axle code HG46, which should have a H233B axle with 4.636:1 gearing and 33 spline axles. The front is usually an R200 axle, and there are ways to tell if that is the case with this Xterra, but I've not looked yet.

I did this because the factory LSD seems a bit weak. I will probably want to rebuild it, but that's going to be a plan down the line. Instead, adding a front locker might make more sense.

I also ordered a timing belt kit. Why? Because the donor engine is finally out of the donor and waiting for it.

I had to employ the sawzall and a BFH to bend the metal out of the way when I was removing the engine. The metal had crumpled in such a way that it has sheared the top off of the power steering pump and was pinching the engine into place.

Mmmm... the power steering oil sprayed all over. Fun times.

Once I get the timing belt done, it is time to remove the intake on the donor engine and replace it with the intake from the original engine. I suspect I may also have to either move the exhaust from the 2004 over to the 2000 or try to remove the exhaust manifolds and switch those around, too. Guess which one I'm going to try?

While the intake is off, I am seriously considering replacing the knock sensor as well. It wasn't throwing a code, but they are a pain to get to. The Maxima guys will understand.

I started working on the donor engine a bit. The goal is to replace the timing belt, water pump, thermostat, camshaft gaskets and crankshaft gasket, and do a tune up before I put it in.

Thanks to Scotty B for pointing out the soft hose buried deep in the engine so I could replace it while it was out.

I didn't do any work on it this weekend, and I'm feeling a bit guilty about it. I've made a lot of progress and I think I've psyched myself out a bit with worry that I'll finish everything up, put it in the car and it won't work or it will grenade in a few hundred miles.

Alright. I got the timing belt changed in the donor engine, and I also replaced all of the coolant and vac lines that are in the back. While I was in there, I replaced the spark plugs. It seems like the #6 plug would almost be impossible to change with the engine in the car. I didn't do the wires or distributor, since those are possible while it is in the chassis. I also swapped over the front oxygen sensors since the connectors were different. I might regret that later, I probably should have just spliced the right connectors onto the newer sensors.

It seems like the engine is ready to go back into the chassis now. That's probably going to be an all day event. Once it is in, we'll see if I have to swap the intake over and how much of the exhaust is going to have to get swapped, too.

Alright, the least fun part of any engine replacement is in progress. The engine is in the chassis, but it isn't connected to anything. Getting everything aligned is going to be fun. I think I might have to take a trip to the hardware store to find a bolt big enough to start mating the engine to the transmission.

Find you a piece of all thread rod, I guess they make it in metric too? Makes mating motor to trans a breeze