Paul,

I'm about as new as they come, but wasn't there some history about the cooling system rupturing/co-mingling with the tranny? What does your transmission fluid and its level look like?

Waldo1

 

You are half right Waldo, the transmission contamination happens with 2nd gen Frontiers. To my knowledge it's not a documented issue with 1st gen trucks.

 

Check the passenger side floor mats and make sure it isn't a heater leak. Check the coolant hoses around the plenum/ upper intake manifold, there are 1 or 2 two at the back and I think only 1 near the front.

 

Thsnk you for all the responses.
In my haste I neglected to mention its a manual transmission truck so I don't think that is happening and as for the heater leak, the heater is currently bypassed because the plastic outlet tube for the heater core broke off last month and I have been avoiding replacing it. It seems to be a terrrible job. Therefore I can safely say we can rule out those two ideas.

I am going to start to reassemble the truck today praying it was the intake manifold gaskets. I am really struggling with the cause being head gaskets because I am not seeing any indication of it. The plugs look great and for losing a galllon of collant in 60 miles I have absolutely no driveability issues. No hard starting, no hesitation, no loss of power nothing.

Keep your fingers crossed and pray for me. I need all the help I can get. LOL.

I am also going to do the knock sensor but since I have the whole thing apart I am just going to reroute the factory harness rather than splice in a new one. This way I don't have to cut any wires and get the same effect.

 

I have the exact same situation. I did my timing belt for the second time last year after noticing coolant loss. I have on occasion noticed a small puddle on the ground under the power steering container. It looks like the puddle you get from the a/c running. I remember the small hose on the back of the intake was a pain to replace, but that was done. So was the small elbow hose in the front that must be done during the timing belt repair.

Good luck in finding the problem. I'll post any of my findings as well.

 

It's "fairly" common on these 1st gen frony's that the intake manifold gasket can fail and cause a coolant leak, My 1st fronty leaked into the oil in trace amounts found only in EOA, However your loosing a large amount of AF.

So i'm a lil' stumped as to where all your AF is going, but your on the right track.





Best of luck

 

Thank you all for the responses.
First I have to say WHAT A PAIN IN ARSE. I have been working no cars all my life and that intake manifold has to be the worse I have ever seen.
I will not do that job again. I wll pay somebody for that one. Took me all of a 3 day weekend. I spent some of it chasing parts at the local dealerships when it became clear that some of the exsting intake bolts and such were not going to be able to be reused.
I ended up having to futz with the plenum several times to deal with those stupid hoses on the back side (who's bright idea was that?)and then a clearance issue on some clamps. I replaced all of the spring clamps wiht good worm drive ones but ran into issues with them hitting the top of the valve cover.
The factory service manual is good but just seemed a bit lacking at times.
I also struggled with the torque specs for the intake manifold bolts and nuts. They seemed extremely light almost just finger tight. I couldn't follow them I had to use experience in this case and make them a bit tighter.
The Blue Devil appeared all over my engine after this adventure. If it could be disassembled and resealed with the Blue RTV it was.
All seems to be good for now so I am keeping my fingers crossed.
As an extra thought it seems that my idea for the KS worked well. I moved it to the front boss on the plemun and tapped the hole for a 1/4-20 screw to hold the sensor.