[Kelso840]

Pretty much done and it turns over but won't start. I can hear the fuel pump prime, confirmed spark, confirmed plug wire locations on the dizzy. Maybe the distributor is stabbed 180 off? I did remove it.

If/when I get it running I'll throw in some coolant and pray that it doesn't leak somewhere that means I need to tear it all down again.

I've got two mystery plugs that don't have a home. One went to the (now deleted) EGR and the other is truly unknown. I also have my knock sensor floating in space until I mount it somewhere more accessible.

 

[Kelso840]

It runs! Had to manually set the timing using the crank bolt and then stab the distributor with the rotor as close to where the cylinder #1 plug post would be on the cap. Boom.

There was a TERRIBLE knocking sound when I first fired it up. Like, a bolt in the cylinder sound. Turns out I left the ratchet on the crank bolt and at was having a little concert down there. Once it fell off it ran like a dream.

There's a little dead spot if you come into the throttle too hard. Wonder if I need to adjust the distributor some more. I set it close to the middle because I don't know which direction is advance/retard.

 

[butterman2473]

Bad azz!🤘
Glad you're up and runnin!

 

[Kelso840]

Just drove it a couple miles. Holds temp and doesn't seem to be leaking any coolant.

I think it's a little peppier? Definitely not an earthshattering performance improvement (expected) and I can't hear any blower sounds which is a shame.

Also confirmed a knock sensor code so I'll have to do the relocation mod and see if it goes away. Otherwise I'll be looking into the supercharger bypass delete mod people seem to have had success with.

 

[Kelso840]

Ordered a new knock sensor from RockAuto.

Mine is reading ~315k ohms and I believe I'm supposed to be seeing ~500k ohms resistance? The outside housing is cracked so it's not a bad idea to replace regardless.

 

[Kelso840]

Where is Torque getting the MAP readings from? Do y'all think this 9.7psi is a realistic value?

I was suprised to see vacuum turn into boost today while driving. Still don't feel any boost whatsoever while I'm waiting for my knock sensor.

 

[Kelso840]

Installed the new knock sensor, cleared codes, and still no performance improvement. Confirmed the only codes are EGR related which makes sense because I just removed all that.

Hmm..... Has anyone been here before? Is this what makes people do a supercharger bypass delete?

 

[Kelso840]

Why has my last post not been approved by moderation? It's already an echo chamber in here!

I found lots of good information on an xterra website which led me to expose the lower port on the bypass valve to atmosphere. Now I've got the typical "spoons in the engine" sound of a faulty bypass valve. New part has been ordered.

 

[Kelso840]

...Bueller? Bueller??

Hit my truck with a timing light and learned it was at 0 degrees. Bumped that up to 15 degrees BTDC and now it's is downright spritely. There's actually a reason to put your foot into it.

Not sure about gas mileage, I'm sure it's worse. I do know premium gas was like $0.70 more expensive today.

Why did I do this again? Just kidding.... it's fun. Wish I could hear the blower more though!

Edit: This is the info I wanted to include in a post lost to moderation.... Note #2 which applies to NA vehicles was something I needed to read

SC Swap list:
What you need working from the Throttle body to the SC to the heads and down

-Throttle, for backup, plus throttle cable. (plus MAF for backup)
-Brake Booster Line (slightly different shape and possibly different valve location)
-Intake tube (from throttle to blower, plus all the tubing connected under the intake, (vacuum and coolant hoses)
-pcv valve and hose from SC see note 1
-Blower and attached bypass valve
-Intake adapter
-Fuel Rail and injectors with it. (pull the fuel rail, injectors are attached to the rail, and grab all the little o-rings and plastic spacers)
-Intake manifold

-Boost Control Solenoid (BCS) ..................see note 2
-Pulley Bridge for AC/blower plus belt if it looks okay.
-A/C Compressor (ACC) .............see note 3
-Harmonic Balancer ...............see note 3
-ECM .............note 4
..........................................................................................................................................................................................
..........................................................................................................................................................................................
-Note 1: The PCV valve on the NA motor is attached directly to the intake plenum, on the SC engine it's attached to the passenger side valve cover. You can either pull the cover or make a homemade PCV line with two pieces of tubing. The homemade line is what I did and it runs fine.
..........................................................................................................................................................................................
-Note 2: You don't actually NEED the BCS, the reason I put it on the list is for people that don't want a constant Check Engine Light (CEL). If you swap the ECM, and you should, it will look for the BCS and when it doesn't see it, it will throw a code for serial link fault and/or turbo something or other. For daily operation it is absolutely fine to run the blower from only vacuum and atmospheric pressure to regulate the blower bypass. You will want to make sure you always run quality 92+ octane though as the ECM will have no way of limiting the boost if it needs to go into limp mode (ie for misfire or knocking).
..........................................................................................................................................................................................
-Note 3: I've been told from someone who did the swap before me that you can run the S/C off the stock balancer and ac compressor by using a GM belt. I have more recently heard that the pulleys (NA and SC) are different sizes on the balancer and will cause a different pulley ratio for the blower. You can measure this to confirm, I have not. That being said it is recommended that you use the 6 rib balancer and ACC pulley, especially if you upgrade pulley sizes or switch to a solid coupler (which almost every reman kit uses).
..........................................................................................................................................................................................
-Note 4: Regarding the ECM, I've been told the NA ECM will run the blower fine, but very rich at idle. If you drive almost all highway it wouldn't be a problem but if you do any real amount of stop and go or city driving (or offroading) it's recommended to get the SC ECM so you aren't running a rich idle, plus the fuel maps are designed for boost. I've heard from other sources that the NA ECM can act ufcky when it sees boost. My suggestion is to swap to the SC ECM Either way you will get a CEL, the above mentiond BCS or a EGR Valve for 02-04 NA ECMs.
..........................................................................................................................................................................................
Note 5: Unless you get a fresh reman SC, and I don't know if they are available, you will most certainly need whatever donor SC you find rebuilt, either yourself or sent out. If you do it yourself the Cobalt SS uses the same inner parts according to what I've read in the D22 SC group. My rotors weren't bad enough for me to send them out or to buy new. I personally got a full rebuild kit from the UK and only needed to replace the coupler, oil and needle bearings. If you are comfortable with engines and porting/polishing you can follow some youtube videos to learn how to port and polish the blower so it runs more efficiently and slightly cooler. Be careful though, if you widen the outlet too much you'll lose boost, if you widen it just enough you'll run a bit cooler.
..........................................................................................................................................................................................
Note 5a: If you rebuild the blower yourself, DO NOT drain the oil anywhere except a garage, shed or outside. The used oil is by far the worst smelling substance on planet earth. This is NOT an over exaggeration
..........................................................................................................................................................................................
Note 6:
You can use a UHMWPE intake spacer for an NA motor for the SC, you just need to modify it slightly to fit the SC pattern, i've seen the pics of this myself. You'll need longer bolts for the intake adapter and possibly a body lift (or cut a hole in the hood)
..........................................................................................................................................................................................
Note 7: I only had this happen to 1 bolt during my entire install, but one of my intake bolts yielded during install and nearly broke off in the intake manifold. Make sure you inspect all the bolts you pull and tighten everything in 3 phases even if the FSM doesn't say to. Finger tight, 1/2 spec, full spec.

 

[silverarrow27]

You can hear the blower more if you went with an aftermarket short ram intake if I remember reading some threads on here. I'm keeping my truck as factory as possible in the engine bay. Don't have as much time as I use to tinkering with my vehicles...

Btw, welcome to clubfrontier from club-s12 ; ) I'm sure you're still on club-s12 since you still have yours.

 

[Kelso840]

You can hear the blower more if you went with an aftermarket short ram intake if I remember reading some threads on here. I'm keeping my truck as factory as possible in the engine bay. Don't have as much time as I use to tinkering with my vehicles...

Btw, welcome to clubfrontier from club-s12 ; ) I'm sure you're still on club-s12 since you still have yours.

Ayyyy! There's still a few of us kicking around on club-s12. Not nearly as many as I'd like though.

You're wise to preserve that stock goodness. I greatly enjoyed it while it lasted.

I'll look into a cold air intake that doesn't look too janky. We do have way too many things coming off of the stock snout.

 

[smj999smj]

Ayyyy! There's still a few of us kicking around on club-s12. Not nearly as many as I'd like though.

You're wise to preserve that stock goodness. I greatly enjoyed it while it lasted.

I'll look into a cold air intake that doesn't look too janky. We do have way too many things coming off of the stock snout.

I went with a K&N CAI kit on my 2003 VG33ER. It definitely made it louder and actually seemed to run better. Nissan really overdid it with all of those resonators on the intake tube! It was also pretty inexpensive, especially compared to the aFe system.

 

[Kelso840]

I went with a K&N CAI kit on my 2003 VG33ER. It definitely made it louder and actually seemed to run better. Nissan really overdid it with all of those resonators on the intake tube! It was also pretty inexpensive, especially compared to the aFe system.

You talking about the $200 job like this? Idk if I can bring myself to spend that much. I'm eyeballing the < $100 units.

K&N 57-6005 K&N 57 Series FIPK Air Intakes | Summit Racing

Free Shipping - K&N 57 Series FIPK Air Intakes with qualifying orders of $99. Shop Air Intake Kits at Summit Racing.

www.summitracing.com

Side note: Put about 150 miles highway miles on the truck today and didn't see a decrease in fuel economy compared to naturally aspirated. I also gambled with mid grade fuel for this trip (gasp!). Still feels like all my pistons are intact.

 

[smj999smj]

You talking about the $200 job like this? Idk if I can bring myself to spend that much. I'm eyeballing the < $100 units.

K&N 57-6005 K&N 57 Series FIPK Air Intakes | Summit Racing

Free Shipping - K&N 57 Series FIPK Air Intakes with qualifying orders of $99. Shop Air Intake Kits at Summit Racing.

www.summitracing.com

Side note: Put about 150 miles highway miles on the truck today and didn't see a decrease in fuel economy compared to naturally aspirated. I also gambled with mid grade fuel for this trip (gasp!). Still feels like all my pistons are intact.

Yeah, that's the one. I think I got mine on-sale for around $200 about 5-years ago; now, they're selling closer to $300. It does come with a heat shield and a place to mount the air temp sensor. I wouldn't recommend a short ram without a heat shield as that engine compartment gets kinda hot and then you'll still need to find a place for the air temp sensor. Don't gamble with the fuel and stick with 91 or better octane.

 

[Kelso840]

Don't gamble with the fuel and stick with 91 or better octane.

So far so good on this front. Idk how often I'll go 89 octane but knowing myself it will continue to happen. I don't drive too hard, and I have a spare engine. I may back off on the timing a bit since it's got the higher compression NA pistons.

My eBay headers just arrived to replace stock manifolds that sound cracked on the passenger side.

 

[Kelso840]

Started installing the ebay headers on Friday and didn't expect to be the "cat" to be connected to the exhaust manifold. Every other vehicle I've seen has these as two pieces. Definitely making my life more difficult. Also, the lower section is completely hollow. Idk if it's already been replaced once?

I gave up for the day after getting all the manifold nuts out except this one behind the o2 sensor. Picking up a 22mm wrench and getting back after it at a later date.

Spent a good hour or so trying to kill this stud and nut connecting the driver's side to the Y pipe. Completely cooked my milwaukee rotary tool in the process. When you put the battery in it goes to full tilt regardless of on/off switch position or RPM setting. It was a mighty smoke show.

Passenger side is completely done so hopefully I'm in the home stretch.

 

[Cloudy]

If your headers are anything like mine , your computer will not like the o2 sensor placement for the main sensor , the bung that it screws into is too tall and doesn't place the sensor into the exhaust stream , of course i found this out AFTER i went through all the trouble to install mine and get the exhaust pipes hooked up and had a terrible exhaust fume problem and when i looked at my fuel trims they were wildly swinging back and fourth from rich to lean from 0 to 5 to 7 + numbers and the same 0 to 5 to 7 neg numbers !! so that's when i decided to put the secondary cats on and when i pulled the main pipes off of the header is when i seen the o2 sensor wasn't in the exhaust stream and that's when i realized why the fuel trims were so crazy ,, i really didn't want to pull the headers back off to figure out how cut the bungs down ,,but i would have if the cat`s didn't work to calm down the fumes ,,, but they worked and the fuel trims calmed down to just flipping back and fourth 2 to 3 on the + numbers and the same 2 to 3 neg numbers ,,, i`m looking at some exhaust pipes with cats on ebay similar to the ones you just took off but they are tubular manifolds and not cast manifolds like yours because if i have to pull the headers back off i`m just going with those ,, my truck seem`s to like that style set up with the secondary cats deleted better than the way it is right now but of course i dont have any way to tune the computer to solve the wild fuel trims issue

 

[Kelso840]

I got both headers on today after much fussing. Probably 6-10 hours into the job over the course of the last week.

If you have two piece exhaust manifold / primary cats like I did you'll be wise to remove the throttle body and master cylinder so you have room to bring the manifold up and out from the top. You will also want to remove the heat shield on the cat if you can. I wound up cutting off the section of the heat shield that was hitting the valve covers and not allowing it to be removed. Creativity is required.

Last item is to either find a driver's side 02 sensor with the longer wire to run on the passenger side or I'll try extending the wires on the one I just pulled off.

 

[Kelso840]

Lengthened the wires on the passenger 02 sensor and superglued the broken plug. Should be good for another 130k miles. No perceptible change to exhaust note, and thankfully no major rasp anywhere in the RPM range on my brief drive home from the shop. Can't say for certain that this mod is worth it unless you've got an exhaust leak.

Passenger side:

Driver side w/ EGR plug:

 

[Kelso840]

Next item is to install the supercharger ECU to see if it clears up the rich idle and poor throttle response off idle. The truck will almost stall when I floor it from idle which I'm guess is from a rich condition. Only happens when it's warmed up.

HOWEVER..... I really want to avoid the check engine light you get from an AT ecu in an MT truck, so I'm wondering if I can figure out what voltage the gear position sensor feeds the ECU when it's in drive and find another source to supply that ECU pin. I'm willing to put it on a switch or delay somewhere because I doubt the truck will start while it thinks it's in drive. TRICKERY!

Thankfully I still have an automatic Xterra in my fleet, so push comes to shove I could pull the ECU and see what's coming out of the harness at that pin. I would much prefer to find it somewhere on a pinout though.

Haven't done too much research into this but it's the next project. Feel free to drop any useful resources you may have saved in this thread.