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Chasing 1998 Frontier Oil Leak Forums > > Chasing 1998 Frontier Oil Leak Chasing 1998 Frontier Oil Leak
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Frontier Nissan Frontier/HB/Truck Discussion Forum

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Old 02-17-2015, 04:54 AM
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Cusser Cusser is offline
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2004 Frontier King Cab
1998 Pathfinder
1998 Frontier
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 258
Default Chasing 1998 Frontier Oil Leak

Today, with the day off and weather nice, it was reserved for my 1998 4-cylinder, 5-speed Nissan Frontier with 198.5K miles, as I’m chasing an oil leak. We'd bought this in 2004 with 100K for my kids to drive, and now it's been returned to us.

I had re-sealed the oil pan a few weeks ago (RTV, no gasket), but that was just one source of oil leakage. I thought it was time to bolt on the oil pump ($30 shipped) and valve cover gasket ($9 shipped) that I had recently purchased.


This is the old oil pump, only difficult part is that it shares a little drive shaft with the distributor rotor, so I marked the TDC mark on the pulley with white paint, and rotated the engine to TDC #1 using a 27mm socket and a ½-inch ratchet. So one needs to make sure that the shaft is fully seated while the engine and rotor are still at TDC #1 , matching the slot in the oil pump to the tab on that drive shaft so it seats all the way. And remember to prime that new oil pump with some fresh engine oil, important. Four long bolts (12mm socket) hold that oil pump to the engine. I jacked up the passenger side to help ensure that my recent oil change didn’t need to be re-done, tipped the oil over to driver side.


Once that was completed, I removed the valve cover; I got to use my wobbly extension set from HF tools, as well as my old but trusty 10mm swivel-socket to readily get to some of the VC bolts. The valve cover and a small under-cover rubber gasket were pretty firm from age and heat. I doubt that the VC had ever been removed before. I also thought that this would be a good time to check the spark plugs, but I could not get the socket onto the #1 spark plug down in the recess, even with the valve cover removed.


There’s a hard black something about 1/3 of the way around (from about the 11 o'clock position to the 3 o'clock position in the photo when looking down into the recess), prevents socket from getting down enough. I tried briefly trying to hit and break that black plastic up for removal, hitting a long screwdriver with a hammer, but stopped as I was afraid of breaking the spark plug’s porcelain and being really screwed !!!


The spark plug #1 harness was not damaged correspondingly, so I’m stumped and looking for suggestions. Anyway, the other 3 plugs looked OK, so maybe I should just ignore that #1 .

I had to use some RTV to hold the valve cover gasket in place as I had it moving into position, as the gasket would drop without it. Maybe that’s why the Felpro ones are fully three times the price for this.

I did have to plastic-weld a plastic fitting back onto the air cleaner housing using my HF plastic welding kit, seemed to work real well; the rubber hose to it from the valve cover was original and pretty firm and stuck from 17 years of Arizona heat and 198.5K miles, I wasn't apparently careful enough.

Anyway, not sure if I really helped the oil leak significantly, time will tell, but I think that’s all I can do. The whole increase in leakage may be due to my change about 1.5 years ago to multiweight oil from straight 40W, but that’s getting tougher to find, and certainly not on the Pep Boys oil blowout sales.

I guess if the oil leak continues and bothers me, maybe I’ll just let my mechanic try his touch, not much more I can do…..
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Old 02-24-2015, 04:39 AM
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Cusser Cusser is offline
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2004 Frontier King Cab
1998 Pathfinder
1998 Frontier
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 258
Default

I used wobble extension on some of the Frontier's valve cover bolts, a new tool for me (set from Harbor Freight).

Woo, woo - bought a new tool today: I picked up a 1/4-inch click-type torque wrench at Harbor Freight ($11.99) after work, the little brother of the 3/8-inch one I used to rebuild my B2200 engine 3.5 years ago (can't believe it was that long ago, and 20K miles). Tough to go wrong buying a new tool.
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Well, I did get the ignition timing thrown off, but way faster to re-do the oil pump than the first time. So through the whole rotation of the distributor, the spark mark (with timing light) is way after where it should be, cannot adjust by rotating the distributor.


Anyway, I have decided since firing order on the Frontier is 1-3-4-2 that I can use the #4 TDC instead, and turn the oil pump gear as needed to get the timing in place. That gear apparently engages with a crankshaft gear so one can "fix" that. So I need to advance how that gear engages. Thank goodness for having a timing light. Unfortunately, I may need to get another oil pump gasket ($1.50 at O'Reilly), don't think that removing the distributor now will help me. But I'm learning a lot, got to get it running right before I worry about oil leaks.
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OK, I learned that the TDC mark on the pulley was actually pretty good indicator of TDC (I removed #4 plug and turned engine to confirm this).

Anyway, I ended up pulling the distributor on the Frontier, not too difficult, but 2 bolts for hold-down/adjustment. Then I installed the oil pump with the gear lined up correctly while in #1 TDC, then installed the distributor (the rotor is indexed to the half-moon on the gear from the oil pump, can only go on one way. No, I did not replace the distributor seal, I'll worry about that later. I adjusted the timing, took it around the block, it runs fine again, yoo-hoo !!!

Are you going to ask if the oil pump is leaking now? I don't know yet. But the oil pan is definitely leaking, and I used Permatex RTV on this a month ago, so I'm pi$$ed. So I think I'm going to try a FelPro oil pan gasket, $11 at O'Reilly; pan removal is easier on this than on a B-truck, no steering stuff or "gussets" to remove, just one crossbar (four bolts) and the oil pan bolts. And I'll get to use my new 1/4-drive torque wrench again. After that I'll likely try the UV dye for oil systems I bought.
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Well, it seems like the oil pump was the source of most of the oil leak. It "may" still be leaking out some of the four bolts though, so I may pull those bolts one-at-a-time and put some sealant on the bolt heads, I think some of you recommend blue Loctite for that. Because the gasket should prevent any oil leakage getting in the bolt hole passageways; perhaps the threaded part of the case goes all the way through into the oil cavity, I didn't think in advance to stick anything in there to see if it bottomed out.

So I almost called it "good enough". The oil filter (above the pressure sending unit) and the sending unit are NOT leaking, got great view with passenger fender cover off. So I decided "why not" and pulled the pan. Of course the toughest part is scraping away old RTV; I scraped, also used a wire wheel in a portable drill to clean RTV off the valve cover, then I hosed it clean and dried it. The FelPro oil pan gasket was good quality, fit the pan perfectly. I lightly coated the gasket with Permatex Aviation (brown goo) as at least that dissolves in alcohol and would not ever need scraping. I wasn't sure how tightly to torque the pan bolts when using a gasket, went to 55 inch-pounds. Anyway, will check for leaks after a week to see, had it running like 10 minutes so far.

I also tightened the power steering belt, these frontiers are known for squealing belts on start up.
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