Hi all! First time posting, long time lurking.

I'm taking the PathFinder on a couple hour trip in the morning to pick up my first 3rd gen Max. It's an SE, misses on two cylinders, has a lot of rust, and from the looks of it needs a lot of stuff put back to original. I've got the tow dolly and cash, so unless something completely unforeseen happens, it'll be in my parking lot tomorrow.



From what I'm reading, a lot of people have problems with shorted out coils and injectors blowing FET's in the ECU. I should be able to repair just about anything electrical or electronic on it. The body is going to need some help. The rust on the underside is rather scaly. Fortunately, I can weld and paint just fine, too.

I already have an 02 Maxima SE 6-speed (for sale, by the way!), but to be honest, the 3rd generation is the style I like better. I have an 01 Altima that I turbocharged, and it's the fastest and most silly fun car I've ever owned. I simply love the humble but sophisticated look.

Anyway, I always try to make a project log for things like this. I hope the moderators consider the idea of making a project logs category.

 

It's home. (= The frame and body are actually in pretty good shape. I thought there would be a lot of rust. Here's what I have found so far.

The middle fuel injectors don't seem to be doing anything. I'm going to try to probe them in the garage to find out why, but it seems to be a common problem. There's a random unknown wire with (I think) 12v coming out of it. I cut the end, but I don't know why it's there. It's a bodge or bypass of some kind. *shrug*

Also, after idling for a little while, all of a sudden it had valvetrain sound on the back. If the RPM's go really low (500-ish), the rattle stops, so I kinda suspect bad lifters.