Where under the hood is the heater inlet pipe?

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ShipFixer
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Re: Where under the hood is the heater inlet pipe?

Postby ShipFixer » Tue Feb 07, 2023 1:08 pm

Anyone else use these metal replacements for the heater inlet pipes from Wholesale? I am lazily getting around to flushing everything before re-asssembly, and the idea of cheap steel pipes for hot coolant seems to be trading one long term problem for another. Not 100% sure as I don't see red rust well, but the interior coating already looks questionable. I have the OEM Nissan part standing by too, just curious.


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Re: Where under the hood is the heater inlet pipe?

Postby ShipFixer » Tue Feb 07, 2023 2:31 pm

Yeeeaaaah theres some rust powder that comes out on my fingers. I'm leaning towards OEM after flushing...

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Re: Where under the hood is the heater inlet pipe?

Postby ShipFixer » Thu Feb 09, 2023 2:40 am

Misery. I can see one big plastic piece in the pipe bend right under the heater return to the radiator. Can't grab it. Going to try to finish up the heater core lines so I can pressurize with air and maybe blow it out. Big enough that worse case, it "should" just eventually get trapped in the radiator top tank, there's no way it will get through the fins. But it's there...

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Re: Where under the hood is the heater inlet pipe?

Postby palmerwmd » Thu Feb 09, 2023 5:54 pm

ShipFixer wrote:
Thu Feb 09, 2023 2:40 am
Misery. I can see one big plastic piece in the pipe bend right under the heater return to the radiator. Can't grab it. Going to try to finish up the heater core lines so I can pressurize with air and maybe blow it out. Big enough that worse case, it "should" just eventually get trapped in the radiator top tank, there's no way it will get through the fins. But it's there...
Wow :shock:

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Re: Where under the hood is the heater inlet pipe?

Postby ShipFixer » Thu Feb 09, 2023 8:10 pm

Hooray! Garden hose plus 150 psi compressor air for the win! Verified clear with borescope, now installing the Nissan part. Flushing with all the distilled water in the world later...

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Re: Where under the hood is the heater inlet pipe?

Postby ShipFixer » Fri Feb 10, 2023 3:07 pm

...and then the drain plug in my all aluminum radiator snapped on the last attempt to drain distilled water to fill with coolant. Argh!

Good news is everything else was working just great on water. Going to get whatever radiator is available today, so I can pull the CSF and have the plug removed, or tapped, etc.

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Re: Where under the hood is the heater inlet pipe?

Postby palmerwmd » Sun Feb 12, 2023 9:40 am

ShipFixer wrote:
Thu Feb 09, 2023 8:10 pm
Hooray! Garden hose plus 150 psi compressor air for the win! Verified clear with borescope, now installing the Nissan part. Flushing with all the distilled water in the world later...
thats great news! :D

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Re: Where under the hood is the heater inlet pipe?

Postby palmerwmd » Sun Feb 12, 2023 9:41 am

ShipFixer wrote:
Fri Feb 10, 2023 3:07 pm
...and then the drain plug in my all aluminum radiator snapped on the last attempt to drain distilled water to fill with coolant. Argh!

Good news is everything else was working just great on water. Going to get whatever radiator is available today, so I can pull the CSF and have the plug removed, or tapped, etc.
AArgh!
Arent those radiator a "b...h" to put in?
Maybe post up some pics of the process?

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Re: Where under the hood is the heater inlet pipe?

Postby ShipFixer » Sun Feb 12, 2023 2:54 pm

Ha...problem is, a lot of this is retreading where we've all previously been? For example, I looked at my fan clutch while I was in there, and found my exact same observations here from the last time I replaced it in ~2013 to be true. Turns about a quarter or a third of the way when I flick it, and my mpg is down to about where it was. So I have a new OEM clutch coming. Can't complain, this is like another ~100K miles down the road. I'm going to try to do the oil replacement thing with the one that's in there now...but after I put a brand new OEM one in.

For the radiator, I referred back to the same threads here and the really good guide over on NewX (I think). I forgot to remove the brackets in place so that took some time, but then when I went back to the guides it went as smooth as it can.

Yes...the rad removal and replacement is fussy. In ship design, we have a few ship classes now where we designed them with modern 3D software (CATIA in our case), and we modeled humans of various sizes removing and replacing components (valves, pumps, motors, etc.). You could actually do some of these things in big simulators (late 2000's time frame). So now in a couple classes of ships it's vastly easier to remove and replace things than it was on older ones, where "How do we put it together?" was worked out on paper in design but never "How do we pull it back apart?" And we can show that in overall manpower reductions for the life cycle of the ship, because it's less of a PITA to fix things. Lots of things are done this way now, particularly airliners which kind of led the way for 3D product models.

The front end of the Pathfinder could have been a lot better for access, particularly the physical layout of the A/C piping, battery tray, radiator, fan shroud, etc. I can see where it probably works great in assembly that first time. Hope newer Nissans were designed better for maintainability. I get tired of doing things where it's not so much the core thing, like hooking up the radiator, but removing all of the interferences to get there.

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Re: Where under the hood is the heater inlet pipe?

Postby palmerwmd » Sun Feb 12, 2023 3:52 pm

ShipFixer wrote:
Sun Feb 12, 2023 2:54 pm
where it's not so much the core thing, like hooking up the radiator, but removing all of the interferences to get there.
I trust myself in unscrewing a raditor out of its brackets hooking up hoses and reinsterting and rescrewing in.
What puts the fear in me is the specter of all the other accessory to be removed and reinstalled.
So many opportunities ot screw things up and I amdit i paid a professionla when I had my rad replaced.

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Re: Where under the hood is the heater inlet pipe?

Postby ShipFixer » Sun Feb 12, 2023 7:04 pm

To the same point, I got the all-aluminum CSF so I would never have to change my radiator again... :roll: The flip side of the interference work though, is not all shops are going to be careful with all of these things as if its their own car. When I had my timing chain re-done by Nissan a couple years ago, they corrected some damage done by another Nissan shop, which is no longer open but at the time was highly reputable. And I've never had my plastic body parts come back put together just so, from anywhere. I end up re-assembling the front spoilers, wheel well covers, etc. anyway. In the end, what can you do?

So far I justify all of this work on the basis that it's cheaper than a car payment, and there's nothing I really want more than my Pathfinder. And my VFR makes any four wheeled vehicle feel dumb anyway. The heater inlet piping was the one thing on my watch list and now that's gone. But...I was lucky that was ~2 miles from home, and I am often crossing the high desert or something during the summer here.

This may be the year I break down and get the Ford Explorer ST, which seems to be the only thing that ticks all the boxes for me. The Explorer Limited would be a "parallel" move from the Pathfinder, losing some 4WD capability I no longer use but giving me the same capacity internal storage for bikes and boards. The ST would be an upgrade with room for yet more upgrades (intercooler, springs, etc.).

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Re: Where under the hood is the heater inlet pipe?

Postby palmerwmd » Sun Feb 12, 2023 9:05 pm

ShipFixer wrote:
Sun Feb 12, 2023 7:04 pm

This may be the year I break down and get the Ford Explorer ST, which seems to be the only thing that ticks all the boxes for me. The Explorer Limited would be a "parallel" move from the Pathfinder, losing some 4WD capability I no longer use but giving me the same capacity internal storage for bikes and boards. The ST would be an upgrade with room for yet more upgrades (intercooler, springs, etc.).
I am currently eyeing the R53.
The SV with the Rock Creek package is surpsignly reasonably priced for todays market and gets very good reviews. (and has that trusty VQ35 in it!)

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Re: Where under the hood is the heater inlet pipe?

Postby VStar650CL » Mon Feb 13, 2023 10:57 am

palmerwmd wrote:
Sun Feb 12, 2023 9:05 pm
I am currently eyeing the R53.
The SV with the Rock Creek package is surpsignly reasonably priced for todays market and gets very good reviews. (and has that trusty VQ35 in it!)
Yes, and it isn't your grandpa's VQ. DGI and electric IVT's, among other things. Really nice power, but do remember to decarbon it periodically like any DGI. :wink:

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Re: Where under the hood is the heater inlet pipe?

Postby palmerwmd » Mon Feb 13, 2023 6:04 pm

VStar650CL wrote:
Mon Feb 13, 2023 10:57 am
palmerwmd wrote:
Sun Feb 12, 2023 9:05 pm
I am currently eyeing the R53.
but do remember to decarbon it periodically like any DGI. :wink:


How expensive is that at the average dealer and does the average dealer know how to do it properly?

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Re: Where under the hood is the heater inlet pipe?

Postby VStar650CL » Mon Feb 13, 2023 9:36 pm

You're better off doing it yourself. I do it for my DGI customers with every new air filter, it requires exactly 1 teaspoon of tranny fluid (any kind). Warm up fully, pop any handy vacuum hose (brake booster on most models) and cap it with your thumb, have an assistant raise RPM to 3500~4000, dump or squirt the ATF into the hose. Voila, no more carbon.


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