The Nissan Path

So neighbor needed help with his pathfinder. Got voluntold.
Anyway. Engine provided is different from old engine.
Manual trans 2002 to an auto provided motor with drive by wire unknown year

Figured I can swap upper and lower oil pans to get the crank sensors to swap.
Intake manifold looks like they swap ok so all harness will swap.
Swap front crank pulley for pickup

However
Bank 1 has a cam sensor mounting boss and the new motor doesn't have the
Spot for it drilled and tapped.
Question is Do the cam sprockets have the pickup for the sensor or am I out of luck.
Can I swap the front cover and all be good.

Any help appreciated.

Got the covers off both motors.
Tone wheel seems to be firmly attached to gear.
Can I swap the cam gear?
Anyone ever done this would hate to do all this work and it not run.

It sounds like he gave you a 2003 engine to put in. Electronic throttle started in 07/2002, which was the beginning of the 2003 model year. I guess you will have to swap the cams, but you may want to swap both intake cams. If you weren't elbows deep into the engine, already, I would've told you to tell your neighbor to get you the correct engine!

So are the cams different from drive by wire to regular throttle cable or just the gears?.

Yeah, my bad! Camshafts were the same on 2002 and 2003 VQ35DE engines. However, both intake cam gears AND exhaust cam gears changed part numbers at 07/2002. So, keep the cams and swap all of the cam gears over from the old engine. The rest of the timing chain components are the same (crank sprocket, chains, tensioners and guides).
There's another thing you'll need to do, since you are going from an auto trans engine to a manual trans application. There will be a steel spacer pressed into the back of the crank that supports the nose of the torque converter that will have to be removed. Then, you'll need to make sure there is a pilot bushing installed in the end of the crank for the front end of the manual transmission's input shaft. If not, make sure you install one before you put it together!

Took forever but it's done.
Donor motor had worn timing components so had to order those.
Variable timing gears from blown motor proved unuseable sourced some from pick n pull.
The only other thing that needed swapped was the rear coolant crossover pipe as it holds the temp gauge sensor on this model.
A ton of extra work.