Hi everyone. I'm new to this forum. I've been reading a lot of great posts and articles here, and basically learning more about my 96 Pathfinder. I am planning on changing out my leaky valve cover gaskets. The worst one seems to be the one on the driver's side. It looked pretty intimidating at first due to the intake setup blocking everything, but after reading some articles and looking at the service manual, I think I can attempt it. I have some questions though.

1) For the Pathfinder, I noticed the valve cover is held on by some phillips head screws. In the service manual it says to torque to 9-26 inch pounds. How tight is that if I am just doing by hand with a screwdriver?

2) Is there a correct order to screw on the valve cover screws/bolts? I couldn't find much advice about the valve cover in the FSM.

3) The FSM suggests draining the coolant by removing the two engine block coolant drains. Is that the best way of draining the coolant for this project?

I'd really appreciate any other tips. I'm basically a newbie at working on cars. So any advice will be useful!

I was looking at the radiator drain plug today. I noticed it sits right on top of a metal frame. How do I access it to drain the coolant?

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think you need to drain the coolant to replace the valve cover gaskets. Can anyone else verify this?

When you unscrew the valve covers note how hard it is turn turn the screws off, 9-26 in lbs is 3/4 of a foot lb not much torque, but with a phillip head screw them down until tight, then stop. Order is not that important with a valve cover especially with phillip head screws. But if you are concerned criss cross then at each end and side.

If the drain is not easily reached drain the rad via the bottom rad hose by taking it off. If you do drain by the rad hose leave the drain c*** alone because it is already seized up.

The lower hose will be tight, not with the spring clip but the hose itself will be stuck on.. Use water pump pliers in a careful way to move the hose slightly around the rad nipple. If the hose is soft and easily squashed replace it. Make sure you have a catch basin big enough for 2 gallons and clean up the spill. Animals will drink that crap and it is deadly to the kidneys and causes blindness. I t has glycol which tastes sweet. Wash the area down when through.

Thanks for the advice about installing the valve covers.

I think I will definitely have to try to remove the lower radiator hose since the drain plug is so hard to access.

In the FSM, it states to drain the engine block instead of the radiator, is there any difference?
I took a look at the engine block coolant drains, and they seem difficult for my hands to get to.

Every so often if you try something different that what the book states things can go better. As far as changing coolant by removing the lower rad hose it is the norm. The petcock jams up very early in life and playing with it to do the change over is just too expensive and time consuming.

It took time, but many sites about maintenance now write up the job the way I have been doing it for 12 years. And with the lower rad hose removed it just happens to be at the lower end of the internal cooling chamber. So removing that lower rad hose has 2 affects. It gets you to dump the rad, easier if rad cap is off and it dumps coolant form the motor, easier if the top breather is open.

Remember that filling will have air trapped internally that MUST be removed and allowed to escape by the top breather orifice.

It is best to use long life coolant and distilled water, then this job can be done every 5 years.

When empty examine the internal rad look for plaque build up on the small channels. If you only use distilled water there will be no build up.

NEVER TOP UP FROM A GARDEN HOSE, NO TAP WATER. If your coolant system is kept clean internally and externally you should never have to top up as long as you have been servicing it regularly.

Note the external fins especially at the top and bottom joints.

Thanks for the advice. I removed the lower radiator hose. It actually came off pretty easily. I started the process of unhooking all of the electrical and hoses from the upper intake. When I removed the coolant hose from the intake a bunch of the coolant dumped out from the lower radiator hose. Unfortunately, half dumped onto my floor since my bucket wasn't positioned perfectly. I've been soaking it up with paper towels to avoid too much running into the street.

Right now, I have been attempting to unbolt the large nut on the EGR valve. It's rusted and I haven't been able to get it off. I've been using a crescent wrench and I sprayed it last night with PB Blaster. I'm hoping after soaking for a day it will come off easier. Do you guys have any advice for getting this nut off?

So, I got the upper intake off, and I got the two valve covers off. I'm currently in the process of trying to remove the old valve cover gaskets. They're pretty hard and stuck in the groove really tight.

After removing the upper intake though, I noticed one of the hoses that had been attached to the back of the intake has a slit about an inch long starting from the end of the hose. I don't want to replace the hose since it is so hard to get to it.

How do I know if I have to replace it?

for the right side, did you guys have to take off the fuel line to the injectors?

I'm pretty sure I never took off a fuel line. Right now I'm putting the two valve covers back on. I'm just screwing them on until each screw is fairly snug.

So I am getting ready to refill the coolant, but I can't get the air release bolt/bleeder off. It seems stuck pretty good.

Is there any other way to get the air out?

Will filling the radiator and then running my heater work to get the air out?

Right now I reconnected the lower hose and opened the radiator cap.