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You've come to the right place! With some more information about budget, intended use of the vehicle, and so forth we can absolutely help to point you in the right direction and make some of those complicated terms as simple as possible for ya! To start off with some of those terms you mentioned, the strut clearance and backspacing are related. Basically when you put a larger tire on, (greater than 31 inch diameter), it will no longer fit around the suspension parts, since with the stock wheels and tires the strut is intended to overhang the back edge of the tire slightly. As such, a bigger tire and the strut will want to occupy the same space and of course this won't work. You can resolve this issue by settling with 31 inch tires, adding wheel spacers (at your own discretion; there is some debate on the safety of these items; not really a debate in my opinion, but again it depends on who you talk to), or changing the wheels themselves to ones with different offset so the tires stick out farther. Chances are for what it sounds like your budget and uses are going to be, I would think that a 2 inch spacer lift from a company like sfcreation.com and some used 31 inch tires should suit you well. (https://sfcreation.com/products/1-all-around-lift-kit-84f2baaa-8707-453a-8a8b-41fe2368d719 - lift on sale for $100 right now + $30 shipping to US) If the vehicle needs a suspension refresh anyways and you can swing the budget, some new struts and shocks with Old Man Emu springs will ride better, give better load carrying capability, and will be easier on the front CV axles when offroading. (If you want to look into that option, the springs would run about $320 + your choice of struts and shocks.) Hopefully that at least begins to simplify some things for you and maybe can get you thinking about some more questions you may have, as I said you've come to the right place and the great people on this forum will be happy to get you the information you need!

To elaborate on what mjotrainbrain said... to lift with springs changes all of the suspension geometry angles which affects all of the suspension attributes (bump steer and alignment for instance). And the limitation with this vehicle is the CV joint angles, which limit you to about 2.5" maximum. This also results in a suspension that has more compression than extension which causes another set of problems. When lifting by SFD, none of that is affected and the suspension can retain all of the stock characteristics while getting a lift. It's great. The only thing it doesn't improve is the ground clearance at the differentials, but that's the nature of the thing.... All in all, it's the better way to lift IMO.

That is a fantastic video. Well worth the 20 mins to watch. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That’s not a NEW engine, that’s a JDM replacement engine, supposed to be just under 50,000 miles.

Yea mjotrainbrain, I'm lucky where I live, rust ain't much of a problem here. It's to dry and they don't salt the roads.

Thanks for sharing the video, that is pretty amazing how well he cleaned those engine bays.

Hey everyone, I just joined. Im a momma thats doing some research to hook up my teenage son’s pathfinder for Christmas/his birthday. (& of course I have lifetime rights to take it offroad?). 2001 Pathfinder SE/stock. I want to lift it & put larger tires on it. Im on a major budget (Im searching the local used markets for wheels & gently used tires). lve been researching online but Im getting overwhelmed reading about strut clearance, back spacing, etc.

ChrisFix made a video on this topic. I haven't tried it, but it seems like a pretty good method.

97 Qx4 Mr Cox 96R50-97JR50

Yes, that'll work. At home, I just use a bottle degreaser, let it set a couple minutes, then just hose it off. At a spray-and-wash bay, I use the engine/tire degreaser and low pressure rinse. In both cases, I avoid any direct spray towards electrical parts and the air intake. Neither. Factory Service Manual. Unfortunately, I don't know if you'll be able to find a 1990 one online, but I know a 1993 one is available at https://nicoclub.com/archives/nissan-pathfinder-factory-service-manuals.html. It might get you closer than 3rd party manual even for the same year.

If the wheel bearings on the WD21 are anything like an R50, part of the assembly is a disk that threads into the spindle and has holes in it. Those holes align with something else and screws go through em. If you don't get the disk tightened down far enough the wheel bearings will be a little loose. It can be a bear to tighten it down until the next position where the holes align, but when you do it'll all be better. About 1500 miles after I did the bearings on my R50 I had to pull it apart and tighten it one more position, as the bearings had settled in while driving a little better than I could get em by hand.

I would just rebuild your current TD27 or as you've done find a good one. The TD engine is one of the most reliable on the planet, but they are prone to overheating if the cooling system is neglected. I'd buy a new radiator or have the old one flushed properly to avoid blowing the head on your new engine. I have the QD32ETI in my R50 Terrano and it's a great engine, heaps of power.

If it was, that has to be the worst wind tunnel in history