parrish

I'd also replace the uppers while you are at it. On my 2001 the uppers were in worse condition than the lowers. It's not much more work to get the uppers off anyway (they are actually easier than the lowers). Just be prepared to have to cut the bolts that hold the lower arms to the axle. The rest of the bolts should come off without too much work- assuming you have a nice big breaker bar and lots of PB Blaster. As far as getting the old bushings out- I took my control arms up to a local auto shop and they got them out for me quick and easy and only charged me $20. But you'll be making a couple trips back and forth- if you take out all the arms at once you are going to have a heck of a time getting the axle back in place- so only do one side at a time. As far as the bushings- I used the set of split pushing and they are working perfectly. They are very easy to install- just use some grease and a rubber mallet to tap them and the insert in to the arms. One other thing, if you do end up needing to cut the bolts off holding the lower arms to the axle I found that you can use a set of Grade 8 9/16 bolts instead of the Grade 10.9 metrics as replacements.

If the ticking were at the top of the engine then I'd have to say flapping power valves from the power valve loose screw problem (which is a bad problem to have!). But, the sound would be up near the plenum or so.

One can never have enough power.

Black Swan by Thom Yorke (sounds a whole lot like Radiohead)

It's just a gasket like device (but a lot thicker than a gasket) that isolates the plenum from the heat of the engine (or so that's the claim). The result is cooler intake air. It also slightly increases the total air volume of the plenum. Cooler and more air = more horsepower

Wow, that sucks! But fortunately you were able to walk away from it- that's the main thing. Serious frame damage though! To the casual eye that doesn't look so bad but we all know better. Yikes! What did his car look like?

I've always wanted to visit Australia- Cairns or Brisbane (I'm a water kind of guy). If I were to ever move out of the States then Australia is where I would go- without a doubt. A two week trip to Australia- I'd jump all over that!

I'll Stick Around - Foo Fighters

Wow, so I'm not the only one that knows and likes Yngwie.

It sounds, to me at least, more like a fuel problem than a spark problem. Dirty injectors maybe? You might want to do a SeaFoam treatment on it- definitely wouldn't be a bad idea with that many miles and unknown service history.

Ok, here are some photos I took today. You'll see what I'm talking about for the custom ram air mod. I removed the entire air box and air box parts located inside the drivers side fender well (what's with all that plastic and doo dads anyway?? must be to muffle sound or something?) That 3" hose you see goes straight from behind the piece next to the driving light up inside the fender well to the bracket you can see in the photo. You can't see anything at all from the outside- it's all hidden. The photo I took of the modification to the piece next to the driving lamp (what is that piece called anyway?) had a flash when I took the photo- it makes the cuts look a LOT more noticeable than they are with your naked eye. You would never know they are there unless you got down on your hands and knees and looked closely at it. The bracket where the hose mounts to at the inner fender well is made out of galvanized steel and uses the same bolts that held on all that plastic garbage that Nissan used. I laid a bead of RTV on the bracket before bolting it to the fender well. The rest is fairly self explanatory. The exhaust is a cat back (well the stock pipes were cut at about the stock muffler and welded from there). The muffler is a Flowmaster 2in 1out. The outlet pipe is 2.5" with no resonator. Sounds sick. Definitely NOT a rice burner sound. Sounds more like a V8- actually quite a lot like the Infiniti QX50 only louder. But not an obnoxious loud- just enough that people turn around to look and see what it is. The side steps are some generic brand I got off of Ebay for $150- but they fit and look great. The only thing I don't like about them is the mounting bracket. While they mount to the stock bracket locations the brackets hang down way too low. Definitely not something conducive to crawling over rocks! I kept the stock side steps in the hopes of some day cutting off the factory brackets and welding them to these aftermarket ones so they will mount just like the factory. On with the images.

Yep, but it has the steering wheel on the correct side.

Nor have I, but I would strongly believe this to be the case. I've always used full synthetic 5w30 and do not have the PCV/valve cover baffle plugging problem (knock on wood!)

I've been using 5w30 full synthetic on my 2001 VQ since day one (bought it new). Mostly Mobil1 but, at times, I was using Royal Purple. 159,000+ miles later and it's still running like new. I go 7,000 miles between changes (seriously) and the oil is still translucent after that many miles. If I did serious off-roading I'd be changing it a lot more frequently than that but most of my miles (at least 99%) are highway.

Here is one And more are here- but these are about 6 years old (still looks the same though- just runs better now) Silver Lake 2003 Good lord I'm brain dead today! Took me like 5 tries to get that link and image right! I need to go home... BTW, that's my godson in most of the photos, not me. (he's 20 now! yikes!)

What year Pathfinder? I've always considered trying to pop a supercharger on my 2001 VQ

1969 1600cc VW dune buggy Silver Lake 2003 And, hopefully in the next year or so, a 2005 or 2006 6 speed GTO with the LS2

Oh, up there by the thumb. I don't make it that way too often. Most of my treks take me up the Western side of the state. I haven't even been to the Detroit area in about 5 years now. Ever get over to Silver Lake? That's a great place to hang out! But I've got a dune buggy I prefer to take on the dunes instead of the Pathy (don't want to sandblast all my nice shiny paint!). Oh, and what's going on in Harrison?

I'm about 15 miles North East of Niles. My computer store is in Niles so I could get that South Bend traffic.

The story behind how I bought this is a little crazy. I had been visiting Nissans website for a few months (or maybe more) building my "dream" Pathfinder. One day I stopped at the local Nissan dealer and they had just received that day the exact Pathfinder I had been building on Nissans website. Right down to the color, options, everything. So I bought it. I figured it was fate. It's fully loaded- has the charcoal leather package, sunroof package, all the exterior stuff like sun roof deflector, rear wind deflector, and side molding, fog lights, LSD, Bose 6 disc changer with steering wheel controls, transmission cooler, etc. The only options it didn't have were the DVD entertainment/navigation system, automatic climate control, and trailer hitch. But I didn't want those anyway (I preferred to install my own hitch and save about $600!).

That's the plan. I'll try to take pics of the intake (the WeaponR system looks awesome- highly polished aluminum) and the ram air setup I have. I probably won't remove the inner fender well plastics though- but I think everyone will be able to tell how I did it without needing to see inside the fender. The exterior of my truck looks mostly stock (I like that sleeper sorta look). The only obvious changes are the side steps (although I wish I could have found a good rust-free set of the OEM ones- oh well) and the chrome exhaust tip. The rest is mechanical. I would love to have a set of good skid plates- that might yet happen.

I'll definitely get some put up by the end of the weekend. I probably won't have time tomorrow- but will on Friday or Saturday. For now, here is a picture I took a few years ago after I had the vinyl put on the windows. The only visible difference between then and now would be the stainless steel stepbars and the custom exhaust (big chrome tip is visible now). You can tell by this photo the great effect the AirLift bags had on the stance. The factory stance seems to have the rear end sitting too low (in my opinion). The air bags pushed the rear up a good inch and a half or so. Makes the stance look a LOT better. But I did have to re-aim my headlights afterwords- as they were aiming too low.

I guess that's better than playing with something else...

Once it gets nice out I will. It's been a cold and nasty rainy sorta thing here the last few days.

Thanks!