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QuasarDecimari

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Everything posted by QuasarDecimari

  1. I’m currently in the middle of building my second VQ, converting a 2004 VQ so it can be used in my 2001 pathy. I can say I’ve gotten pretty personal with these engines haha. If your engine is eating enough oil through the PCV to actually consume it, you’ve got much bigger problems than anything a catch will fix. Have you or the mechanic replaced the PCV valve itself, or tested that it functions? If not, for $5 and a couple hours of work you can do it yourself pretty easy. Can you see any visible oil leaks? If so, where from? Is there lots of blue/black smoke from the exhaust? Where does the smell seem to originate from? We have a lot of options to test this.
  2. There are two coolant lines running to the throttle body. One of them comes from the coolant rail on the back of the heads, located behind the Bank 2 head (Driver Side). As for size, I’m fairly certain it’s 1/4”. The other hose to the throttle body extends down under the intake boot, running along the heater core pipe along the side of the engine above the exhaust manifold. There are two sections to the PCV System. The valve itself is located on the intake side of the Bank 1 valve covers, on the back of the valve cover. It is a small plastic piece that is inserted into a rubber grommet, on the 2001 VQ. The valve itself is rather fragile, and if the hose back there has dry-rotted, you’ll have some difficulty removing it. This valve feeds the crankcase gases into a tube under the lower intake manifold, and exits into the intake near the butterfly valves above cylinder 4. The secondary part of the PCV is an extension of the chambers within the valve covers. The valve covers on the 2001 VQ are large and typically made of aluminum, having chambers at the top for the gases to collect. On the Bank 1 side, there is a large outlet (about 1/2”) that utilizes a hose along the top of the timing cover to reach the other valve cover. The inlet on that side is roughly the same position as the Bank 1 side, but mirrored. There is then a large outlet on the back of the Bank 2 valve cover, on the exhaust side, which feeds directly into the intake boot, before the throttle body. It is a rather efficient PCV system, and I don’t recommend tampering with it. The VQ is quite sensitive to crankcase pressure, and will often react with oil seepage, misfires, or moisture buildup in the oil. It’s cumbersome, but it works. Above is a picture of my engine stripped down to the heads. I highlighted the PCV path along the valve covers with yellow.
  3. I don’t have any pictures currently but I’ll get some as soon as I can. Really, I just used 2x2 inch square tube and cut them to 6” lengths, measured the bolt spacing for the transmission mount and crossmember mounts, and used a drill press to do the drilling (the bolts are rather large). Unfortunately I didn’t document this, but it’s easily obtainable with a caliper/micrometer. You’ll need to make sure you get your math correct for lengthening the steering linkage. Most information available is for the 4” SFD, so calculate accordingly with simple trigonometry. Unless the angles of the strut spacers are corrected, be prepared for excessive camber without proper suspension geometry. Make sure you unbolt the power steering lines from the subframe before moving it down, so that you can reposition them and drill new holes to bolt onto later, otherwise you’ll have a fun mess to clean up. You probably already know. But the engine must remain in its factory position, so 6” spacers will be needed to support the engine. I STRONGLY advise swapping the engine and transmission mounts while you’re in there, since they’ll be exposed and easily accessible.
  4. If you’re doing a 6” SFD you will need to drop the transmission crossmember. I dropped mine 2” with the 6” SFD.
  5. I believe it’s because some of us at NPORA forget that other people with Pathfinders may have not yet discovered their vehicle’s true potential. They haven’t been awakened yet. Soon.
  6. Finally finished mine, from Coastal. I think it’s a fantastic build. It’s very heavy but very sturdy. There ARE some flaws in the design that they don’t account for, such as the dinky little power steering line that runs across the front of the frame, so that was a huge pain to bend and move out of the way... resulting in some crushed fins on my condenser, but oh well, more reason to install an aftermarket cooler eventually. I really took my time welding the kit, made sure it was solid throughout, but I also have a pretty decent set of welding machines at work. It’s not going to be easy with a smaller welder, so be prepared to either have a decent one at your expense, or someone that can weld it. The total time it took me to bevel the edges, tack it together, weld, grind, stitch-weld the inside, etch, prime, and paint was a little over 36 hours, and I was definitely taking my time. All in all, it’s a fantastic kit, the piece quality was actually great, and the metal was very clean and ready to weld, minus the edges that all had to be beveled. For the price and availability, I strongly recommend their service.
  7. I think that’s the thing here, you get what you pay for. I got my AVS rain guards and they’ve held up really well against some harsh weather, trails, and I’m on the highway pretty much every day.
  8. Seen em on quite a few pathfinders, they make some nice ones for Xterras and others too. They’re also currently working on a design for a rear pathfinder bumper with a swing-out tire carrier. It’s definitely great quality for the price too, if you don’t mind the lead time and shipping from Canada. I’ve had good experiences with them.
  9. Whelp, too late for me now I guess. I got the AVS ones a while back, they’re still on strong but hopefully I don’t see this same fate...
  10. And such a force would likely crumble the little link anyway. It does fantastic for helping maintain flex and separation in the subframe but I wouldn’t even try and lift the vehicle with the link.
  11. Well that’s terrifying. Glad I built a missing link when I did then... it may not be a perfect link, but a quarter-inch steel square tube is plenty robust. I’ve always wanted to find any more ways to reinforce the subframe after such a large drop, this might have motivated me to do so...
  12. A 2” lift is perfect for that sort of thing! It likely would have, and I’ve seen plenty of people who have done so with little issues aside from misalignment of the suspension and so on. I would say 2” is still within the comfort zone before you really start causing additional wear. Just understand, at 2” and beyond, without a SFD, you do operate your CV axles at more dramatic operating angles, which increases wear. I cannot stress enough how great of a solution manual locking hubs are for that issue. On the trails, though, you’ll wanna take it nice and slow when going into deep areas where the front suspension might droop to its max extension, because at that point you’ll be within the binding range of the CVs. And you’ll know, too, when it isn’t spinning anymore. If you take it nice and slow, you’ll just notice you can’t get traction or move, and should back off and retry with a different approach. If you go flooring it or cruising through a drop, you’ll likely snap your CV joint, but I haven’t had any experience doing so, as I’m rather careful to reduce any additional cost on every trail!
  13. Additionally, if I would have known how much work it would be to maintain as a daily, I wouldn’t have lifted my pathfinder the way I have. At this point it really should just be a toy and trail rig, but I don’t have space for another vehicle at the moment. Just food for thought.
  14. I ran a 2.5” lift for a while, no issues except for CV wear on the trails due to binding. Then I did a 4” SFD, still no problems really. It’s when I threw on bigger tires that I started seeing a bit more wear and a difference in performance. After that, I went on to build my 7” SFD and lift, which of course has been a pain on its own, but it’s been holding sturdy and still stays nice and smooth on the highways as a daily. Is it a luxurious ride when lifted? Absolutely not. Lifting the Pathfinder pretty much removes all comfort in the suspension, makes it a little less stable to drive, but if you get used to it, you’re fine. That aside, I’ve done a lot of rework to my suspension and such over time due to general wear and tear, at almost 200,000 miles, so it’s hard for me to gauge properly. I would say, however, to expect to go through CV axles and U-Joints more frequently, ESPECIALLY if you don’t get manual locking hubs. They’re your saving grace when it comes to lifting these, and promoting drivetrain longevity in general. I know I’m bouncing around a bit, but to summarize, your mechanic is right. A lift will devalue the vehicle, unless someone really wants a lifted pathfinder. Lifts are usually accompanied by bigger tires, which puts additional stress on the transmission, engine, driveline, and so on. Really, anything you do to modify the suspension and such will cause additional wear, because you’re making it do things it was not “designed” to do. The R50 is built well though. I’ve put mine through hell and back and I know what to expect. If you know you’ll need to do a bit more maintenance, and understand the risks of things breaking more frequently or when unexpected, you’re set. If you aren’t ready for that expense, there ARE easier/less expensive vehicles to lift and maintain. These are, of course, opinions from my experience.
  15. Oh, I didn’t notice that the vent flaps themselves were also there, my apologies. That’d be a bit more difficult.
  16. No luck with a good plastic epoxy? I’ve done something similar. Epoxied it together, used a filler primer on it, gently sanded it smooth and painted it. More time consuming than getting a new one, I suppose, but can be cheaper.
  17. That’s awesome dude, that’s really the point in mods like that anyway. If it makes you happy, feels better for you, and prolongs the life of the vehicle down the road, the work pays off! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
  18. I highly recommend them. Only took a couple hours to do each hub (mostly because I use red loctite on the studs holding the spacers on, so they were a huge pain to get off). The only reason I didn’t get any for the wheels themselves is because with the spacers, there’s no hub in the center anymore for the wheels to center onto, just the lugs of the spacers, so having rings on the wheels would make no difference because they can’t be centered around a hub.
  19. Like Slartibartfast said, my go-to in a sticky situation like that would be to weld a nut to it, but if that isn't an option, or you don't know too much about how, it'd be better not to get a welder in there. When I rebuilt my VQ, I was close to pulling off the heads, and I just had one last nut on the back of the engine to remove (to the infamous cooling rails that run to the heads). Of course, the final nut stripped enough that a regular wrench wouldn't get on it, and it was such an awkward area to get to that I couldn't get vice grips or anything more brutal back there. Even a welder wouldn't fit. I got lucky, though. I had a friend make a run to the auto parts store and get a set of those Grip-Tite wrenches, as the sockets had worked really well for me in the past. I decided to bet my money on it working, and thankfully they did the trick. If there's anything left of the bolt/nut head, I would definitely try out the Grip-Tite wrenches or sockets, whichever will fit, as they worked a lot better than I thought they would.
  20. I ended up finally getting brand new 33" tires, and even adding some hubcentric rings to the hub spacers (since I still haven't gotten wheels with more backspacing) and my 4WD has still been playing nice since the resolution. Dropping the subframe down another couple inches to compensate for a 6.5" front end lift helped a lot with CV binding and overall smoothness. If anyone's running spacers, and isn't using hubcentric rings (or their hub spacers aren't hubcentric) I highly recommend them. I got mine on Amazon for $7 and it was actually a really nice upgrade for overall smoothness, and just peace of mind altogether. I'll likely need to change the control arm bushings for the front, which I'm not entirely looking forward to given how hard the brackets are to get back on that hold them into place, but it'll certainly need to get done soon. If anyone has any tips, fantastic. Otherwise, I'll do some homework on the forums. Are they really worth the extra time and trouble? With mine being over 17 years old, and almost 180,000 miles on them, I don't see them wearing again anytime soon... but if it helps a lot with anything in particular I'd be curious if it's something you'd wanna roll out as a potential upgrade ?
  21. Some tune-up. I’ll see if I still have the old thing sitting around at home and I’ll cut it open with the dremel. Edit: Looks like I don’t have it anymore. That’s a bummer
  22. Their website doesn’t say too much about what it actually does or hooks up to, but it does mention altering some sort of sensor signal. If I had to guess, they’re likely similar to the “Innovative Power Programmer” chip available for the Pathfinder through Amazon. I got one a long time ago, back when I first got the pathfinder, hoping to squeeze out a little more MPG, but it was worthless. When I did it, I didn’t know much about cars, so I didn’t know much about what it did. It said to splice into the wiring for the intake air temperature sensor, and the chip will tune from there. With the knowledge I have now, really all that chip was doing was telling the engine computer that it was colder outside than it is, making it dump more fuel. In turn, maybe you got a little more power, but it didn’t seem enough to really change mpg. I don’t think the pathfinder relies on the IAT as much as some other vehicles, but I could be wrong... I wonder if I still have it sitting around somewhere, because I could probably take it apart at work and analyze the electronics, see what its really doing with the voltage provided to it
  23. I used a felpro gasket when I rebuilt my engine, I just slightly lubricated the gasket with assembly lube before applying it, and it hasn’t given me much issue. I have noticed it really isn’t a perfect seal too though, and I probably would have rather put RTV. Thankfully it’s an easy swap if need be. Given the amount of parts on these engines that are RTV sealed, I see nothing wrong with just using RTV on the oil pan itself, like the manual suggests.
  24. I highly suggest a bit of research on capacitors if you’re going to experiment, they can be rather dangerous, or you could hurt your circuit if you don’t wire it correctly. They’re a tad tricky if you don’t understand them completely, and an underpowered capacitor is just going to be useless if you don’t calculate the capacitance needed for the circuit.
  25. Wow, this is a lot of stuff I haven’t heard of doing before with the IACV, I’ll be keeping an eye on this thread for sure... I noticed you were talking about putting capacitors in line with the radiator fans to help with the initial current draw, I’ve been actually thinking of doing the same thing, I just need to figure out what size of capacitor to run because some of those bigger radiator fans draw quite a lot of current initially, so a cap with good capacitance will be needed to really make a difference... maybe I’ll toy around with it myself, since I have access to some pretty cool supercapacitors at work.
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