Starting here....

[Faulcun]

So i figure a good way to start is to tell my pathfinder story.

 

I own a small repair shop here in my town. One of my good customers owned a 2000 two-tone black pathfinder SE 4x4 with a factory brush guard, leather interior, heated seats, and sunroof.... that came from Maine. This thing was full of cancer! Everything was rusted and you could easily reach the engine from both wheel wells without any concern of jagged metal..... everything was gone! Loud as hell with no exhaust...  Its only saving grace was that it only had 110k miles on the odo, A/C worked, and the interior was perfect!. Eventually she attempted to trade it in on another vehicle, but they wouldnt give her more than $500 value.

 

So, she gave it to me and said do what you want with it! Well I had myself a new shop truck lol. I put a tag on it and ended up driving it for another year before the strut towers folded up breaking the ground strap to the abs pump, and touching the master cylinder on the other side. I used that thing for pulling other cars around, up the shop driveway (steep hill), and general beating around. I totally fell in love with that thing. SO much so, that i bought an identical one in new jersey with LSD with less rust because i figured I had a parts car with, at that point, 120k. Engine, trans, and diffs all in good order.

 

Well, i drove it all the way back to SC in a monsoon of a storm and broke it the next day on my driveway. Turns out I didnt see where they welded the passenger rear of the engine cradle to the chassis. I knew there were a few areas of rust, but i thought it was all manageable. I didnt see the hole where there was supposed to be a nut for the cradle bolt that just wasnt there anymore.

 

So i ended up parking that and started looking for another one lol. I couldnt find another one of the same year, color, and features so i eased up on my specifics. I ended up finding a light metallic blue 3.5L  in georgia with all the same features with manual 4wd (never liked the auto 4wd system) with NO RUST. I jumped on it!

 

Ive had it for a little over a year now and i absolutely love it! I knew the suspension was super soft in these things, but i was surprised how far it squatted down when i put a 200lb transmission in the back. So the next week I ordered OME light duty springs in the front, and medium in the back, and changed the struts shocks to KYB upgrades. Did a few repairs, new set of General Grabber AT2s, and this thing drives like a dream on and off road. Its hauled car trailers (with small cars)  with no obscene squatting, and handled it like a champ.  I couldnt be happier!

 

Or so i thought. I had an issue with the tie downs in the trunk area cause i still use it to transport transmissions from time to time and they have to be strapped down tight so they dont move and make a mess. The factory rings are open, and they stretched. So I upgraded them with M8 bolts and welded D rings. Problem solved lol.

 

Couple things Im thinking about.  ive been looking at the ARB front bumper mainly for a little extra clearance, or doing a custom winch mount behind the factory bumper and swapping over the factory brush guard from the first truck. Then i plan on air lockers front and rear and taking the wife on a trip.

 

Heres the part that is gonna make everybody shake their heads. I know how this is gonna sound, but im bored with the power. Ive been eyeballing doing a custom supercharger build on this 3.5L. I had a 03 frontier with a supercharger and I need that back in my life again lol. Now im not gonna blow smoke up anybody's rear side. Im not starting that project for probably another year. Ive got two other personal projects I need to finish first. Supercharging my wife's Tiburon, and a turbo Prelude. But thats all a story for another day.

[Faulcun]

OH, i almost forgot.

 

I did some custom polyurethane bushings for the upper and lower trailing arms that ive been waiting to install. Let you guys know how they hold up. I think im gonna have an issue already though, even before I install them. They are pretty solid and im worried they wont want to move with the rear end. But we'll see what happens.

[Slartibartfast]

 

Poly bushings for the rear arms are available. From what I've read, they may not flex quite as well as the stock rubber, but they do work.

I remember my dad's '03 had plenty of get up and go (especially compared to my 3.0!) but I'll be curious to see how far you can push it. IIRC somebody turbo'd a 3.5 Pathy a while back and found the upper limit of what the auto trans could handle, so look into beefing that up while you're researching engine mods.

I need to do something similar with the tiedowns in mine, they used the same open hooks and on the rare occasions I strap something down back there I'm always leery of putting too much tension on them.

[Faulcun]

20 hours ago, Slartibartfast said:

 

Poly bushings for the rear arms are available. From what I've read, they may not flex quite as well as the stock rubber, but they do work.

I remember my dad's '03 had plenty of get up and go (especially compared to my 3.0!) but I'll be curious to see how far you can push it. IIRC somebody turbo'd a 3.5 Pathy a while back and found the upper limit of what the auto trans could handle, so look into beefing that up while you're researching engine mods.

I need to do something similar with the tiedowns in mine, they used the same open hooks and on the rare occasions I strap something down back there I'm always leery of putting too much tension on them.

 

Yeah I saw there are some split inserts for the rear available somewhere, but Ive used similar products on other vehicles and had some problems with the two halves wanting to unseat themselves. Most of the applications were for engine mounts though. So I figured I wouldnt mess around and go ahead and do a custom pour, but I wasnt thinking about the flex issue. If this doesnt work out or starts getting chewed up, I might go ahead and machine some stainless for new centers, pour new bushings, and press the centers out and back in. IF that doesnt work, then i might order some solid poly and machine them down and make a press fit solid.

 

I made some molds for the proper spacing, and coated the bottom with wax for easy removal. Was doing some engine mounts for another vehicle at the same time. This poly is 60d.

 

My goal with this truck is only going to be about 300hp because of the trans. I saw that post from that guy with the turbo setup about his trans limits. Ive been trying to research some info on beefier internals, but havent been able to find anything. The support for these vehicles is sadly very low in considering aftermarket parts. I know thats a pretty low number, and can probably be reached with simple engine mods, or even just a swap, but I havent seen anybody do a super yet and i love the sound lol.

 

I was toying around with doing a retrofit from a 350z centrifugal. I think that would be the easiest thing, but my goal is to get a roots style mounted.  I pulled the lower manifolds from a few different 3.5 vehicles to take some measurements and compare. Actually it looks like the lower manifolds from any 3.5 will bolt on, but the pathfinder is the only 3.5 with "power valves", so we would lose that, but not a big deal really. But the real trick is finding somebody who has the original 350z Stillen setup which is proving even more difficult. What i think I may end up doing is buying a blank modern charger, use one of the existing lowers and blueprint an upper half. I thought about doing a 4.0 stillen conversion too. The lower manifolds arent very different either. But that would really be a one off since they stopped making that kit too, and I cant seem to find anybody with that either lol. So I figured id go ahead and try to do something that can be reproduced for other people.

[teixeira]