Leaderboard

Finally got some snow in the PNW Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

Hey everyone I haven't made a post in like 7 years, the ex crashed my pathfinder on an icy morning and slid into a trailer. So it sat in a field for a good long while until I decided it was time to bring it back to life. Someone had come along and cut out my amps and stole my sub. So my first order was to rebuild the stereo. I swapped out the speakers, deck, replaced sub and amp. Deck: Kenwood Double Din DPX503BT Amp: Kenwood 5 Channel amp XR901-5 Speakers: C2- 570x JL Audio Now onto the Dynomatting after upgrading the stereo it was quite evident that there was a lot of resonance between the body panels and the interior pieces especially when the base drops hit. This in turn took away from the music clarity with all the rattling, vibrations. It was the worst inside the front doors and the roof. Dynomat is a sound deadening material that keeps the road noise out, keeps the stereo sound inside. It makes a stock stereo sound great and an upgraded system sound phenomenal. I removed all interior panels, roof pieces (steam cleaned them once they were out) and went to town. I finished the cargo area, roof, pillars. Also to note I rolled up chunks of Dynomat and squeezed them inside the doors to eliminate the annoying buzzing sound in there. Its not a complete project there's a product they make called Dynopad and its thicker and specially designed to be placed on your floors under your carpet/vinyl. It was out of my budget at the time and eventually I will get around to it. This project cost me about $580 Canadian for just the dynomat. Its not cheap but if your serious about music its worth every penny. Also music aside it makes driving much more pleasurable when you take it on the highway the road noise is almost completely cancelled out, let me put it this way its the difference between driving a tin can and driving a Vault. There are other products similar to it but this was what was available to me in the area Hauling it home after it sitting in an impound for over a year. Before that It sat in a field for nearly 5 years The start of my quest to clean the underbody and frame began with dropping the fuel tank After several hours removing all the grit I had discovered some nasty little pinholes I sealed them up with JB steel stick that plugged the holes hopefully forever. 3 coats of Por-15 later and it was looking a hell of a lot better. Later on the Cap for the fuel pump was cleaned up and painted and wires all saudered wrapped The old calipers were looking rough so I replaced them and painted the new ones with some blue caliper paint ( little did I know I would start to paint everything in sight this electric blue scheme) Old springs vs. New comparison Since I had upgraded my shifter to a leather wrap and put a leather knob on my transfer case shifter. I cut this wrap off a BMW in the pick n pull yard. I had to drill out some of the internals to make it fit then I just slapped some contact cement on there and there you have it Been storing some spray cans of tint around for awhiles so decided to black out the tail lights and 3rd brake like, with the leds in there it looks very sharp Every single bolt, nut washers, locknut I removed was caked in rust, I methodically used my wire wheel cleaned everything up and painted with primer and 3 coats of a gloss black rust paint. After I reassembled the front end I realized that my knuckle, lower and upper control arms looked awful bolted to those freshly painted pieces so I continued on dismantling the rest of it. This is a comparison shot of lower control arms before and after primer I figured why not carry on with the blue so I used this raptor box liner paint to coat my upper and lower control arms, transmission support brackets, torsion bars, panhard bar, the torsion bar bracket, I tinted it "Electric Blue" Rear stabalizer bar, that dog bone piece off the front end. this pic I believe is of the first coat, I ended up applying 2 Im still putting it together here is some of the driver side assembled Since the front corner was crumpled I had to order a new radiator support, still in the process of removing the old one I cut out the heating pads and wiring out of some luxury suv at the pick n pull yard and installed them in my seats. Always wanted heated seats Since I was painting the entire frame and underbody with the por-15 black gloss (afterwards I painted over top of that with ashphalt undercoating)there were areas I could not reach, so I dropped the transmission out and ensure nothing was left uncoated from the rear all the way up the firewall Ordered some pacesetters, cleaned all the shipping paint (a real pain in the ass) and gave them 3 coats of por-20 high temp paint. I intend to wrap them with header wrap afterwards. will upload pics once I get around to it There are a few other things I am bouncing around on ( bodywork mostly) but this old girl has come a long way, and I dont intend of stopping here! Hope you guys enjoy this update! It certainly has been awhile!

Also I feel like I should note I had a conversation on here with 02_Pathy about something similar. He’s got the OME HD coils setup on the front which got him a solid 1.75-2 inch lift and he partnered that with a 1inch spacer. He explicitly stated if you do this don’t go over 1 inch in spacers otherwise during full drop the CV will fail so for what it’s worth if you want that little extra more than just coils this has been proven. He said for about 2 years he did the coils alone and then added the 1inch spacers and has had good luck for a year. You will have to add camber bolts though but anyways hope this helped [emoji1690] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

With a coil spring lift, the struts don’t bottom out, they “top out”, meaning they reach their maximum extension more easily. This is most noticeable over speed bumps or uneven road surfaces where the roadway ahead drops more than a couple inches. Of course, it happens while off-road also. The topping-out sound can be disconcerting to those who don’t know what it is, but it has never seemed to affect reliability or performance on my R50, and I’ve had the 2” springs for 20 years. While it’s true that a 2” subframe drop is probably ideal to avoid the risks associated with simple strut spacers as well as mitigate strut topping out concerns, a 2” subframe drop doesn’t make a whole lot of sense labor-wise. Simple 2” strut spacers (with or without subframe spacers) cause significant positive camber, which may or may not be wholly correctable using camber bolts. Keep in mind that an appropriately sized steering adapter will also be needed. If lifting 2” for the sole purpose of fitting 32” tires, I believe that the expense and time investment is not a good value. It might be cheaper and simpler to lift only 1 or 1.5” with OME springs, and trim the wheel wells or fender flares to fit 32’s. I suppose that it really depends on the reason why one wants to install 32” tires. For on-road use and looks only, just get strut spacers and camber bolts. For mild off-road use, get a mild coil spring lift and trim. For rugged off-road use, get 2” coil springs. Unlike a simple subframe lift, a spring lift raises the IFS/steering rack crossmember as well as provides wheel well clearance for larger tires. That provides more ground clearance under the front suspension. Just my opinion, based on nearly 200,000 miles and 22 years owning my R50 and wheeling it hard.

Wow guys, thank you all for all the detailed replies! Glad I posted here and was able to get everybody's opinion. I thought 5 was too steep from the get go and you guys have confirmed it for me. @Micah thanks for linking those other classifieds! Hawairish! thanks for all the help, esp looking into the cruise control issue. I was actually checking out a few of your threads earlier this morning. Killer deal you got on your pathfinder! For now I'm gonna keep my eyes peeled on CL and contemplate throwing this guy a $4k offer in the next couple days. Luckily I'm not in a huge rush, so I can binge the build threads and bide my time getting ideas. Thanks again guys! I'll keep you all updated ?

LOL that is golden.

Back from the dead! I did a little sound matting when I had mine apart, but used one of the cheaper options. I think the biggest thing I found was that the glue holding the roof to the crossbars had failed in a few places, allowing for quite a bit of roof flex. I don't think I have enough bass for it to matter but I filled the gaps up there with seam sealer while I was looking at it. Definitely sounded better when I knocked on it, for whatever that's worth. My understanding is that any first-gen Xterra with the 3.3 has a compatible trans.

@my 2WD 4runner. Kinda defeats the name. One of my teamates called it a 2runner

Yeah, Kyle has! (ferrariowner123). If you scroll back through this feed there should be pics of it

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/cto/d/san-jose-1997-nissan-pathfinder-le-runs/6801382453.html https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/cto/d/san-jose-nissan-pathfinder-4x4-leather/6800616057.html https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/cto/d/fairfield-1997-infinity-qx4-low-miles/6805504319.html Check out some of these. They all look almost just as nice and are in similar condition for way less money

I agree. Although that QX4 is gorgeous with its maintenance records and cosmetics, I (personally) wouldn't justify the $5,000 for it -especially the age and mileage. I suggest negotiating a fair price because there's really nothing to lose. If you have year heart set on it, try going for the fair market value. If you're on a budget and just want a Pathfinder/QX4, it doesn't hurt to search more! Best wishes

Thanks for your input! My thoughts exactly. Given the mileage I'd say the most I'm comfortable with is around $4200

To expand on what @XPLORx4 is saying here for clarity, longer struts for R50's do not exist. As such, no matter what lift kit you go with, your front suspension will have exactly the same range of motion. Whether you lift 2" with coils or spacers, when you're rolling down the road the road your CV's are at exactly the same angle. However, when you're offroad and unload the front suspension on one side (flexing), the CV's will have a different experience with a spacer vs coil lift. With a coil lift the suspension can still only droop as much as it could when it was factory-stock, so your CV's will be A-OK guaranteed. However, if you have a spacer lift you run the risk of having full suspension droop be outside the range of motion of the CV's (since a spacer lift moves the entire strut assembly downward), something you may not notice until you've driven your R50 someplace where it would be especially unpleasant to deal with a CV breakage. Spacer lifts can work, and work well, just keep in mind if you go too high you're pushing your CV's beyond their limits in some situations.

This is purely my imagination: Maybe the watery gas cleaned some deposits from the piston surface which then stuck to your exhaust valves causing poor sealing and slight misfiring under low load. Back to reality: If you’ve got grinding noises from cold starts then you might consider taking off all the belts then cold starting it and see if the sounds are still there or not. I’ve got some grinding noises and a whirling noise that have persisted with an entirely different engine, however I do have the same tensioners(including timing), idlers, water pump, and power steering pump. I also have extremely grungy sounding cold starts in general until oil makes it to the valve stems and lifters. I know first hand how easy it can be to experience a similar issue and be so sure it’s a previous issue coming back to haunt me. Don’t worry about the timing, if it’s been right for 6 months then it’s still right now. Edit: Also, x2 on the spark plugs

@TowndawgR50 just helped me install some front trailing arm skids on my Mom’s T4R. It gave him ideas..... I think this pic should only serve to reinforce them. Boy those new links he made look nice!