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Both the vehicles pictures have 4" subframe drops, which need to be custom made. For lift, I would recommend Fleurys 25 mm strut top spacers with AC front springs and LR 9447 rear springs with Procomp ES326500 rear shocks. This will give you 3" lift all round. You will then need 0 offset 16x7 wheels, which allow you to fit 265/75r16 tyres. Fleurys also makes skidplates. For a front and rear bar I would recommend coastal offroad, their front bar is winch compatible. If you want to lift the front higher than 2" springs with a 1" spacer for 3" total, then you need a subframe drop. For the 3" lift above you should also fit manual locking front hubs. Personally I prefer the auto mode transfer case as AUTO is excellent for wet roads and snow. However be careful with auto mode and manual hubs as you need to have them locked when using auto... I found the rear lsd in my r50 good but it wasn't the be all. Taking out the rear sway bar and fitting the procomp shocks made the biggest difference as the give you 11" of shock travel without having to move bumpstops, for mega flex.

Well I did end up going full "head slap" but for a different reason. The black connector that hooks up here was jammed behind the plastic bucket mold the cluster sits in, and I basically forgot it was there. Plugged it in, right as rain! D'oh. On a separate topic, where the heck is the check engine light? haha. Sorry to drag this back out of the depths.... Cheers

you can use any OEM equivalent strut up front. That thread takes careful reading in order to get the point. If you scan this link for the for different part numbers - 9446, 9447, 9449, and 9448, you can see the math for yourself. Each of those springs fit, but have different combinations of free standing height and spring rate. 9448’s lift the most out of those part numbers (~4”), and are usually paired with an SFD up front. 9446, 9447, and 9449 (~2-3”) are usually paired with 2” lifts up front. Link: http://www.red90.ca/rovers/springinfo.html

I wouldn't call it the pick of the litter, but for $500, you did good! You're not missing much with the LSD, by '03 Nissan had dumbed them down so far that they have less breakaway torque than what the lug nuts take. The first couple years of Xterra had better LSDs that I'm told will bolt right in, provided you match the gear ratios (or take the opportunity to swap both diffs to the 4.6 ratio if you're planning to run larger tires). The LSDs can also be rebuilt to higher specs if you're willing to tear the rear end all to bits. If you're not in a hurry to lift it, these guys are working on a subframe drop kit, though they're not cranking them out yet. The electronic transfer case is too complicated for my tastes and requires special care if you run manual hubs (like Kiwi said), but they seem to hold up alright, and they actually have a lower low-range ratio than the standard box (2.596 vs 2.020). My dad had an '03. It was comfortable, had plenty of power, and handled well, but the electronic throttle body was a bit laggy and the engine burned a ton of oil (not an uncommon problem on early VQs). It smoked like hell on warm starts, otherwise you'd have no idea it was burning oil until it ran out, so keep an eye on the dipstick. Hopefully yours is in better shape. If you've got the auto trans, you should pull the intake apart and Loctite the power valve screws as well, they tend to back out and fall in. Before you start throwing mods at it, take it out, see what it's got, see if you like it. If you do, see what it struggles with and start upgrading there. There's lots of good info here and some nicely built-up rigs to get ideas from.