Tungsten

Cibie housings are hands down the best housings you can buy. They are very costly though. If I was doing this on a car I would definitely get Cibies. I wouldn't mind smashing these IPFs off-road. There are other even cheaper housings than IPFs. Be careful about them because a bad housing with a higher wattage bulb can be worse than a good housing with a lower wattage bulb.

VQ makes awful low end power. No surprise there.

Be careful when extracting the old fasteners. One corroded for me and the head came off. They tend to break at the lower corner by where the grille will mount. I have to drill it out and re-tap when the weather gets warmer. Also don't forget those plastic pieces that go into these oval holes otherwise the grille will bounce around.

I will get one against a big white wall soon but the pattern on these is very good for night time driving. EXTRAS I have used new fasteners to mount the headlights. The bolts holding the entire assembly are M6x1.00x20 with 6mm washers and the bolts in the trim piece are Allen key hole 8-32x1/2. Here are the new screws that I used for the housing fastener trim pieces: This is the install manual that came with the housings: Here are the 3 bulbs compared side by side: Left to right: 9004, Sealed beam bulb, H4/9003

The difference is quite good. Here is the low beam pattern with the factory housing: Here are the new housings:

While I like the OEM Pathfinder head light housings, the DOT version has a pattern that doesn't focus the light like I want it to. On top of that the low beam bulb is only 45 watts. So I decided to try something new. Swap to a Hardbody front end and use H4 conversion housings. So I went to the junk yard and got some sealed beams with buckets, the grille, and the corner lights off a Hardbody. I took the headlights apart and put IPF 820H housings in them along with some basic H4/9003 bulbs rated for 55 watts low beam. Then made my own harness and installed everything with the new front end.

O2 sensor is most likely it. Mine broke after I installed the headers too. Just old age I suppose. You can test the EGR by pushing up on the diaphragm.

That's the fuel filter. The tiny plug at the bottom appears to be for adjustable shocks. The pop charger is just a big air filter. Won't make a difference. I don't see a point in upgrading the springs either if you aren't running a turbo. The ECU and cams could do something but it won't be a major increase as the VG30E cams are already quite good. The head is more of an issue than anything. The exhaust only helps because the factory one is made for quietness so it restricts the flow at higher RPMs. Look into a VG33E swap if you really want more power.

This is true, you can advance the timing enough to actually run higher octane fuel. You might be able to get a mpg boost from this because of more compression happening before ignition. No idea if 96+ VG powered Pathfinders do this though. I know the older ones don't.

It could be the fact that they put less ethanol into premium fuel than into regular. I don't know how that works but that's what I'm guessing.

The grade of fuel you run depends on your engine's compression ratio. For example, VG engines in Pathfinders are designed to run on regular 87. They do not have a map for premium fuel and while it will work you will not notice any difference. VQs on the other hand are made for Premium fuel. That Highlander is probably made for regular so unless it says Premium is recommended, run it on regular. The catalytic converter failing has nothing to do with the grade of gas you run.

The good old infamous v-belt noise. They will do that as they age because they collect stuff from the pulleys and also stretch. I am starting to get more of it now. Just put new belts on there and it should be quiet again. Be careful to not over-tighten them. Just make them tight enough to be functional.

Right then, that would be a radian. Did you calculate this yourself? Is that how you got the for every 1mm figure too? Not questioning your methods, just curious.

Yeah I saw the rule about only using fog lights with low beams too. That's really stupid in my opinion. Makes sense why Nissan wired the fog lights to only come on with low beams. You can change that by hooking the trigger wire directly to the battery. That's the wire that runs to the low beam wire on the passenger side where the fog relay is. Basically, it is a positive source for the fog light relay.

Yeah I was replying to his separate posts. One was for the O2 sensor wiring the other was for MAF wiring. Should have used multi quote...

The distributor does run off the cam but the ECU has the ability to slightly delay the signal to get it as close to 15 as possible. For this reason you only need to set the distributor to about 15 and it does not have to be exactly 15. That's how the 90+ ECUs work. At least this is what they have been doing from my experience. BTW where did you find the 0.928 deg for every 1mm formula?

I have done it and using the factory probe too. Maybe someone can mail you a fan clutch? I could send you mine but it's aftermarket. http://www.nissanpathfinders.net/forum/topic/33772-dakota-digital-electric-fan-controller-with-ford-taurus-38-fan/

You can re-use the existing wire. No big deal. MAF cleaner works but typically the wiring causes issues because people don't remove the connector when changing the air filter and break the wiring in the connector.

Yeah I wouldn't mind some experimentation. I would like to see your results. How are you going to adjust the ECU to get the timing back on track?

Do you know if they actually allow fog lights (or driving lights) on vehicles with dedicated high and low beam lights?

I'm not a fan of decking the block and shaving the head but if you do go that route the timing will change completely. Not to mention that you will also be bringing the valves closer to the pistons. There will be much less allowable clearance before the pistons ram the valves.

No, you can't clean them. Once they rust on the outside, they are done. It's not only the piece that's stuck into the exhaust that matters, that outside section is what actually used as a reference for oxygen.

You can always take the pipe out...

If the fan clutch has the same resistance it will not let the engine warm up for a long time. Really it just looks like the truck needs a new fan clutch to me.