V8path

Are you looking to stay with a Nissan swap, or considering something bigger

I think I figured out what he did in order to avoid having to drill thru the bracketry in the frame. http://www.piratepathy.com/photo/sas/PiratePathy_Buildup/2004-06-24%20-%20steering%20box%20relocation/slides/steering_box_relocation16.JPG The are 2 holes (with a nut welded on the inside of the frame - likely for a steering stabilizer mount) on the inside of the frame that are between the front and rear existing steering gear box mounting holes. They are approx. 1 5/16" (maybe 1 3/8") in towards front of the existing holes (ones towards the rear). It looks like they could be drilled out with a hole saw, and then the new front holes moved forward (there's no brackets in front section of the frame) moved forward the same amount and drilled out with a hole saw, and then sleeved. The angle of the mounting location changes slightly, but if looking only for a minor move to clear everything, this seems to be a lot simpler. For added strength, a 1/4" plate on the outside (or both inner and outer) frame could be done.

Looking at the location of the other guy's sleeves (they are on the same horizontal line between the original front and rear holes. If he didn't run into a problem with the brackets (apparently, on another thread from another guy, he only had problems with the 2 rearward holes) the brackets inside would have to be an "X", not horizontal? Do you remember what the configuration of the brackets were? http://www.piratepathy.com/photo/sas/PiratePathy_Buildup/2004-06-24%20-%20steering%20box%20relocation/slides/steering_box_relocation16.JPG

This is what you must have been referring to as the brackets inside the frame... Someone else's experience. Hardest part of the whole thing so far is just drilling the 3/4" holes for the inserts. It is unbelievable how much steel is in that part of the frame. There are multiple parallel horizontal steel plates that run between the 4 stock mounting holes.

I went with a D44 from a 3/4 T Ford and used Chevy knuckles and brakes, installed an ARB and its been fine for more than 15 years. Recently replace the leaf spring set up and went to coilovers.

Re drilling and putting a sleeve through the frame and welding to relocate the steering gear, and found these links and the write up of what he did. Sounds easy enough and he didn't mention anything about the inner brackets in the frame rails? What do you think. http://www.piratepat...elocation17.JPG http://www.piratepat...elocation16.JPG What I did was first drill pilot holes all the way through the frame. Then, I took a hole saw and drilled holes a bit larger than some DOM tube I had (that fit the steering box mounting bolts), again all the way through the frame. I took the DOM and cut it into sections about 1/2" longer than the width of the frame rail. Then, I bolted the box to the tube sections while they were in the frame, and tack welded them in place on the back side of the frame. Then, just unbolt the box, weld the tacked-in-place tube fully front and back, and then grind smooth on the outer face of the frame. Done. Makes for a nice precision mounted steering box.

Yeah, I think with the gussets, sleeves and secondary support tubes, I'm ok with the shock hoops. As for the oil pan, that's a bit different story. With the SBC LT1, the OEM oil pan (already modified) is an issue. I've seen guys with S10 SBC swaps use 2 of the 88-95 S10 4x4 oil pans and cut cut them (each with 1/2 the extra distance between a V6 and V8 block), and weld the 2 pieces together to extend the overall length of one oil pan. The rear sump on the S10 4x4 pan is deeper, but "front to back" of the sump is shorter and ideal for swapping a pre LS SBC into a 4x4 SAS. I did some measuring today and it looks like with the planned new oil pan, the axle only needs to go forward approx. 1/2" to 3/4". Everything is in there pretty tight, so I'll likely move the steering gear forward 1 1/2" and retain the Nissan Steering Gear. I'm not familiar with what is inside the frame to locate the stock steering gear sleeves. What's in there? I was hoping to use a hole saw and weld in sleeves using DOM. In case I decide to go with the FJ60/FJ62 steering gear box, I'm looking for a few measurements to see how that would work. What is the measurement from the rear mounting bolt center to the center of the end of the pitman arm mounting hole for the drag link? This will give me an idea of high far forward the pitman arm would be.

The design of the front end of the frame on the Pathfinders doesn't allow much room for up travel. I thought about going to the Artec Arm and Knuckle kit, as it allows multiple mounting options - high enough to give better steering arm angles, and a mid mounting location between the steering arm and knuckle location to get the tie rod links up a bit higher, but not as high as it would be for top mounting on a standard D44 steering arm. http://www.artecindustries.com/Dana-44-High-Steer-Arms--Pair_p_220.html Now that mine is up and running, I'm into that phase of whether to leave the original design or go to (spending more time and $) improvements now that the initial learning curve is into stage 2. I'd be interested to see how the upper link design you have works. Most of us have gone to a truss over the diff set up, and with the limited space (for me it was the oil pan), the truss made the design work challenging unless going to a great deal of lift. Your setup is similiar to the radius arms on the Ford Bronco (not sure what years). If your design works really well, I might have to consider going and re-doing mine. What is the amount of separation between the lower and upper axle mounting points. What size tire are you planning to run. I've got about 350 HP and 375 lbs of torgue, so I wanted to keep the lift reasonable. If I went to another 2-3 inches of lift, most of my clearance issues are gone, but then so is the street handling. Do you have a pic of the LC steering box mounted from further back to see where is sits relative to the other components?

The track bar / panhard goes to the rear of the tie rods, that makes sense. The drag link is the bar off the pitman arm that attaches to the steering arm on the passenger side, and you have that in front of the tie rod link. Are you using hi-steer arms?

That makes sense. I welded 2x2 1/4 wall sq tubing to the frame rails, and sleeved the shook hoops and welded them to the 2x2 tubing. Then added gussets to the the 2x2 sq tubing on the frame rail, and ran a support tube off each side of the hoops (onto the top pf the frame) for added strength and support. The material on the frame rails is pretty thin... It would be a lot of work to take this part and run the new piece of metal along the frame rails back that far. I was originally thinking of drilling new bolts holes and adding a sleeve, along with 1/4 plate on both sides of the frame for strength. Are you using a Land Cruiser steering gear and pitman arm?

Couple of questions... Is that a LandCruiser Steering Gear and Pitman Arm? Is the drag Link in front of tie rods. Also, am guessing on the inside frame rail, the new piece didn't go back as far as the front?

Yeah you're correct. I was thinking about 2 different issues I had when making the earlier post. I had to limit (a small amount) the amount the tire could turn inwards as at full turn there was contact with the sway bar. The reason I need to move the steering gear is to make room for moving the axle fwd, and having room for the frame panhard mount. I'll have to move the sway bar mount forward as well. That's nice work what you did, but I won't be able to go back that far in re-plating the frame rail as I've coil-over shock hoops mounted on the side of the frame rails. I suppose there's always strengthen the frame rails as far as you've done, and re-doing the shock hoops as that would give it a thicker piece of steel to weld the hoops to. More work...

I'm thinking about moving the front axle forward about 1.25 to 1.5" (oil pan clearance) and this would require either also moving the steering gear box forward about 2". The other option is going to a forward facing pitman arm, using a Scout II or Land Cruiser (FJ60 or FJ62) steering gear, but I might have problems with the mount being further back than stock due to the coil over shook hoops mounted to the side of frame. The forward facing pitman would also help with tire clearance as the pitman arm would swing left as the tire is turned to the left, where not the pitman arm swings left as the tire is turned to the right. I had to make some adjustments to limit the amount the tires turned to avoid tire - pitman arm contact. Anyone done or have some experience with something like this?.

I used the exact same shock hoops but didn't plate the frame rails. I added gussets and ran a support tube at about 30 degrees about 1/2 way up on both sides of each hoop, and welded the support tube to the top of the frame rail.

The reason for getting rid of the Opti Spark is primarily reliability, and going to individual coil pack is going to help with throttle response and drive-ability. The LT1 PCM is fairly limited with tuning by going to the LS based PCM, I think it'll be pretty good for fine tuning the injectors. Going to upgrade to 36 lb injectors. The conversion I'm looking to do will pretty much give me the same tune-ability, and uses off the self parts (outside of the cam reluctor ring), so for the $ I'm likely going to stick to the original plan. I'm guessing I'm at mid 300 HP, and with 4.88 gears, it already pulls unbelievable off the line. Don't think the need for more HP is really a goal any longer.

Not sure what you mean by retro fit stock or stand alone? The PCM and engine wire harness are from an 94 LT1. I had to make a few PCM programming changes and re-worked the engine harness and removed the wires from the harness that were for the GM gauges and instruments. The rest of it was to determine which Nissan gauge sensors to retain for the Nissan gauges, and which other senders to change for aftermarket gauges and to run the LT1 PCM. When doing a swap between 2 completely different vehicles, by the time the modifications are made to the harness and PCM, the result is a standalone unit anyways. Once the wire harness was modified, it was simply power and ground hook ups for the PCM, and the rest was things like brake signal from the Nissan for TCC lockup, and powering the NIssan fuel pump replay (however if necessary or desired, could have used a standalone relay for the fuel pump and do away with the Nissan relay altogether). Delete all the A/C signals, as the PCM will register the extra load when the A/C is on and adjust accordingly. There will be low/high and temp switches inline in the AC system to trigger fans and shut offs as required. I am planning to convert the LT1 Opti Spark based ignition with a conversion kit to upgrade (get rid of the Opti Spark) to the 8 coil pack from the LS based engine. That will require a LS based wire harness with a somewhat major re-work to re-tro fit a later harness with an older engine, and will be running the LS based PCM which allows for way more and better tuning capabilities - such as spark timing, precise injector flow rates, etc. etc., and a much stronger spark given the individual coils for each cylinder. This is my 3rd swap, so its not as scary as it would be for someone who's never done a swap like this before. Am going to build a custom dual rate sway bar (front and rear) to replace the existing custom front and rear - one heavy rate for on-road, and one relatively light rate to maintain stability but allow for good flex for off road. By the time I'm done, expect to be pushing 350 to 370 HP and slightly more torque, so want to have this handle on the road, and off road. Took it out the other day for a test drive, and 0 - 60 was, let's just say, it was non OEM Nissan...

Have more pics in the "Hardcore Custom" section under Small Block Chevy Swap

I certainly learned a lot on this build, so if or when you decide to start, I'd be happy to answer any questions. My build isn't quick finished yet. Working on front and rear bumpers, and am starting to gather parts to deal with the dreaded Opti Spark distributor in the Lt1 engine. Going to convert to a LS based system using the LS based PCM (allows way better ability to tune) and the Vortec/LS ignition coil pack and does away with the Distributor altogether. More to come...

I've had front and rear ARB's for about 12 years and not had any problems. They are pricier but can't them them for reliability and versatility, but the budget takes a hit. Do you have any part # or know where/what brand or o-rings the builder used. After 12 years, probably time for maintenance and might as well do an upgrade to the colder rated o-rings. Planning to do more playing in the snow this winter.

The dimensions for the VG30 flywheel to cranknose is approx. 22", and the SBC (LS1) is 28.75 and earlier SBC is 29.42 - so there's about 7" more with the SBC. I've a body lift which allows more room to place the engine few inches more towards the rear, and with e-fans and custom mounting for the rad and e-fan set up, the unit can can be positioned so that the deepest part of the fans fit into the front of the block above the crank pulley etc. My rad is about 2" thick, and the fan's at their deepest is 4" (total 6" for approx. 4,000 cfm). By positioning things this way, there is about 3/4" clearance for between the fan and all the critical pulley components. Its tight for maintenance, but like you said, it looks like it was "meant to be there". Also, I've built things so that the front bumper, fan and rad units come out fairly easily as 2 units if I have to get into that part of the engine. Why the LT1 - just good timing when its was available, and it had very little mileage (less than 70,000 K). The LT1 has the Opti Spark distributor (on the front), so there were no issues as far as the usual problems from the normal SBC distributor at the back of the block. There are some weaknesses with the OptiSpark, but there are 2 or 3 conversion upgrades to minimize or totally eliminate the use of the OpitSpark distributor, so that's on the list of upgrades in the not too distant future. So for these reasons and the extra HP as it sits, along with more with bolt on upgrades, I thought it was the way to go. I could have probablty set the motor back another 1.5" (in hindsight) but that would have meant that if the engine had to be pulled, or trans dropped out, I would have to take both out to be able to seperate them. The initial plan was to make a custom grill if necessary, but luckily even with the motor not being back as far as it could have been, all I'm going to have to do is shave a bit of the inside of the OEM grill (btw I've swapped the Pathfinder grill for a Hardbody grill) to be able to fit everything behind it. Unless someone looks for things, there's nothing but the tailpipes to tell there's over 300HP under the hood. I modified the original LT1 oil pan, but the clearance underneath is touch and go on full suspension compression. I think there might be contact at a few spots, so I will be going to a S10 4x4 pan and extending it (there's info on a few sites for guys doing S10 V8 conversions with the same issue), so that' is in the plans shortly. For headers, I went with a set of tight fight headers (Sanderson CC11-P) that are a shorty header. With the 3" body lift, I was able to set my engine a bit higher then what (I believe) the few after market V8 motor mount kits (4x4parts.com, etc.) out there. If the engine sits too low, the passenger side header connector will hit the frame rail, so that means frame rail mod, or modifying the connector on that side. The driver side has plenty of clearance. I looked at block huggers, but i think the frame rail issue and motor mount clearance issues be worst and be problematic on both sides. This seems to be the best way to go. The engine height issue is a tradeoff between no body lift and a larger suspension lift. The body lift allows for less suspension lif, and this allows for better angles on the front and rear link arms, and all the steering linkage at ride height. This means less oil pan clearance, but I deceided I'd rather have more relaxed linkage angles etc. and find a oil pan solution (which I think I have). With 300HP, I wanted a balance between great street handling, to go along with the 14" off road wheel travel capability.

Have flexed it a few times but not to the extreme yet. Once the bump stops are in and the limit straps, then I'll push it to the 14" travel limit. For now, I'm pretty happy with how its turned out. I've still to do the rear bumper (front is done - have LED DRL and turn signal combo) and tire carrier I'll post a pic of the rear with the dual stainless tailpipes that give away that there's something different under the hood. The front doesn;t give any indication of what's lurking under the hood. The placement of the engine and radiator / e-fans and front bumper (with the body lift) allows being able to mount the a/c condenser, aux tranny oil cooler and engine oil cooler all behind the stock grill. So thoses that are worried about space, it is possible to swap in a V8 with the full array of accessories on the front of the engine. It is a very tight fight, but with the body lift, a short (12" - 14" tall) a/c condenser, is protected behind the new bumper, and the 2 smaller (trans and engine) oil coolers (approx. 8" tall) can go side by side above the a/c condenser (behind the stock grill). Those parts aren;t in yet, but the room is there for that.

Used a adapter from Adavance Adapters to mate the trans to transfer case. I'm not sure if they still stock the adapters, but Mark's 4WD in Australia shows the carry them on their website. http://www.marks4wd.com/transfer-case-adaptors/nissan/navara-pathfinder-1.html To do this, the tranny output shaft needs to be replaced with the one that comes in the kit with the adapter, and a GM speed sensor and reluctor ring (get this from "Jags that Run" - http://www.jagsthatrun.com/ ) that matches your engine/PCM. I still use the Pathfinder speedometer, as I went from 4.37 gears to 4.88, and I also went from 31" to 35" tires which only puts me back within a few mph/kph at 10 MPH or 100 KMH. Not enough to mess with the speedo gears. The front was a lot of work, but I didn't start from scratch as I had an SAS with leaf springs which I did about 12 years ago. I was probably one of thew 1st guys to do it. I had the UCA lift (PITA and uselss), and then the 4" Trailmaster kit, and then finally went all out to an SAS. Got more than the 14" of travel - and no binding. The build is done and fully functional, but still have things like limit straps, bump stops, coverting to custom cable shift for trans case, etc, etc. etc. Have taken it for a few test runs, and the estimated 350 HP and torque is unbelievable. TOTALLY WORTH THE EFFORT, especially in 4WD and ARB front and rear engaged. No lack of power or traction...

I tried to engineer things for ease of maintanance. The rad is mounted as a unit with the e-fan. It's installed by 4 bolts - 2 to the custom cross member, and 2 lower on the frame in the front. The exhaust is 3 sections for each side, with a seperate section for the "H" crossover. .

I've got lots of pics but it'll take some time to get them organized. Here's a couple of the rear suspension for now. Had some rust on the floor and ended up cutting the floor out, which is how this whole build started. I added gussets to the truss osnce these pics were taken.