Zibi

groovy, so just discount any reference I made to the exhaust

Unless R50 is different which I don't think it is... Trans pan can be dropped without moving the exhaust, it's just tight. Bolts on the rear end of the pan were an extremely tight squeeze, didn't think I was going to get one of them back in. The exhaust is close enough that it will only come out one way. Remove all the bolts, slide it forward as much as you can, then drop the rear lip and bring it down towards the back. Be careful, the pan will still have a significant amount of oil in it even after it is fully drained as the plug sits a centimeter or more above the bottom of the pan. The actual filter also holds quite a bit of oil, and depending on how long it's been in there (and how stuck the gasket on the top of the filter is), it might need some force to get it off. New trans filter comes with a new gasket. I'd personally use the proper gasket given the amount of fuel in the pan. The generic trans filter I bought from Lordco came with two gaskets, one for my R50 and another which I gather is for a WD21, X, or some other vehicle that uses the same trans, and it was slightly, but hardly smaller. Make sure you scrape off all remaining traces of the old gasket and clean both the top and bottom of the pan to ensure a tight seal. Make sure you clean off the magnet thats in there while you've got it open too. Also the Haynes manual recommends that you measure the amount of oil removed to determine how much new stuff to put in. This is a good idea. I didn't do this, instead I referenced these forums and the volume chart in the Haynes manual, and after filling it there is too much in there (and I put less in than recommended).

Running rich is a symptom of cracked manifolds.

when my brother worked as a nissan service manager he said that most pathys that had been in an accident and had a bullbar ended up with more damage than they would have otherwise. Bullbar just gets pushed into the quarter panel so you're out a $200 bullbar plus have to pay to fix a squished quarter and cornerlamp.

It doesn't mean anything on any rig so long as your tcase and axle match.

I'm definitely interested to see if you can get it to work...cracked manifolds are starting to annoy me

argh I hate the lego wheels...

The general consensus I've found by reading these forums is most people are happy with an IFS lift and you won't get too much unusual wear with a 3" lift and manual hubs. But seriously, if you can do a quality SAS for that cheap, it's worth the added time. You're pretty much limited to 3" frame lift and maybe 33s if you also have a BL. With a SAS there are a lot more opportunities for height and tire size. I recall 87pathy saying that he didn't think the wheel wells would hold anything bigger than 36s, but thats still a hell of a lot bigger than you'll get with an IFS. But I get what you're saying about DDing it...I was just talking to my neighbor about doing a manual trans swap, and I was telling him my biggest reservation is if I screw anything up then I'm unable to get to work and school until I fix it. But if you can do an SAS for that cheap, buy a $500 beater to dd until your pathy is done, then sell the beater for close to the same amount.

The overdrive light on an auto tranny flashes a code to tell you whats wrong with the transmission. Mine did it when I restarted my car after the transmission went into limp mode.

Hey I'm no expert. That click could be the fuse to a small nuclear warhead. I think I know what it is, I don't actually know for certain. It just doesn't personally give me any cause for concern

Tell them to get fskced, they're trying to take you for a ride. They're not willing to look into whether it's anything cheaper. Call a few other shops/nissan dealerships and see what they have to say. And tell these guys that you're not outright paying anywhere close to that much until you're convinced it's necessary and see if they back down. I'd see about getting a jy trans and having a small shop put it in, try and find a good mechanic who is recommended to you, especially if they'll do it for cheap. Now my assumption as to what the shop did: The dealer service manual has little troubleshooting flowcharts. I.e. if it's doing this, check part a. If part a is leaking, see if part b is rattling. And so on until they got down to the end, determined your trans is fskced, and the nissan recomended solution was to replace. If they rushed through the diagnostic, or were lazy while doing it, then that may not actually be the case. When I get home I'll pull up the MT manual and take a gander.

Take a couple pictures of the trans swap if it's what you end up doing...I'm probably going to be going the same route in a year or two, mine is slowly dying.

Easier to do a spacer lift on them because they're independent suspension all the way around...backs just need spacers like the fronts of ours do. A spring spacer for the back of ours are big and clunky and you may as well just buy bigger (& stiffer) springs. Anyway you can't compare lifts for an R50 with an R51...they have this frame thingy that apparently allows for cheap and easy body lifts. We're limited by unibody and cv angles, so the height restriction has nothing to do with the manufacturers.

yeah mine does that too, I imagine they all do I just assumed it had something to do with releasing the parking pin, since you need to have the brake in to do this. Not exactly something to worry about.

I talked with the guys at napa for quite a while about using seafoam as I'm really not much for putting additives in either. They were obviously advocates - they use it in not only all their company trucks, but their personal vehicles and the one guys dirtbike. I asked them about seafoam causing more damage than good on higher mileage engines, and how he described it to me is that on higher mileage engines the problem is that the inside of the engine can get nicks over time which are subsequently packed with carbon build up. Since seafoam is such an excellent carbon cleaner, it'll clean the carbon out of all these nicks causing the seals to no longer create a perfect seal and therefore leaks to be created. Between talking to these guys and doing a lot of reading I definitely did my research (on this particular product) and very few people I have found have had problems, and they always seemed to be on high mileage engines. It's been a week since I seafoamed my engine, and while I didn't see amazing results, there is a slight but noticeable improvement in throttle response and a smoother idle. The other thing I never asked about and will next time is there little recipe...does anyone find it odd that my 3.3L V6, or even say a 6l V8 is recommended to use the same amount of seafoam as little 1.8l 4 banger honda? My "smoke show" was very unimpressive compared to all the youtube videos of the ricers doing it. But aside from that, it just doesn't logically make sense that the cleaner would be as effective if it is being spread over a larger area, you'd think that realistically their "recipe" would go by displacement, not a one size fits all type deal.

great info, I never realized there was such a variance in quality. I'm not too worried about the @!*%ty fram I have in there now because I'll just change it in a couple months anyhow, but I still don't feel that great knowing I have that Fram trans oil filter in there as it's going to be in there for a couple more years and I really don't want to drop the trans oil pan again if I don't have too because that was annoying.... I did find it weird though. The trans oil filter came with two gaskets. One was too large, and the other one was clearly for our trans. However the one for our trans was just built as a symmetrical gasket despite the front driver corner of the oil pan having an indentation. Doesn't make a difference, it still created a tight seal, just seems to be a sign of the overall quality and consideration put into the part considering it's an OEM replacement gasket yet the actual Nissan part is the proper shape.

vg33's and I believe vg30's are prone to cracked manifolds. If the crack gets big enough air will be sucked in, and since the ecu reads there as being too much air it will increase the fuel mixture causing your engine to run really rich. Cracked manifold should be fairly easy to notice, there will be an audible tick, but I figured it was worth mentioning. edit; burning oil generally causes blue smoke

^^^ sounds right, I was going to say sounds like clutching problem

awesome, I just put a fram filter on my truck. Oh and a fram auto trans filter and gasket too. wonderful...

same amount of work to replace the boot as the entire CV. It just comes down to cost, when I fixed mine a boot was $20 and a new axle was $160, so the choice was easy.

go back to where you bought it from and tell them you asked for one for a 2k3, not a wd21. @!*% like filters, spark plugs, etc. you can just go to any major parts store like napa or lordco and tell them the make, model, and year of your vehicle and they can get you the part....you don't need part numbers. If it doesn't fit go back and call the guy a fskcing retard for screwing up an oil filter sale.

So apparently mine is missing pieces...as in all the screwdrivers, wrenches, and pliers.

Theres a few people floating around with stillen headers, I know vengeful was flogging a set when when he was parting out his truck. The headers were limited production as far as I know and I don't know anything about the exhaust or intake, so they're not really that common. I'd love to get my hands on a set of the headers though. Not looking forward to broken studs but I'm pretty sure one of my manifolds is cracked.

I hate to say it, but if you're looking to do a serious offroader for dirt cheap you should look into a jeep or other domestic...they're so commonly used that there a plethora of aftermarket parts and many types of vehicles can be picked up for quite cheap. Even a WD21 or older toy would be a lot cheaper than this project. Just remember you get what you pay for, so cheap rigs are more liable to break (unless you get a great deal on something good), and often you get less than you pay for when you're paying a shop to fab one off parts for a unique vehicle. But what can I say...I'm an accounting student, I just see all the $$s instead of getting excited about the potential

Going to cost a lot more than that unless you get great deals on parts and do the work yourself or have friends who can do it and owe you favors. And once you've got all that wonderful lift you're going to want some nice meats, and then you're looking at 2/3rds of your budget just for new rubber once the sas is done. Don't want to be a dick, because I'd love to see another R50 sas, just know its not exactly a cheap date....