BowTied

Pretty cool truck, different. I wonder if that engine takes well to mods.... could be a fun cruiser.

It looks better than I might have imagined.

Nice write up and pics! Indeed, a local fellow with a QX4 just contacted me about my write up - he was missing several plates which were found above the swirl valves, and that sucks.

Congrats on the fix! So if I was following along correctly, once the previous owner shyt was fixed it was an issue of both headlights out, not just one. Right?

If it was a fuse wouldnt it affect both high beams? I have the same issue still on my '02 though it is pass side.

yup, that'd broken. g/l with the fix.

Mini-vans with sliding doors etc are becoming passe, especially in the US. Canadians still buy them, but sales are dropping. Average suburbanite family still needs/wants van like utilty but is avoiding the mini-van stigma. So manufacturers rewrap mini-vans without the extras like fold flat seats and sliding doors and make higher profit margins. Works for everyone but real automotive enthusiasts, the smaller percentage of buyers (who already have an Xterra in this market segment). It may be ugly to us, but it is just a numbers game.

Rod is a saint? Now that is funny!! Congrats man!

And it reminded me of this scary welding story: http://www.brewracingframes.com/id75.htm

Every reminder to work safe is worth it. Thanks for the post.

You yanks crack me up. NONE of us pronounce any of these words correctly - modern English originates in England/Britain - so their dialect is "correct" if there is such a thing. At least we don't randomly remove letters from words like colour. Hey just kidding around, I know to some I may speak weird. If you want to hear something crazy hang out in St. John's NFLD for a while. "Lerd tunderin' jesus we fexya roight!"

Don't rag on 1994sev6 too much guys. He has had a couple bad experiences perhaps. And I commend anyone who doesnt feel comfortable with a trailer to not use one. Mis-used by accident they can be quite dangerous esp. as the loads increase. I am surprised that he found trailers expensive in his area, $1k gets a brand new one from TSC or Costco and decent smaller used ones can be had for $4-600 around here. I have two, one I traded for a computer and one I got for free, albeit i needed work. So I realize now that I have hoared up this truck thread with trailer stuff... sorry OP!

for me, the utility trailer beats the truck. I back the trailer up to the house and spend a week throwing drywall bits in while I renovate. No need to drive around with hundreds of pounds of crap when the depot isn't open til saturday. Plus I'd hate loaning out my truck to some pepole, but the trailer: no big deal. And the trailer is cheaper than trading to a limited seating/scant secure storage pick-up. Trailer has but one drawback: you need a place to put it. Ok, maybe two, you also need some halfway decent driving skills.

burn!

Indeed! Great shot.

You are right in the accidents are not common occurences, or the compressed air would be banned or have much heavier safety around it. The calculation I showed is not the stress. Is is simply sum of the force on the vessel. The point being that if there is a breach, where a pc of the metal, the connector, the fitting that fails, whatever, has an incredible amount of force available to make it a projectile, just like the piston example. The size of the tank relates to the volume of the compressed air. The force that is acting on the vessel is only about pressure and surface area. You shut-off 120psi with your barehand? - I hope you didn't mean you put your hand over the the leak? That can kill you as it can force air bubles into your bllod stream. OSHA and other safety sources train people to not use an air gun to blow dust of their clothes for reasons such as this. I have personally witness a service tech removing a 1.5" ball valve from a 120psi airline that he thought was isolated. The blast of air that came out not only sent the valve flying chipping the concrete floor but the air hit the back of his hand hard enough to force blood out of the pores of his skin. B, you personally may have sufficient training and experience to handle compressed air just fine, but for newbies - around air please, please take caution. If you are reading this and are new to using compressed air - here is a 3 minute video that save you injury, maybe your life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdVx220PNRE Again, no intent to rag on you or anyone in this great site, just relaying my experience and training from mechanical engineering plus 20 years in a manufacturing environment. /soapbox

Please don't be too quick to discount the power of compressed air at only 100 or 130 psi. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=69953 An air pig tank that is 12" diameter and 24" long has an internal surface area of about (roughly) 1300 in.sq. x 100 psi = 130,000 lbs of force total. A little moisture cuases some rust at the welds over time... could be a pin hole leak. Could be cause the parent material in the heat affected zone of the end cap weld to tear and ... boom. Treat compressed air like you would with electricity, with respect. Not trying to be a hard-ass, but I have seen air cylinders for machines fail at under 100psi and it shoots the piston across the shop and embeds into a skid of product. Not pretty.

Wow, that would have been around 150lbs of metal just for the "bumper"! nice.

We got about 35cm over Monday and Tuesday here!!

Get a pc of rubber hose that just fits in thru the hole and tape it to a shop vac hose.

Yes, this is true. See my write up here on how to do this. Yes. Comapring notes with a buddy who has an '01 I think he said his manual says that 91 is required whereas mine says recommended. I am not aware of any engine differences, though perhaps there is in the ECM programming. When using less than 91 the computer retards the timing a little bit and there is a loss in performance by doing so. I have not had the time and patience to do a proper study to see if there is difference in fuel economy. I am sure there would be some, but is the increase in fuel economy running premium worth the surcharge for the premium? I have my doubts, especially in Canada.

None here yet dang it. It will come, just not in time for CHristmas

For those that like to read from authoratative sources: http://www.api.org/certifications/engineoil/pubs/upload/1560.pdf http://www.amsoil.com/articlespr/2007/article_gearoilbasics.aspx I have found conflicting info on the net as to whether or not the sulphur content is corrosive to the brass synchros. I'd be inclined to avoid the GL-5 just in case.

FWIW we run our 02 exclusively on 89 octane with no issues for 4 years now. If you like the power of 3.5 get the '01. If you want a simpler engine get the other one. If they are the same price I presume the 01 has higher miles?