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JR50 to V8 R51


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Hello all,

Since lock down i decided to use my time to look for a new vehicle, I was mostly looking at trucks because i do want to do some towing in the future, but did enjoy my large suv coming from the QX4. The worst part about the QX4 was the power or lack of it, so i desperately wanted to avoid that again. Basically for towing and not under powering a chassis i needed a full size v8 (like a 5.7 Ram not a 4.7). After 2 months of searching i stumbled upon the holy grail - a fully loaded 2008 V8 Pathfinder that looks to be in near mint condition minus a little but of rust at the front bottom corner of the driver door. I got another 2 hour drive this weekend 1 way to go pick it up and she will be all mine!

 

My plans for the vehicle are nothing crazy, I saw the ironman lifts on sale but currently out of stock and was deciding on if i really needed that. After driving this one the suspension still felt great so i decided i dont need a full conversion yet and if it fits the V8 I plan to do the 1.5" SFCreations body lift to improve asthetics and maybe a bit more clearance to fit a new bigger set of K02's. Besides tires and the small body lift i may in the future still do a suspension lift, but im considering if i can fit a hidden-type winch in the factory bumper and or throw on some new light bars.

 

Will post some photos when i get it ?

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  • 1 month later...

Sorry for the delay all. Been on sick leave pretty much since around the time i picked this thing up, not fully sure whats going on but i tested COVID negative so thats good still. On to the R51. Here's the photos from when i picked it up, had a good 2 hour drive home when i picked it up which gave some good learning to the overall characteristics of the vehicle and showed some of its problems. On that drive discovered some of the wheels could use a balance but thats fine as i planned on replacing the tires anyways not sure what i want to do for that - Had Cooper ATW's on my QX4 and they were great, now deciding if i want to stick with those or "upgrade" (read as spend more) on falken wildpeaks AT3W or BFG KO2's. And i also learned the AC has a bit of a leak inside the cabin some condensation but theres a tsb for that i saw and just need to buy a little hose. Next day i drove it to work and noticed my rad was leaking. This was actually a good thing to some extent as i could smell coolant when i bought it but they washed the engine bay so i couldnt see where from. I was happy it was leaking at the top seam as then i could throw a brand new rand in and know that my tranny would still be safe for now. Fast forward another couple days and a CEL for P0455 and P0456 together and alternating, just to play it safe i got a new gas cap - didnt help but was cheap and easy - and then replaced the evap canister purge valve with one from rock auto and so far haven't driven a ton since but no light as of yet.  I also did some other maintenance items such as a new air filter, rear glass struts, wipers, had the dealer before i picked it up (for free) do a serp belt and front brakes. The last bit of maintenance i did was polishing up the headlights as they've used a bit of help. Oh and the wheels got some bad corrosion ill need to take care of.

 

Moving on to mods i wouldnt really say i have done anything yet waiting on some money as being on sick leave has delayed some things for now but I saw complaints about they headlights so i decided to try out some new more expensive headlight bulb replacements and went with the Sylvania ZXE's.  I wouldnt say in person its a huge difference but there is some improvement - in the photos though you can really see the temperature difference. I have an old light bar and some pod lights ive been considering throwing on but dont want to block the front bumper as im not fully sure as to the v8's cooling capabilities, and have been wanting to do ditch lights but RAGO wasn't the greatest informant if their frontier brackets would work or not. I have not yet ordered the SfCreations body lift as again just waitng on a little bit more money but have beem watching to see if other people are doing it - I think i would be the first v8 to try it and im curious as to how no lower fan shroud would effect anything (if at all), Lastly for a little bit of personalization i did essentially in the toyota world the Raptor light mod and threw some ambers in the grille. Easy to wire up together and mounted with some small zip ties, do power them i wanted to use a fuse tap but couldnt find any locally of the mini ATO's so instead i just tapped into the passenger side corner marker for power and straight to battery for ground.

 

Big photo dump

Day i got her

GKV1vwO.jpg

vbAQe9m.jpg

 

Headlights before:

IRddAc8.jpg

 

Headlights with the ZXE:

0v5S5XB.jpg

 

And lastly with the amber's installed:

dNuMrHG.jpg

 

 

Edited by TroyButler
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  • 2 weeks later...

Nice new ride, good luck with it.  I'm leisurely beginning to look for a clean, low mileage R51 to replace my gradually rotting R50.  I'd like to find a V8, as I loved that engine in my Titan, but they seem to be far more rare around here.  As far as headlights go, I've had excellent results with replacements from Diode Dynamics, they're a little pricey, but great quality, plug & play and are backed by excellent customer support.  Enjoy!

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8 hours ago, 01Pathmaker said:

Nice new ride, good luck with it.  I'm leisurely beginning to look for a clean, low mileage R51 to replace my gradually rotting R50.  I'd like to find a V8, as I loved that engine in my Titan, but they seem to be far more rare around here.  As far as headlights go, I've had excellent results with replacements from Diode Dynamics, they're a little pricey, but great quality, plug & play and are backed by excellent customer support.  Enjoy!

Thank you, I was looking at trucks because i really do enjoy trucks, but just too much rust and too much money.  You're not alone on the rarity but that worked out in my favor. I work at a nissan dealer and no one had seen a v8 pathy before. I believe mine was the only one for sale at the time in my province, and it wasn't even advertised as one. It was higher mileage than i wanted if i was going to get a v6 patyh but the price was right and i liked the colour so as i went through the photos i saw the v8 and i jumped at it. But as for the rarity because there was none around here, the used car dealer i got it from had it priced just like a v6 so i feel that saved me a fair bit.

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I'm running 255/85r16 BFG KM2 on mine. The skinny tyre is great for 4wding but does compromise road handling.

The wider 285/75r16 tyre would be better onroad. I also wouldn't recommend the KM2 unless you really want to go 4wding as they're very noisy. KO2 would be a much better compromise, or even a more road biased AT like the AT3.

I wouldn't mind a V8 (couldn't use much more fuel than v6) but they never sold them here.

jG2FHkJ.jpg

Edited by KiwiTerrano
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On 8/28/2020 at 5:43 AM, KiwiTerrano said:

I'm running 255/85r16 BFG KM2 on mine. The skinny tyre is great for 4wding but does compromise road handling.

The wider 285/75r16 tyre would be better onroad. I also wouldn't recommend the KM2 unless you really want to go 4wding as they're very noisy. KO2 would be a much better compromise, or even a more road biased AT like the AT3.

I wouldn't mind a V8 (couldn't use much more fuel than v6) but they never sold them here.

jG2FHkJ.jpg

I love the look of your rig, ideally id want to mount a winch with stock bumper but not really sure of any proven options. Do you feel like your cooling isnt as good with the lights blocking the grilles? that worries me with the v8 since same rad and such. The popular option is the 285's which at highway speeds probably is a better choice, but i decided to go with a 265/70r18, as i wont be doing any real serious off roading just mild and winter is a top priority. Speaking of winter i went with the Falken wildpeak AT3W because i could get a larger size (i wanted a 65 side wall originally) for $500 less than small or equal K02's, and because i heard conflicting reviews on KO2 wet/snow performance. With the v8 on slightly larger tires im currently averaging around 19.3L/100km but ive only done city driving lately. Pretty junk but to be expected, and i expect the AT3W to make it slightly worse.

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1 hour ago, TroyButler said:

I love the look of your rig, ideally id want to mount a winch with stock bumper but not really sure of any proven options. Do you feel like your cooling isnt as good with the lights blocking the grilles? that worries me with the v8 since same rad and such. The popular option is the 285's which at highway speeds probably is a better choice, but i decided to go with a 265/70r18, as i wont be doing any real serious off roading just mild and winter is a top priority. Speaking of winter i went with the Falken wildpeak AT3W because i could get a larger size (i wanted a 65 side wall originally) for $500 less than small or equal K02's, and because i heard conflicting reviews on KO2 wet/snow performance. With the v8 on slightly larger tires im currently averaging around 19.3L/100km but ive only done city driving lately. Pretty junk but to be expected, and i expect the AT3W to make it slightly worse.

Well, it did get a little hot going up the remarkables but I have since realised that the radiator was half covered in mud so that probably contributed...

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Small update: Got my 265/70/18 Falken Wildpeak AT3W's fitted. The tires look great and ride great thus far, mostly looking forward to see how they perform in winter. They did rub and required some fender liner melting, and cutting of the front mud flaps. (This is on stock suspension)

rBjInid.jpg

vSbnvHy.jpg

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5 hours ago, KiwiTerrano said:

Just needs some lift now!

I've been heavily contemplating doing the SFCreations body lift, just havent really seen anyone do it or any v8's. the 1.5" i think is the perfect amount of lift just not sure if it will cause an problems or anything. For now im probably just going to run airlift in the rear to keep it leveled with weight in the trunk and stiffen it up a little. Trying to save money and dont want to spend a lot or i would probably just do the ironman lift

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On 9/11/2020 at 3:00 AM, TroyButler said:

I've been heavily contemplating doing the SFCreations body lift, just havent really seen anyone do it or any v8's. the 1.5" i think is the perfect amount of lift just not sure if it will cause an problems or anything. For now im probably just going to run airlift in the rear to keep it leveled with weight in the trunk and stiffen it up a little. Trying to save money and dont want to spend a lot or i would probably just do the ironman lift

I think the SF creations is a spacer suspension lift, not a body lift per se. Would still look good though!

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  • 3 months later...

Been a while since i updated this thread, and have since had a fair shares of ups and downs. For starters i did my passenger rear wheel bearing, while it didnt make any noise it had a ton of play which im told is common for them, but i went with the usual napa part and it went smoothly. i think it took less than half an hour to do. After that since i didnt know all the maintenance history on this vehicle i did the front and rear diff fluids, easy job just tiring pumping in all the fluid but again short and easy. A little after doing this i noticed a rather large problem. When i inspected this suv before purchase i noticed the front diff pinion seal was leaking, but it didnt look that bad. Now that its winter and ive used the auto mode a couple times i noticed it will piss fluid. Tried to take care of that yesterday, ordered the part from napa and went at it. Once i had it all fully apart (but the seal still in place) i realized it was the wrong seal. Returned the part got my $20 back and had to go through the annoying process of putting it all back together and wasting more diff fluid. I looked a bit online and saw a DIY on titan talk where the person had the same issue and the listed part is way too small so it looks like ill have to get a Nissan one from work for x4 the price (with employee discount). Also did an oil change and now a new battery (725 CCA felt the 640 was a bit undersized for the v8) so been spending a lot on maintenance, come the new year ill attempt that pinion seal again and at some point i have a power steering line to do aswell. Oh i also did a rear brake service because on both sides the pins were super seized (needed the torches for 1 pin per side) and was causing very uneven pad wear. From the start i was unhappy with the brakes and was confused seeing people wanting to upgrade to v8 brakes and after fixing mine i will agree they do be good.

 

As for fun stuff I finally got air lift. I ordered from 4WP and after a month of them not shipping i cancelled my order. It would have cost like 145Cad at the time i think maybe a bit more. I saw them on amazon for $100 and tried to order but no matter where i tried shipping them too it said amazon could not ship it so i assumed it was just a bug and a lost cause. Fast forward a month or 2 and i saw the prices keep dropping and dropping and at one point they were $58. Magically i tried to order them and it actually went through! Was super stoaked for that price and immediately installed. While i did the traditional install of skipping using the T and running individual lines to each bag, I also covered the lines in some plastic wire loom for some added protection. I forgot to take measurements but id say i went from level-ish maybe a bit saggy (I have a DIY drawer system with some weight in the rear) to having some rake so im pretty happy with the results and will be able to tow better in the future. As for ride quality i run around 14PSI and its a bit harsh on some bumps but overall its all good.

 

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