Supercharged R50

[Strato_54]

Good day everyone, one morning I was on market place and found a VG33ER forsale for a decent price and for a and was a good few hours drive but I picked it up with no prior intention of swapping my pathfinder. The swap is pretty straightforward along as you have all the parts from an ER to swap. It is also 02 Xterra ECU swapped on the original body and engine harness. The pulley is swapped now as of writing to the 4x4parts 2.4 quick change pulley on the stock SCB cut off. It makes a significantly more amount of power than before and is absolutely worth it if you can afford the premium gas. ALTHOUGH, it seems the MPG has been improved since the swap at least at partial throttle which is pretty cool. It's also running factoy R50 airbox with all original sensors. 

 

Here's what was swapped

Lower intake

Injectors 

Fuel rails (minor differences)

Supercharger

Spark plugs

Spark plug wires

Thermostat 180 to 170

AC tensioner only NOT alternator

Belts

Crank pulley

Water and ps pulley NOT alt

ECU and plug

Pas side valve cover (only for PCV valve)

 

To swap the ECU most of the pins are in the same locations how ever not all. you WILL have to solder a larger pin on the orange IACV wire and to make the SCB safety work you can reuse and replumb the map/baro switch as the SCB and it works the same. All valves, sensors and anything else are original 97 pathfinder. You will have to run different length belts for all 3 now that the V belt is deleted, the crank and water pump are different size and the super charger belt needs to be a 5 rib and shorter unless you swap the AC comp. Cruise even works too!

 

It drives incredible and I could not be more happy with the result. before the pulley it feels like a more peppy VQ but after the pulley it pulls harder than one for sure. When I dump the clutch I'm always first off the line even to the diesel guys that book it off the light (i'm looking at you Dodge owners) and it seems to run cooler than my friends bone stock X since mine has a hole in the hood and gets good cooling. Thanks.

 

 

Donor engine in back of my r50 

 

 

 

On floor after getting it home

 

 

repinning the ECU plugs

 

Cleaning 

 

Radiator shows up

 

 

 

 

Installing charger and intake 

 

 

*borart voice* VERY NICEEE

[alexg89]

so talk me through the ECU part. I know that the pigtails are different from the xterra ecu tgo the r50 one. What did you have to do exactly? unpin the entire plug and just re pin it to the xterra ecu pig tail?

 

[Strato_54]

3 hours ago, alexg89 said:

so talk me through the ECU part. I know that the pigtails are different from the xterra ecu tgo the r50 one. What did you have to do exactly? unpin the entire plug and just re pin it to the xterra ecu pig tail?

 

Not sure if my answer went through but I’ll try again lol 

 

exactly. If pin 1 was ignition signal then it moved to pin 1 in the X ecu. But pin 8 on the r50 is fuel pump so that moved to 11 on the X. I was able to sit with both pin out sheets and write each pin and what it converted to so it was easier to swap when it went in. This way it was a turn key upgrade which it would’ve been if I paid attention and didn’t mess up the fuel pump pin lol. 8 goes to 11 not back to 8 haha. 1 for like 100 isn’t bad but there wasn’t much to it really. Everything works no downsides 

 

once I started going it became fun but would I do it again? Absolutely the F not! That repinning sucks 

Edited June 22 by Strato_54

[alexg89]

well goo deallll. i wanted to make a jumper from harness to harness but depinning it may be the route.

may have to start looking for some extra parts now lol

 

[Slartibartfast]

Hell yeah dude! Good to see you got it going.

[Strato_54]

On 6/22/2026 at 6:08 AM, alexg89 said:

 wanted to make a jumper from harness to harness

 

I was going to do the same thing but decided for the work it's probably just worth doing the repin. I still get OBD which is nice I can use my blue driver as a second set of gauges for my coolant temp or on road trips to check codes. 

 

I drove it to dinner the other night about 40km away and it felt amazing. used half the fuel and I normally do and was a freight train up the hills. Cruise control was a blast to use with it too as it worked with 0 issues or adjustments. Still a couple things I gotta finish up but I've been driving it to work and am very happy. Not hammering on it too hard yet still trying to make sure it holds together but so far its solid

[alexg89]

19 hours ago, Strato_54 said:

I was going to do the same thing but decided for the work it's probably just worth doing the repin. I still get OBD which is nice I can use my blue driver as a second set of gauges for my coolant temp or on road trips to check codes. 

 

I drove it to dinner the other night about 40km away and it felt amazing. used half the fuel and I normally do and was a freight train up the hills. Cruise control was a blast to use with it too as it worked with 0 issues or adjustments. Still a couple things I gotta finish up but I've been driving it to work and am very happy. Not hammering on it too hard yet still trying to make sure it holds together but so far its solid

yah i did the SC swap on my SAS xterra and is been the best thing ive done. Really wanna get this R50 done that i have because the 35s are just killing it lol

[FirstGenFreak]

I love the sneaky bonnet hole! 

Cool conversion mate and thanks for sharing 

[Strato_54]

3 hours ago, FirstGenFreak said:

I love the sneaky bonnet hole! 

Cool conversion mate and thanks for sharing 

 

Thank you! haha. It's been a treat for sure. I was going to do a write up style post but didn't feel I had enough pictures to go with the information.