My 2001 Pathfinder (R50 ) mild/budget build

[stioc]

So haven't had much time to play with the truck lately. However, here's what's on the horizon:

1. Ordered a set of Speed bleeders
2. Got a few cooling system stuff sitting in the garage that I'd like to tackle before it gets too hot. I did the hood-prop mod and it seems to work but not enough data yet. I did see strips of kleenex taped to the hood flap around with the engine idling so I know the air is escaping now. I do plan to run WaterWetter and 75-80% water-to-coolant ratio this summer. Sometimes we see the ambient temps in the 110degrees in the inland areas so hopefully with all these mods the engine will run just a bit cooler.
3. Got a hood vent from a 280Z but only found the passenger side one, now I need one from the driver's side but people selling them on ebay are smoking crack
4. Waiting for the ABS plastic sheet to arrive so I can build my air-box for the cone filter, it'll be my first time building it out of ABS. If it doesn't work then I'll just build it out of aluminum or steel sheet.
5. I thinking I never changed the spark plugs on it since I bought it so I probably should do that at some point in the near future.

 

[Allof75]

So haven't had much time to play with the truck lately. However, here's what's on the horizon:

1. Ordered a set of Speed bleeders
2. Got a few cooling system stuff sitting in the garage that I'd like to tackle before it gets too hot. I did the hood-prop mod and it seems to work but not enough data yet. I did see strips of kleenex taped to the hood flap around with the engine idling so I know the air is escaping now. I do plan to run WaterWetter and 75-80% water-to-coolant ratio this summer. Sometimes we see the ambient temps in the 110degrees in the inland areas so hopefully with all these mods the engine will run just a bit cooler.
3. Got a hood vent from a 280Z but only found the passenger side one, now I need one from the driver's side but people selling them on ebay are smoking crack
4. Waiting for the ABS plastic sheet to arrive so I can build my air-box for the cone filter, it'll be my first time building it out of ABS. If it doesn't work then I'll just build it out of aluminum or steel sheet.
5. I thinking I never changed the spark plugs on it since I bought it so I probably should do that at some point in the near future.

Sounds great! As usual of course, what is the hood prop mod exactly? My hood flaps around a bit over 50 but I don't think that's a "mod" haha

 

[txfactor76]

So haven't had much time to play with the truck lately. However, here's what's on the horizon:

1. Ordered a set of Speed bleeders
2. Got a few cooling system stuff sitting in the garage that I'd like to tackle before it gets too hot. I did the hood-prop mod and it seems to work but not enough data yet. I did see strips of kleenex taped to the hood flap around with the engine idling so I know the air is escaping now. I do plan to run WaterWetter and 75-80% water-to-coolant ratio this summer. Sometimes we see the ambient temps in the 110degrees in the inland areas so hopefully with all these mods the engine will run just a bit cooler.
3. Got a hood vent from a 280Z but only found the passenger side one, now I need one from the driver's side but people selling them on ebay are smoking crack
4. Waiting for the ABS plastic sheet to arrive so I can build my air-box for the cone filter, it'll be my first time building it out of ABS. If it doesn't work then I'll just build it out of aluminum or steel sheet.
5. I thinking I never changed the spark plugs on it since I bought it so I probably should do that at some point in the near future.

I'm also wondering what you mean by "hood prop mod." The only hood prop mod I know of is when you swap your hood prop out for the gas struts. I don't see how that would assist in cooling... Down here in Houston we are 100F+ for almost half the year, and I don't have any overheating issues. I only ever had that one instance where it ran a little hot. I would just flush the system and run premixed coolant.

I have a passenger side 280ZX hood vent if you want it. I only used the driver's side vent.

My intake's air supply is way up in the driver's side fender. A couple PVC elbows and rubber drain couplings is all it took. It's cold air and way higher than the deepest water I'd ever cross.

 

[stioc]

Hood prop mod: If you google or youtube you can see it better than I can explain but in the most basic form you install a few washers between the hood and the arms that it attaches to. This causes the hood to sit higher (near the windshield) which in turn allows for the hot air that's trapped inside the engine compartment to escape better. I had to remove the weather strip there too. It's a fairly common mod with the racers and even the offroad trucks and has been proven to reduce the under hood temps by 8-10degs which doesn't sound like much but could be a difference between 226degs and 236degs (boiling). Furthermore, since I no longer have the stock air box *at idle* my intake temps are 15-25degs higher than ambient- which is good for gas mileage but not so much for power when crawling around in the desert. At 65mph though the intake temps are just 4
-6 degs higher than ambient. With the airbox/isolator it should be a little cooler- which I mocked up already. In my case, a simple test in the garage with strips of Kleenex showed the hot air escaping both while idling and with the engine off. I only used 3 washers so it's hard to notice the hood sitting higher or looking ghetto-fabulous.

 

[stioc]

I'm also wondering what you mean by "hood prop mod." The only hood prop mod I know of is when you swap your hood prop out for the gas struts. I don't see how that would assist in cooling... Down here in Houston we are 100F+ for almost half the year, and I don't have any overheating issues. I only ever had that one instance where it ran a little hot. I would just flush the system and run premixed coolant.

I have a passenger side 280ZX hood vent if you want it. I only used the driver's side vent.

My intake's air supply is way up in the driver's side fender. A couple PVC elbows and rubber drain couplings is all it took. It's cold air and way higher than the deepest water I'd ever cross.

I plan to do the coolant flush (though 70/30 water/coolant for the summer) when I install the radiator, cap, thermostat etc which are sitting in the garage waiting for someone to install lol

Thanks for the offer on the vent but I too have the passenger side vent. I need one for the driver's side so it looks symmetrical. I'm still not sure I want to cut into the hood but hey it's as much as an offroad truck as it is my fun/project truck...

Do you have the stock air filter? I had to remove it to find a place for the ARB compressor...I have thought about relocating the compressor elsewhere and going back to stock but it's only been a passing thought so far.

 

[Co-opski]

With the hood prop mod they always worked on my air-cooled VWs, never got around to trying it on the e28 beemer though.
I just picked up an AEM Brute-force and I have been tracking my mileage and temps for when I swap in the cai-filter.

 

[txfactor76]

Yes, I have the stock airbox. Here's where I installed my ARB CKMA12 when I had it:



I was able to use factory captured nuts on 3 of the bolts. I did have to detach that relay box and move it forward a bit. Keep in mind, I have the VG33 so it may be a completely different layout than the VQ35.

But thanks for the heads up on the hood prop mod. I may do that to mine. As much body damage as it already has, I'm sure nobody will even notice lol.

 

[kjp1969]

I'm still not sure I want to cut into the hood

Yeah, I agree that it should be avoided.
My truck runs a little hot on a slow grade if I'm lugging the engine, but a few revs helps the water pump circulate better and there are no issues at all. Before you go all Mad Max on the hood, why don't you try refreshing the cooling system and see how much that helps? I can't imagine that Nissan built a truck that overheats- I bet the components are just old.

 

[stioc]

Aw Kevin I was going for the Ford Raptor look

But in all fairness I do believe the stock cooling system is pretty solid and I've never had any issues with it except a small incident in DV but after that it ran fine the whole trip and continues to do fine. I keep thinking if the incident was self inflicted - I believe I didn't tighten the cap of the overflow tank (not the radiator cap) after I checked the coolant level/condition during the pre-trip inspection. However, the overflow shouldn't be under pressure so a loose cap shouldn't matter. Another explanation is that it was just a bad radiator cap and wouldn't hold the pressure, I say this because I was cycling through the scanguage's "Trip Max' values and the water temp max that it showed was 220F - which is fairly high but not boiling (236F).

Regardless, the cooling system components are old and will be updated (I wish the waterpump and the 2nd thermostat wasn't such a pain on these VQs so I'll be skipping those but I'll replace the radiator, cap and thermostat for sure). I also noticed that the ac condenser (which sits in front of the radiator) fins in some areas are clogged and bent which could also be affecting the air flow to the radiator. May be when I remove the radiator I'll back flush the condesor with the garden hose.

Alex, your Pathy is nicely setup- what are your future plans for it if any?

 

[txfactor76]

I'm pretty happy where I'm at right now with the Pathfinder. Anyway, all my time, energy, and money is going towards our LeMons racecar:

 

[stioc]

Nice! Those rims look like the Volk TEs I used to have on one of my 'fun' cars. Whatchya building? One of my old race cars (Integra prep'd for the NASA Honda Challenge series) was sold off to become a LeMon's car...I never found the courage to find out what happened to it. Some people take 'rubbing is racing' to a bit more xtreme level in the LeMon's series...may be things have changed now though- I left the track scene about 8 years ago. Then got into motorcycles and then offroading.

 

[txfactor76]

It's a '91 Sentra SE-R

NASCAR style


EDIT: No, that's not a bungee cord holding the bumper on. That's the rear tow strap bungee'd up so it doesn't drag the ground.

The wheels aren't Volk TE37s. They're some old Racing Sparco Crimson N1s that I professionally rattle canned.

I hear ya on the LeMons attitude of "rubbing is racing." Hopefully it doesn't get too banged up, but she's already got significant body damage (rearended hard enough to crumple the rear quarterpanel halfway up the car). http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv19/alexrex20/CAM01438.jpg We're going to paint it to replicate Danica Patrick's GoDaddy Cup car, except with a GoMommy twist...

Got any pics of your old Integra?

 

[stioc]

Not bad, would look great with Danica's paint scheme

I looked for pics on my PC last night but couldn't find any, they're most likely on one of the disk drives that I pulled from my old PCs before recycling them. It looked similar to this (though mine was white and no rear wing):

It had a RaceTech seat, 6point Schroth, full cage with Nascar bars, Rota wheels and Toyo RA1s. I have no idea if any of this stuff is still mainstream or has been superseded by others but at the time it was as common as say BFG All-Terrains Prior to that I had a Spec Miata based time-trials car, prior to that I had the first gen MR2 as my track day car which was also the car I used to get my NASA racing license. Ah good times! thanks for making me go down the memory lane. Anyway, good luck and would love to hear how you like running in LeMons.

 

[stioc]

OK bringing this thread back on topic (this page is full of everything but 4wds lol):

Check this post out (starting at post #493) about the water getting ingested through the airbox: http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/55644-1995-Montero-SR-Build/page50

 

[Rebelord]

If your going to be doing a lot of water crossings. I would prep by using a good silicone and going over all seems and beads that can allow water to enter. Probably pull all the hose sections apart, put a small bead. Re assemble. Like using pipe-dope when assembling a series of metal threaded pipes. Once that has a day to dry. Then still put a bead on the outside of the seams.
Another thing to do is go ahead and use some silicone spray on connections, fresh copious amounts of dialectic grease on distributor wires. Plus, extending the vent tubes for diffs and transmission is invaluable for deep water crossings.