Nissan 3.3 Engine

[Lok47]

Sounds good bigreen, i'll keep all that info in mind. This is by far one of the most helpful boards. I guess motorcycle riders are a bit less mature than this group

 

[The BN Guy]

This is a dedicated area we have on NOR concerning the 3.3l...

http://www.nissanoffroad.net/messageboard/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=20

 

[Life_in_4Lo]

The 3.3 is a nice engine. My buddy had an orig Pathy (very similar to the Xterra) for 250,000 miles and died b/c he snapped the timing belt and bent stuff. He never took care of it and it smelled like a reststop toilet but it ran like a top. Had he changed the timing belt when he should have, it would probably still be in his driveway.

I had a 00 Xterra and it was nice. ran out of steam pretty quick on the freeway but around town or on the trail it had good giddyup. Never gave me any problems.

If I had to do it over, I would have gotten the 00-01 Frontier 4 door. Nice style, very practical, plenty of aftermarket. The bed is flexible for loads as the Xterra is a bit short on space if you plan to haul stuff. This bodystyle only lasted one or two years. (after this, they fully encased it in tupperware and no sliding rear glass)

 

[The BN Guy]

This bodystyle only lasted one or two years. (after this, they fully encased it in tupperware and no sliding rear glass)

Yep, 2001 and later ones had all that plastic nosing. The 2000 was the only year they produced a Crewcab w/o it. That's what I have. Lots of guys kinda moaned when Nissan did that due to the fact that they had to cut plastic to fit some sort of armor up front.

 

[calamaridog]

Lok,

You still in the market for something or did you buy a vehicle?

 

[Lok47]

I'm still in the market so to speak, but it looks like I'm going to have to delay my purchase for another month or two. I'm still waiting on finding solid starting point for my career before I make a commitment to financing a vehicle.

 

[4Rescue]

This is my first post! I'm Andrew and live in Tempe, AZ. I'm graduating this summer from ASU and want to try my hand at some of this off road stuff!

How reliable is the Nissan 3.3 V6 found in the earlier Frontiers and 1st gen Xterras? I'm in the market to get my first truck. I'm planning on using it for light-medium off road travel and hauling my race bikes to and from the track in AZ, New Mexico, NV and CA. So, I need something reliable and able to pull a small-medium trailer. Or should I just opt for the Toyota route and check out the 4Runner and Tacomas?

Are there any known problems with the drive train? Anything to look for?

Go toyota... first Gen X's and Fronty's were really underpowered even with the S/C(On the Nissan) the 3.4L Toyota motor without the blower is alot more powerfull. A tacoma quad-cab would be about perfect. I like the Nissan for what it's trying to do, namely keep a good functional off-road truck in the marketplace, espescialy with the majority of the SUV's on the road being so car-like.