Odie's mod thread

bigreen505

Expedition Leader
Well after all the advice I got in this thread, I think I will be keeping my Pathfinder, Odie, for the time being and clean it up a bit. When I have money to spend on a new vehicle I think it would be prudent to spend it on a daily driver that gets really good gas mileage (something in the 50+ mpg range).

Since I have taken so much from this fourm, I decided to post a mod thread for my 1990 Pathfinder, in the hopes it might help some people in the future and give everyone else a good opportunity to laugh at me.

Background:
Odie is a 1990 Pathfinder that my dad bought new when he got tired of getting stuck in the snow. Saabs are great under 8", but beyond that they are pretty worthless. I acquired Odie from him about six years ago when he decided the truck was way too small and bought a Suburban. Odie has currently has about 325,000 miles and is showing some signs of age. The vast majority of my driving is on road and trip length is short, 3-10 days, so all the mods are geared to keep the truck basically stock while improving on- and off-road capability and reliability.

About the name:
For those who don't read comics, Odie is Jon Arbuckle's dog in the comic "Garfield." He is really dumb, but unfailingly loyal, and he chases his tail a lot. The Pathfinder is dumb, unfailingly loyal, and likes to chase its tail in snow. This name was coined when I spun Odie into the median on I-70 when I was 15 and driving up to early morning speed training at Loveland. The car next to me started to spin into me, I tapped the brakes and the rear end took off. (Pskaat -- I think this was the same morning that you discoverd filling a Big Gulp with coffee) Ten years passed before I discovered the cause of that fun was a right rear brake caliper that was defective from day one.

In no particular order:

H4 headlights from Daniel Stern Lighting. The lights are wired into the alternator with Bosch relays for high and low beam and have Focus thin shell rock guards on them. I opted for standard rectanguar lights so I could use the guards. Also, these lights are much higher quality that the Nissan H4 lights. To accomlish this mod, I needed to replace the grill with one from a 93-97 Nissan pickup. I bought the grilll from an aftermarket autobody supplier called Certafit. Cost was $20 and it is identical to the Nissan branded one (same tooling marks and everything) for $100 less. At some point I need to replace the sidemarker lights with ones for the pickup as well to complete the look. The are about $20 each. For anyone that spends a lot of time driving at night or in bad weather, good headlights are a must. Offroad lights come second. At the same time I replaced the headlights I replace the fogs with a set of yellow Bosch fogs that Dan scored for me. While acceptable, they are not in the same league as Cibies or more modern Bosch designs, so I don't have much to say about them. They will probably get replaced with Marschal or something similar.

Shocks:
The old shocks were starting to get, well, old, so I replaced them with a set of ProComp ES9000 shocks on recommendation from another Pathfinder owner. These were absolutely wonderful until I upgraded the springs, now they are painfully stiff unless the truck is fully loaded, when they are wonderful. I don't think these give any lift.

Springs:
The front torsion bars were replaced with stiffer Sway-Away bars. These added about 1.5" of lift relative to the sagging factory T-bars at the same angles. Rear springs are the Automotive Customizers 1.5" lift springs. They are both longer and stiffer than the original springs.

My aim was for the vehicle to sit at roughly stock height and behave like an empty stock vehicle when fully loaded. I got exactly what I wanted, but the end result is a very stiff truck when empty or only half full. On the other hand it handles very well.

Bushings:
All suspension bushings were replaced with Energy Suspension or Daystar poly bushings. This was a huge job (about 25 hours with two people), but the difference is significant. Most of the bushings can be pressed out, but the lower control arm (LCA) bushings are in the frame and must be burned out with MAP gas while a friend does his best to keep the flames away from the engine and suspension. I was told that the job would be "memorable" and it was. I never want to do this again. However, we took the time to do it right and no shop would do that.

Automotive Customizers idler arm brace:
The front suspension of the Pathfinder is a bad joke and steering components are the punch line. The idler arm brace was installed to keep the Nissan part from bending under load, and it is necessary for any Pathfinder used off road with stock suspension. Highly recommended.

NAPA Gold heavy-duty ball joints:
Expensive, but they can take the loads placed on the by a poorly designed suspension, plus they have a lifetime warranty. These units are actually rebranded Danas. Highly recommended.

Brakes:
Sometimes you just have to do it. The pads were worn and the original rotors were getting thin. After much research and head scratching I went with Brembo vented (but not drilled or slotted) rotors and Axis MetalMaster pads. So far I am very happy with both.

Synthetic fluids:
I replaced all diff, T-case and tranny fluid with Redline synthetic. MT-90 in the tranny and T-case, 75-90 in the diffs. WARNING: Nissan trucks through the past generation X-Terra require GL-4 rated transmission fluid. Running GL-5 will eat the synchros in about about 1000 miles.

NGK plug wires: Needed new ones and these work well.
 

bigreen505

Expedition Leader
Continued

Tires: (copied from a review I posted on 4wdtrips)

ProComp AT
Executive Summary: Not recommended.

Purchased from 4Wheel Parts Buy 3 Get One Free sale for $375. However after tax, road hazzard warranty (which I've been told they won't honor) and other fine print the actual out the door cost was close to $600. The tires started life with about 19/32 of tread, a 50,000 mile warranty and a severe weather rating.

Initial impression: quiet and smooth, though a little floaty feeling on dry road, exceptional in sand whether aired down or not (at 12 psi they were incredible), and very good in snow. I considered siping them, but never really got around to it and they didn't seem to need it. Smooth on trails, good on rocks.

After 25,000 miles: These must be a dual compound tread. They are probably about 60-65% worn (that would be 40-45% remaining). The dry road grip is nothing short of amazing -- handling is about what I would expect from a good all-season tire on a car! However, that is about the only positive thing I can say about the tires at this point. They have gotten pretty noisy and rough as they aged. Grip on snow is simply non existant. I have never seen a tire this bad in snow and that includes high-performance car tires. I think the cause is the second 50% of the tread is a very hard compound. I would not feel comfortable taking these tires off road at this point. I have not had any of the sidewall problems others have complained about, but I have not really pushed it either.

Overall review: these are absolutely first rate tires for the first 10,000 miles and perfectly servicable in all conditions for as much as 15,000 if siped, but by 20,000 should hit the trash can. If you can get a set out the door for $400 they may be worth it considering the early performance. Next set for me is probably a Cooper STT, though considering they make ProComp tires I may need to rethink that.

Thule rack:
Removed. The single biggest engine improvement I made to the truck was removing the Thule rack that had been on the truck since new (well except for the time that my dad took it off by driving into the garage with a rack full of bikes). Upshot was power increased by almost one gear and gas mileage increased by about 2 mpg. When my dad drove the truck he thought I had put in a new engine. The rack sits in my garage ready to go back on when needed, but so far I have not had to resort to that yet.

Audio:
I replace the stock radio with a high end Clarion in-dash CD player and replaced the front speakers with a new set of Polk 602a's that I bought on eBay. The speakers are great. The CD player stopped working one day after the warranty ran out and no one would touch it. This is the third Clarion in my family that has died like that, so I have to assume they are just expensive garbage. Luckily it has an auxiliary input on the back, so I just plug in my iPod and life goes on.

Most of these "mods" have simply been a case of replacing worn out factory parts with the closes thing I could find that fits my needs and driving style. The future list is to address worn out parts as well.

Future (meaning between now and June):
High-country front axels
Manual hubs
New driveshafts and U-joints
Sound insulation
NAPA heavy duty center link (may not be the best, but the only one with a warranty, and they will wear out quickly if used off road)
Steering stabilizer
Heat shield for clutch line -- the engine is running much hotter exhaust temps as it ages. The hydraulic line for the clutch follows the engine exhaust all the way to the transmission. I have cooked two slave cylinders in the past 20,000 miles.
New tires: not sure what. Lots of options if I upgrade to 16" wheels, but limited choices in a tall, skinny 15".

Future (longer term):
ARB lockers. This is not a simple mod on a SE-V6 LSD Pathy. To install the locker, you have to find a rear third member that is an open differential (no LSD), but is geared the same as the front. XE models come with open differentials, but different gearing.
New front seats
Eventually it will need a new transmission and engine. The tranny was rebuilt at 200,000 miles, but not well. A critical TSB was overlooked by the mechanic which resulted in a starved bearing. It is still working, but getting groggy.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things both in current and future, but that is a start.
 

bigreen505

Expedition Leader
Rear speakers:
The 1990 SE-V6 Pathfinders have huge rear speaker enclosures. These eat up probably a combine 4 cu. ft. of space -- a huge amount in a small truck. Following the advice of a forum member on the AC board, I screwed each speaker into a piece of wood (carefully formed to each side of the trunk) and replaced the access doors to the rear tail lights with these new enclosures. The end result is a significant increase in trunk room and a slight decrease in sound quality.
 

The BN Guy

Expedition Leader
Sounds like you've done quite a bit of work on your rig.

I agree 100% with the roof rack. I had lights on top of mine, on top of the stock roof rack. When that came off not only did the mpg and power go up but the noise level came down.

Sounds like you're heading in the right direction.

Have you ever considered a Safari snorkel? That'd help your throttle response as well. If there are any intake resonators, I'd seriously consider removing them as well. A little more noise but better response.

From friends past experience with the Pro Comp equipment they're not even on the desparate list for me. I've heard too many bad things - mainly shoddy construction.
 

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