Xterra Pro4X Build - Offroad Adventuring

[Z1_Matt]

I guess this post will double as my introduction.

Hey guys, the names Matt. I work for a company in West GA that some of you may or may not have heard of called Z1 Motorsports, we also launched a truck segment called Z1 Offroad focused on support for Nissan's trucks and SUV like Frontier, Pathfinder, Xterra, etc. I work in marketing, I'm a photographer, so cool content is kinda what I do. Hopefully this thread will reflect that well.

I picked up this 2012 Pro4X with only 71,000 miles on the clock almost 2 weeks ago with the intention of building a nice offroad / overlanding rig. It's relatively clean and looks to have been well maintained so it seems like it will be a pretty great start for a long term project.

As of right now it is stock, it probably will be for a few more weeks while I work through a few things. I do have tires and wheels on order so at least I'll be able to get that out of the way early.

_DSC2976.jpg by Matt Yates, on Flickr

_DSC2994.jpg by Matt Yates, on Flickr

_DSC2995.jpg by Matt Yates, on Flickrr

_DSC2997.jpg by Matt Yates, on Flickr

_DSC2999.jpg by Matt Yates, on Flickr

 

[docwatson]

Nice find. What's your general plan beyond the tires and wheels for the build?

Big fan of all those Zs!

Also I just saw your instagram post about the Uprev tuner. I had no idea it was that effective on our VQ40s.

 

[dvdswan]

Welcome to the site. Very clean looking X.

 

[Z1_Matt]

Nice find. What's your general plan beyond the tires and wheels for the build?

Big fan of all those Zs!

Also I just saw your instagram post about the Uprev tuner. I had no idea it was that effective on our VQ40s.

Eventually I'd like to Titan swap it, VK56, the whole deal but that's a long way out.

The first immediate change will be suspension. We took it out wheeling this past week and as expected, it needed ground clearance almost as much as it needed tires. OME springs and leafs as well as Bilstein 5100 shocks will come along with it. The standard off-the-shelf 5100 for the Xterra only extends travel about 1'' from stock which isn't enough so I spent a little bit of time on the phone with one of our friends at Bilstein whose helping me narrow down a little bit better bolt-on rear shock option with a greater range of travel and longer overall length.

We've actually been tuning VQ40's for a few years now, but haven't really posted or spoken about it. The ECU in my X wasn't supported, but we worked with UpRev to get support on the ECU. Now any X or Frontier with that specific ECU code can now be tuned.

I was really surprised at how much we picked up just off tuning alone, I'm going to touch on that a little more in a future post though.

 

[emtmark]

Did you say tune!
Go on...
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[Z1_Matt]

Alright, so elaborating more on the tune....bear in mind this is a bone stock X, in fact it even had a dirty Fram air filter in it.

We strapped it to the rollers to get a baseline and tune with UpRev. If you aren't familiar, UpRev is a tuning software that we use on our Motorsports side to tune everything from bolt-on naturally-aspirated cars to turbo/supercharged cars in excess of 700whp.

The ECU in the X wasn't supported as is, but after a ROM dump and with the help of UpRev we were able to crack the ECU. Now any Frontier, Xterra that use this specific ECU code can be tuned via UpRev.

The dyno sheet below speaks for itself. 218whp stock to 235whp tuned. 221 ft-lb tq stock to 270 ft-lb tuned. This is on 93 octane pump fuel.

Untitled by Matt Yates, on Flickr

Xterra Dyno by Matt Yates, on Flickr

 

[SDDiver5]

haha is that a corgi? I have a corgi mix, looks the same as yours and he sure does have the same attitude.

 

[jhberria]

Love the thread and the Xterra! It reminds me of, well.....my Xterra. The dyno-tune numbers are impressive.

However, out of concern for your personal safety, are you aware that you have (what appears to be) an angry North American Red Fox living in your back seat? Seems like it could cause an accident, or at the very least an inconvenient camping experience.

 

[Grassland]

Man I wish 93 octane was even available where I live, never mind being able to afford it.
91 is $1.12 a liter right now.

That's a sweet torque bump!!

 

[SDDiver5]

Love the thread and the Xterra! It reminds me of, well.....my Xterra. The dyno-tune numbers are impressive.

However, out of concern for your personal safety, are you aware that you have (what appears to be) an angry North American Red Fox living in your back seat? Seems like it could cause an accident, or at the very least an inconvenient camping experience.

hahaha. Such a typical Corgi. I have hundreds of pictures of my corgi with the exact same face. Small man syndrome thing.

 

[jpat30]

Welcome to the portal Matt! There are alot of good people and information here.

 

[emtmark]

Hahahahahaha I never noticed that!!
Must have caught a sneeze?!


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[emtmark]

Not super familiar with uprev I’m going to go look it up. A common mod is spacer on the intake and getting rid of the factory y pipe or joint will the time be ok if these things are done already?


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[emtmark]

Also the wide open throttle after 40 mph restriction should be dealt with


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[bigskypylot]

Eventually I'd like to Titan swap it, VK56, the whole deal but that's a long way out.

The first immediate change will be suspension. We took it out wheeling this past week and as expected, it needed ground clearance almost as much as it needed tires. OME springs and leafs as well as Bilstein 5100 shocks will come along with it. The standard off-the-shelf 5100 for the Xterra only extends travel about 1'' from stock which isn't enough so I spent a little bit of time on the phone with one of our friends at Bilstein whose helping me narrow down a little bit better bolt-on rear shock option with a greater range of travel and longer overall length.

We've actually been tuning VQ40's for a few years now, but haven't really posted or spoken about it. The ECU in my X wasn't supported, but we worked with UpRev to get support on the ECU. Now any X or Frontier with that specific ECU code can now be tuned.

I was really surprised at how much we picked up just off tuning alone, I'm going to touch on that a little more in a future post though.

how about the 5165 w/piggy back that PRG sells?

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