(This is mirror of my post on Nico's new Pathfinder subsidiary
https://www.thenissanpath.com/topic20922.html)

Background story:

I had actually traded my last R51 for an XTerra.
Wanted to get back to a longer wheelbase Nissan SUV that can support fast hiway driving better than the Xterra can.
Due to its shorter wheelbase even with good springs and shocks an Xterra cannot keep up with a pathfinder.
But I am also keeping the Xterra since its otherwise awesome.

Since I already own a perfectly good Nissan SUV I could not easily justify buying a 2nd one.
So I figured I want something special.
Decided on a LE V8.
However in a multiweek search I struggled to find any.
When I finally moved back to the US late December the very few I found nearby were in poor condition.
Now I realize most V8s were made as 2008 model years and i realize any I buy will need money put into it to meet our NissanPath standards.
But I wanted one that was a good starting point Also I preferred one in grey (but other colors would have been ok too)
Also the few times one did pop up t seemed every time i called adealer they told me it had just been sold the day prior .. aargh.
So I was on the various car websites every single day.
So when I finally I found one pop up one morning, I contacted the dealer offered his asking price, booked a flight halfway across the country and showed up next day cash in hand and smile on my face.

This is actually a SE not an LE.
But it has all the packages so it has an LE level of equipment and cannot be easily told from an LE.
LE "stuff" on it:
- Upgraded transfer case with addtional auto feature
- Sunroof
- Bose Stereo
- Leather
- And in this case the V8

Drove it from Iowa to Virginia approx 1000 miles.
Over night with few stops from.
Picked up the vehicle at 5 pm.. bought some provisions at Walmart and hit the road at 6 pm.
Arrived in Virginia late the next morning.

The good:
- The exact color combo I wanted, Grey exterior over charcoal interior

- Body is in excellent shape I'd say 9 out of 10. Only flaw is rear left bumper pushed in by approx .3-.5 inch
- Interior appears nearly showroom new. Some wear on drivers seat. A very very minor scratch on dash
- Has V8
- Headlight lenses are nice and clear.
- Every single button inside works.
- No check engine lights
- Brakes feel great

The bad
- Tires need replacing.. am even getting a thumb-thumb-thumb from the rea indicative of a tire disintegrating internally. Might as well do all 4
- Rear Springs weak. Will replace. Which Moog Springs part number did we form a consensus on? Do V8s get different factory springs than V6s? The higher listed payload seems to indicate that.. (shrug)
- Windshield washer fluid pump is out. getting it replaced.
-Windshield has a scratch in it. Its not deep + fairly light but it is not small. At least its out of my field of view.. have not yet decided to replace or not.

Miscellaneous:

- No SMOD... but its the worst of the radiator part numbers.
getting it replaced on Tuesday (earliest date I could get)

PS: For those who dont know.. the R51 Pathfinders with the V8 don't just get the V8 as an extra.
They also get a lot of other parts from the same-year Armada:
- Rear Diff (bigger)
- Front diff (bigger)
- upgraded transfer case
- Bigger front brakes.

THAT is a handsome rig!

My best buddy here in town has been looking for an '05+ Xterra V6 6MT for months... You'd think it'd be an easy find, but holy hell... not the case.

They're either WAY overpriced, or have a quarter-million miles, or they're from the rust belt. It's insane how rare they are.

Becky's truck ('14 X Pro-4X 6MT) is probably still worth damn near what we paid for it almost three years ago.

Congrats on your new acquisition.

Sweet!

Thanks fellas!

here are some pics with a brand new set of Yokohama Geolander ATs in 265/65-18.
Just installed today.
Stock is 265/60-18 so these are slightly taller.

Still to do:
-New radiator.
It works fine but those who know Pathys know an early R51 with a factory Radiator, it must come out ASAP.
-Belts (no fraying but clearly not new)
-Rear shocks (Bilstein 4600)
-rear Springs (Moog)
-rear Brakes

You can just bypass the trans cooler in the bottom of the radiator and save yourself a ton of money. Replacing the radiator is not a permanent fix to this issue, so if you have a working radiator i'd spend $30-40 on what it takes to do the bypass and never have to worry about it again. They have two transmission coolers, so unless you're going to be operating it in sub-zero temps during the winter the one in the radiator is pointless(it mainly helps heat up the fluid in super cold temps). Mine has been bypassed for almost 8 years and 80k miles with zero problems. It still shifts like it's new. You'll need a quart of Nissan Matic S fluid, a barbed fitting to connect the lines, 4 small clamps, and some vacuum caps to cap off the radiator.

Replacing the springs is a waste too IMHO. They'll droop again sooner than later. The best fix is installing AirLift air bags in the rear. They sit in the rear springs and I keep mine around 15psi. It'll be under $200 an takes maybe 2 hours to install them. Again, much more permanent fix and also helps with towing when needed.

Make sure you put an OEM Nissan belt on for the serpentine belt. You'll regret it if you don't. I went through 4 different ones in 2 years time, along with belt tensioners and idler pulleys thinking that was the problem. Installed an OEM belt and never had another issue.

Great find for sure though. I've only come across maybe two V8 Pathys during the time i've owned mine. Love the color too.

Looks like quite the cream puff!
So that's the sweet spot between the Xterra and the Armada for you?

PapaSmurf2k3 wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 18, 2021 3:38 pm

So that's the sweet spot between the Xterra and the Armada for you?

Exactly!
Armada is a bit too big for my taste.. and the Xterras short wheelbase limits it in fast hiway driving.
This will be my road trip car and the Xterra my in town car.
Got an oil change today (not that it needed it.. obviously had a fresh oil change before i go it but I have no idea what oil was in it with the long drive I'd say it had maybe 1300 miles on this oil change).
Before the oil change put in half a bottle of Seafoam and drove around for an hour.. since I didnt know the oil change habits and you really cant see under the cover form the fill point, I wanted to do some extra "cleaning".

In any event, at the Valvoline oil change station they checked my Transmission fluid.
Looked good.
So now I dont have to get that done and also it makes me more confident on the maintenance the vehicle got ( despite the fact it needs new rear shocks, brakes and springs)

Kompresshun wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 18, 2021 11:17 am

You can just bypass the trans cooler in the bottom of the radiator and save yourself a ton of money. Replacing the radiator is not a permanent fix to this issue, so if you have a working radiator i'd spend $30-40 on what it takes to do the bypass and never have to worry about it again. They have two transmission coolers, so unless you're going to be operating it in sub-zero temps during the winter the one in the radiator is pointless(it mainly helps heat up the fluid in super cold temps). Mine has been bypassed for almost 8 years and 80k miles with zero problems. It still shifts like it's new. You'll need a quart of Nissan Matic S fluid, a barbed fitting to connect the lines, 4 small clamps, and some vacuum caps to cap off the radiator.

Replacing the springs is a waste too IMHO. They'll droop again sooner than later. The best fix is installing AirLift air bags in the rear. They sit in the rear springs and I keep mine around 15psi. It'll be under $200 an takes maybe 2 hours to install them. Again, much more permanent fix and also helps with towing when needed.

Make sure you put an OEM Nissan belt on for the serpentine belt. You'll regret it if you don't. I went through 4 different ones in 2 years time, along with belt tensioners and idler pulleys thinking that was the problem. Installed an OEM belt and never had another issue.

Great find for sure though. I've only come across maybe two V8 Pathys during the time i've owned mine. Love the color too.

Chris,

I am aware of the bypass method.

However I do believe best practices is to replace the radiator prophylactically.
None of he aftermarkets nor the new Nissan ones display the same issue.
At this age it likely needs a new radiator anyway.
The springs I am getting are the Moog 81117 which are for the heavier V8 and have a good reputation as being a bit stiffer than stock.
Usually the V8s dont seem to exhibit this weak spring issue as much as the V6s since the V8 springs are stiffer form Nissan than the V6s but I like 'em a bit stiffer yet to take full advantage of the payload.

Good luck with your new Pathfinder sir. It sounds like you’ve done your research. I’ve spent the past 8 years researching every in and out about them and there was little information to be found on most issues I’ve had with mine. I translated what I could from the Frontier and Xterra communities over the past few years to keep mine on the road.

I will say that I’ve seen quite the opposite on the replacement radiators, but hopefully you don’t have the same luck as those people did. In fact my brother in law just shelled out $5,000 last year due to a 2 year old OEM updated one failing on his.

First thing I did when I got my almost-new Titan was toss the stock radiator and install an aluminum one.

Same with my D21, S14, 411, S30, 510, and before too long, Bex's Xterra. Nissan's radiator game has gone all to hell since the 90's.

Kompresshun wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 18, 2021 9:30 pm

I will say that I’ve seen quite the opposite on the replacement radiators, but hopefully you don’t have the same luck as those people did. In fact my brother in law just shelled out $5,000 last year due to a 2 year old OEM updated one failing on his.

Wow!

I had a Griffin installed.
I did believe the new OEM rads were safe....

Nope. Not sure when they stopped using Calsonic, or if Calsonic just went downhill in quality, but I've seen a lot of relatively new ones fail. My Titan had 32k on it and the tanks were deteriorating already.

AZhitman wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 19, 2021 8:10 pm

Nope. Not sure when they stopped using Calsonic, or if Calsonic just went downhill in quality, but I've seen a lot of relatively new ones fail. My Titan had 32k on it and the tanks were deteriorating already.

Put a voltmeter in the coolant, AZ. When they crap prematurely like that, it's usually hidden electrolysis. That can be from the radiator materials, but anti-electrolytic additives will help whatever the cause.

Good to know. Thank you!
In your experience, is the discoloration (black to brown or black to green) of the plastic tank material a pretty decent indicator of eminent failure?

AZhitman wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 19, 2021 8:32 pm

Good to know. Thank you!
In your experience, is the discoloration (black to brown or black to green) of the plastic tank material a pretty decent indicator of eminent failure?

Yes, for a different reason. That usually indicates embrittlement and porosity in the plastic, which is never good.

Just as a quick primer, the VOM should show +/-0.1V or less with a static check (red lead in the coolant but not touching anything else, black lead on the negative battery post). You've all read my stuff about grounds, keep in mind that bad grounding (especially of high-current components) will exacerbate electrolysis too. For additives, DEI Radiator Relief and No-Rosion both seem to work pretty well. You can also take the marine approach and add a sacrificial anode (zinc) to your radiator plug. I usually make them using marine "pencil zincs" threaded and sealed into the existing radiator plug, but there are also pre-made pencil plugs with zincs available in a variety of thread sizes (usually called "engine zincs" generically).

Oh, important PS -- If you go the zinc route, the zinc has to be grounded to work. That's why I usually DIY with pencil zincs, a ground wire is easily attached to the protruding stud.

Rear camera went out for a bit but came back.
new KYV a-just-a-shocks ordered for the rear.

PS: Typo: KYB*

It would be cool if KY made shocks. Super slick. Giggidy.

That's one totally sweet rig, man! Nice

Dbarry wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 31, 2021 8:02 pm

That's one totally sweet rig, man! Nice

Thanks!!

Suspension needs some rusty parts replaced. Just ordered a lot of parts for that.
Also new rear shocks to complement the new rear Moog springs (1-2 inch lift inherent in those) and new front struts (complete w/ springs) on order.

I also decided I want new serpentine belt (done)
New hoses (done)
Various new suspension bushings and parts (parts enroute)
Put in new Phillips Xtreme vision bulbs jn headlights and foglights (noticeably brighter)
New rear brake pads are on
-front brakes , plugs, brakelines, battery recently newer by previous owner.

Wow they did brake lines too? Dayum.

PapaSmurf2k3 wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 05, 2021 8:03 am

Wow they did brake lines too? Dayum.

Yes the truck is a weird combination of being in super shape and in bad shape when I got it.
The good to excellent:
Accident free Body, nearly immaculate interior, smooth engine.

The bad: suspension; seriously rusted out in nearly all components, rear springs were totally shot (one was broken), needed alignment but cant be aligned until rusted out suspension parts are replaced , which is what I am doing.
Needed new drivers side rear wheel bearing.

good thing the frame is good (not pretty, but still very serviceable and will remain so for years)

Since I paid a low price for the truck it will work out well in the end.
When I heard the smooth engine saw the good body and interior I knew I would buy this and be happy with it even if a major system were to need replacing.

PS: this is what another member on Nico's Pathfinder subsidiary forum is doing with similar rusted out suspension components.
Lots of pics.
https://www.thenissanpath.com/copart-bu ... 20679.html

Nice find! I'd love a V8 R51. Or just a V8 in my R50...

I really like those wheels. Aside from the V8 how do these compare to the Xterra on space and towing?

Jesda wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 06, 2021 2:16 am

I really like those wheels. Aside from the V8 how do these compare to the Xterra on space and towing?

More space than the Xterra.
More towing and even though I have not tried it yet I strongly suspect that due to longer wheelbase more stable when towing equal loads.

I still really love my Xterra though.. that is such a sweet vehicle also.
Pic of the Xterra