Hello, Found two brands, order the Street performance brand, Claims about 3 more MPG and 10% more torque, and a few more horse power./)trottle body spacers)Has anyone put one of these in their Exterra? How do you like it?..........Aloha

I have to say this first....Did you know that you are spelling the name of your wife's SUV incorrectly? It starts with an X....not an E. Silly Rabbit! It's spelled "X-T-E-R-R-A"...not "E-x-t-e-r-r-a"

But read on as I have some points of interest my island friend:

The jury is out on the true benefit a throttle body spacer makes on any direct injection engine. Which most newer cars/trucks/SUV's are these days.

I have talked to several High Performance Shops here in Calgary and they said they would gladly take my money but that it would be a waste and I would just be angry with them. I truly appreciate a place that can be honest at the risk of losing a sale. The reason, as I had been told, there is little to no benefit with this spacer because of the design of our intake manifolds and fuel systems. If we had throttle body injection or a carberator, there would be a huge benefit because this will mix the air/fuel more completely prior to entering the combustion chamber.

In our cases, the fuel is injected as the air enters the chamber. There is no real increase in the air/fuel mixing as a result of the spacer because the air flow becomes unstable after the intake valves as it pours into the cylinder.

Furthermore I have yet to hear of or see any actual dyno results before and after this upgrade. You can get a better gain by adding the cold air intake and a bigger exhaust system which you have already done. Some other gains can be had by going to smaller pulleys on all or some of your accessories (alternator, power steering, A/C) and changing the clutch fan to an electric one. This gives a huge increase in throttle response because the engine has less rotational mass running off the crank pulley. This allows the engine to get up to speed quicker with less effort. Therefore more power! Ergo slightly better fuel economy.

Now here's the down side: Your battery charging ability will suffer, your AC will be less efficient, and your power steering would be barely noticeable at idle speeds. (this is hard on steering components, especially the steering box)

If fuel economy is your big driving force, then I suggest you start looking for lower gears for your Xterra. If you get a lower gear in your diffs you can lower you rpm's by a few 100 and improve your highway MPG rating that way. BUT BE AWARE: Your torque will suffer when you swap to lower gears. Gotta give a little to get a little.

Here are the gear ratios for the V6/4x4/Xterra and Frontier models from 2000-2004. (PS: LSD=Limited Slip Differential for those who don't know)

THE SC units have 4.88 gears. (May or may not have a rear LSD)The XE/SE Automatics have 4.636 gears. (usually LSD in the rear)The XE/SE 5 speeds have 4.363 gears. (usually LSD in the rear)

Surf's up.....Snowboard style that is!

Big-Bird wrote:I have to say this first....Did you know that you are spelling the name of your wife's SUV incorrectly? It starts with an X....not an E. Silly Rabbit! It's spelled "X-T-E-R-R-A"...not "E-x-t-e-r-r-a"

But read on as I have some points of interest my island friend:

The jury is out on the true benefit a throttle body spacer makes on any direct injection engine. Which most newer cars/trucks/SUV's are these days.

I have talked to several High Performance Shops here in Calgary and they said they would gladly take my money but that it would be a waste and I would just be angry with them. I truly appreciate a place that can be honest at the risk of losing a sale. The reason, as I had been told, there is little to no benefit with this spacer because of the design of our intake manifolds and fuel systems. If we had throttle body injection or a carberator, there would be a huge benefit because this will mix the air/fuel more completely prior to entering the combustion chamber.

In our cases, the fuel is injected as the air enters the chamber. There is no real increase in the air/fuel mixing as a result of the spacer because the air flow becomes unstable after the intake valves as it pours into the cylinder.

Furthermore I have yet to hear of or see any actual dyno results before and after this upgrade. You can get a better gain by adding the cold air intake and a bigger exhaust system which you have already done. Some other gains can be had by going to smaller pulleys on all or some of your accessories (alternator, power steering, A/C) and changing the clutch fan to an electric one. This gives a huge increase in throttle response because the engine has less rotational mass running off the crank pulley. This allows the engine to get up to speed quicker with less effort. Therefore more power! Ergo slightly better fuel economy.

Now here's the down side: Your battery charging ability will suffer, your AC will be less effecient, and your power steering would be barely noticeable at idle speeds.

If fuel economy is your big driving force, then I suggest you start looking for lower gears for your Xterra. If you get a lower gear in your diffs you can lower you rpm's by a few 100 and improve your highway MPG rating that way. BUT BE AWARE: Your torque will suffer when you swap to lower gears. Gotta give a little to get a little.

Here are the gear ratios for the V6/4x4/Xterra and Frontier models from 2000-2004. (PS: LSD=Limited Slip Differential for those who don't know)

THE SC units have 4.88 gears. (May or may not have a rear LSD)The XE/SE Automatics have 4.636 gears. (usually LSD in the rear)The XE/SE 5 speeds have 4.363 gears. (usually LSD in the rear)

Surf's up.....Snowboard style that is!

Hello, Thank-you for your research and advice on this.....I believe you may be right? Now I may have to return the item............Aloha

With any product, you have to think about the trade-offs. Generally, products like exhausts ansd intakes free up power by trading off noise, long term use and filtering ability. Perhaps smog results as well. OE engineers know how to make power, but they have other requirements they have to meet. Cost can of course be a factor as well.

If there are no trade-offs, ask yourself, why doesn't the OE do it? It would be pretty easy and relatively cheap to simply cast in a 'spacer' in front of where the TB sits. It would certainly be a lot cheaper than making a separate TB spacer. And if there was some real benefit, then why not make it. Like the Tornado and similar products like it, I doub't there will be anything to gain from doing such a thing.

correction-xe/se quad cab auto have 4.88 w/lsd.dont mean to step on toes but i know nissan trucks,been building & wheeling nissan's for 15 yrs.

No toes hurt here. I welcome new knowledge with an open mind at all times. That's how we learn new stuff!

So what you're saying is the quad cab XE/SE Frontiers sold in the USA have 4.88's? I also recently discovered that in the US there were several SC Xterra's/Frontiers that do have a rear LSD but were not built with Nissan's Traction Control System. Seems the TCS was offered in Canada as standard equipement on this platform which meant NO LSD if you had a Super Charger.

My made for Canada 2000 Xterra (w/auto) has been verified via serial number and build sheet that it has 4.636 Gears and an LSD.

A friend of mine with a 2001 Xterra 5 speed SE has 4.363 and an LSD and his friend's Frontier of the same year and stuff is also a 4.363

Another Club member has an 2004 SC Xterra has the TCS and 4.88's but NO LSD. (He knows this ratio for a fact because he had an ARB Air locker installed last year)

In Canada the Super Charged models came standard with the Traction Control System (TCS) and 4.88's but do not have an LSD because of the way the TCS Works. This package is the same for the SC Frontiers sold in Canada.

See that? We all learned something today. At the very least I am discovering that some US Specs are a bit different than Canadian ones.

very true,i was speaking of U.S. spec.out of curiosity do they offer a diesel frontier or quadcab d21 in canada?i have seen these in mexico & assumed canadian spec'ed vehicles would be same as US but we know what assuming does!lol

We are detracting from the point of this string......

But no they no-longer offer a diesel option for Nissan trucks in Canada.

They used to offer it in the older 720's.

And you can import a quad cab D21 or diesel nissan from Japan into Canada. Our federal laws actually allow us to import JDM (Japanese Domestic Motors) into Canada provided they are 15 years old from date of manufacture.

I considered buying a Diesel Patrol Safari but the local Toyota dealer that imported it wanted $5000.00 more than it cost them to bring it over. The truck can be brought over after taxes and import fees for under 15,000.00 Canadian.

This should be another topic if we want to discuss this further.