Mortonm's 2001 Xterra Build

mortonm

Expedition Leader
That is a huge help we have already snow up here and at night drops to -10 and my garage is not heated but im hoping axles will be last thing for now and other stuff can wait till spring.

at least oil drips slower in the cold weather!
 

marty1977

Adventurer
I think you have an English car in your future. :sombrero:

well I will come out :) and say that maybe by next year we (me and my lady) are planing to get Land Rover LR3 they are right size for us and now they are cheap enough for a regular guy to get one.
 

mortonm

Expedition Leader
I think you have an English car in your future. :sombrero:

Or at least a Jeep :elkgrin:

well I will come out :) and say that maybe by next year we (me and my lady) are planing to get Land Rover LR3 they are right size for us and now they are cheap enough for a regular guy to get one.

Are you going to keep the pathfinder as well? the LR3s are nice, hopefully you can find one that has smaller than 19" wheels on it!
 

richard310

pew pew
well I will come out :) and say that maybe by next year we (me and my lady) are planing to get Land Rover LR3 they are right size for us and now they are cheap enough for a regular guy to get one.

Don't forget that although the selling price has dropped significantly, the replacement parts are still quite expensive. The LR3 was on my list before I purchased the Xterra, and keeping it non-Euro definitely keeps the overall costs down in the long run. Good luck!

(I'll boo and hiss too) :)
 

mortonm

Expedition Leader
Valve Cover Gasket swapped out and engine put back together. I hope that solves the issue, guess I will see in the morning.

I don't know where it could have been leaking from ???



The old gasket was hard as plastic and very brittle. I have a few more pics, will post later this weekend.
 

mortonm

Expedition Leader
Truck up on the lift





Not hard to tell it was leaking.....





Need to stay hydrated while working.



The gasket had broken In half when I got the cover off. The rubber had been plasticized and was very brittle, it snapped when I tried to remove it. The new gasket went in easily.



Valve cover off, was quite clean in there, little black colour from blow by.



No drips overnight, so hopefully that fixed it. The gasket was only $30, pretty cheap and easy fix.

In other news (maybe a coincidence?) an evap code I have had trouble getting rid of cleared immediately after the gasket change.

I'll have to keep watching it. Drove around 100km today and hasn't come back yet.
 

richard310

pew pew
Cool. Glad to hear the replacement was a breeze! I'm sure that fixed your leak problem seeing how brittle the gasket has become. Did you change out the driverside gasket as well?
 

mortonm

Expedition Leader
Cool. Glad to hear the replacement was a breeze! I'm sure that fixed your leak problem seeing how brittle the gasket has become. Did you change out the driverside gasket as well?

I didn't, though the gaskets come in a two pack, and are identical. I replaced the passenger side, the driver side is more difficult to get to as you have to remove the plenum.

I was going to change the driver side while I was at it, but my father in kae said "if it ain't broke don't fix it" and that made sense.

Note: it would be much easier to change the spark plugs, so if you change the gaskets and need spark plugs in the near future I would suggest just doing them
 

marty1977

Adventurer
Don't forget that although the selling price has dropped significantly, the replacement parts are still quite expensive. The LR3 was on my list before I purchased the Xterra, and keeping it non-Euro definitely keeps the overall costs down in the long run. Good luck!

(I'll boo and hiss too) :)

I was looking at the xterra as well and for now everything is still in the air. What i like about LR3 is the size not to big and not small. After xterra is nissan armada and that is huge to me. I have read on the forums about Lr3 and they need a lot of TLC but can be good and reliaeble. Our choice for family was volvo xc90 but in case the QX4 will give up on us or need some bigger repair we can fall back on LR3 and still go all the places we like and with volvo well we couldn't.
 

mortonm

Expedition Leader
Measured Tread Depth Today

75,000 km on the tires (46,000 miles)

Front Driver - 8/32
Front Passenger - 8/32
Rear Driver - 9/32
Rear Passenger - 9/32

It has been 15,000 km (9000 miles) since my last rotate ( i usually do every 5000km (3000 miles)) and that would account for the tires that I just moved to the front have slightly less tread depth. I am happy with the quite even wear however.

Minimum tread depth in Canada is 2/32, but I wouldnt run them that low. Leads me to believe next fall will be new tire time, if not sooner
 
Last edited:

mortonm

Expedition Leader
Tread Depth History

Brand New - 16/32
50,000km (30,000 mi) - 11.5/32
65,000km (40,000 mi) - 10/32
75,000 km (46,000 mi) - 8.5/32

This means I am averaging 1/32 per 10,000 km (6200 mi) so far

This also means I have roughly 65,000 km (40,000 mi) until I hit the legal minimum.

I drive around 25,000 km (15,000 mi) in a year, so in a year from now I should be down to 5/32 or 6/32 and that will be about all I will get out of them. Pretty happy with that.
 

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