Xterra Pro4X Build - Offroad Adventuring

bigskypylot

Explorer
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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I first had UpRev back in 2014 and combined with the WOT delete,, XTP IMS, CAI, long-tube headers and b-pipes, it was fairly respectable.


My UpRev Data Logs from Randy back in March 2014.

My mods at the time...

Doug Thorley Long Tube Headers and B-Pipes
Magnaflow 12580 Custom Cat-back
XTP IMS
Volant CAI
3.36 Gears
285/75-16 Cooper STTs
Shrock Front Bumper/radiator skid, Sliders, Transfer Case Skid
Bucksnort Rear Bumper (no tire carrier)
Flat stretch of road outside of Madison, WI
Temp was in the 40-50F range
3/8 tank of gas lol
 

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broncobowsher

Adventurer
5165s (bought at summit racing) have been nice. Did them the same time as the 6112s up front. 100k+ on the old stuff and it was till OK.
What really sold me was the 6112 could be set to stock ride height. In 10 years I think my adventures have caused the frame to contact the ground a grand total of 2 times. My driving doesn't need a lift. But lots of highway miles as well. Not cheap, but very happy. There was a set of rail road tracks that actually turned into fun to drive over at speed. Until a couple months ago when they redid them.
 

Z1_Matt

New member
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?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Yeah, UpRev isn't a common name unless you're used to Nissan and Infiniti's sports cars (Z's G35's, etc.)

We haven't done anything else yet, probably going to test intake manifold spacer and work towards doing an exhaust. The merge on the y-pipe really is garbage so it should be easy to make a decent amount more power by getting a better exhaust on it.
 

Z1_Matt

New member
My girlfriend and I found a trail a little north of us last week so we took it out for some light duty action.

Ended up slinging the belt driving back through a nice deep mud puddle so we had to drive it back out of the trail on battery with no power steering which sucked. About 15 minutes at the local parts store had it back at 100%.

_DSC3270.jpg by Matt Yates, on Flickr

_DSC3264.jpg by Matt Yates, on Flickr

_DSC3273.jpg by Matt Yates, on Flickr
 
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emtmark

Austere Medical Provider
Be careful in the mud man. Nissan didn’t do us any favors by putting the alt down low. Seems to be a poor thought for the off roadiness of it all. Search up rugged rocks for a ************** replacement.

I looked into the uprev thing. Wow, what I saw was about 5-800$ :( not cool getting hopes up lol. I’m sure you got the industry partner discount and at least you shared your info so we can see what can be done stock oranges to oranges. To take advantage do you have to run premium?

I promise you will groan when you look how Nissan put the y pipe together.

If your willing to go nuts there is a super charger available...


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MiggieX

New member
Welcome to the club! I used to have a modded G37 so I used to frequent the z1 store but I sold it a while ago. I'm glad you guys have an offroad division now, I can't wait to see the stuff you guys do. i also had the uprev tune on the g37 and now I have it on my xterra as well :)
 

Z1_Matt

New member
Be careful in the mud man. Nissan didn’t do us any favors by putting the alt down low. Seems to be a poor thought for the off roadiness of it all. Search up rugged rocks for a ************** replacement.

I looked into the uprev thing. Wow, what I saw was about 5-800$ :( not cool getting hopes up lol. I’m sure you got the industry partner discount and at least you shared your info so we can see what can be done stock oranges to oranges. To take advantage do you have to run premium?

I promise you will groan when you look how Nissan put the y pipe together.

If your willing to go nuts there is a super charger available...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Yeah I've learned that the water/mud doesn't mix with stock height Xterra's (emphasis on stock height haha) I've slung the belt twice. Previous owner installed a new belt, tensioner, fan clutch, etc before I bought it. The tensioner was aftermarket so I assumed it probably has a weak spring and just replaced it with a new OEM tensioner. So far it's working fine.

UpRev can be a bit expensive but that's simply if we run it on the dyno. We can do a mail-in reflash on these for around $400 and be pretty close in power.

To get the power I gained you do need to run premium so it isn't really for everyone. The stock tune is pretty conservative so running a higher grade fuel gives you a bit more room for power. The positive is with UpRev you can have multiple tunes/MAPS on the ECU and you can switch between them pretty quickly. I have an 87 octane map and a 93 octane map.

The guys at Harrop visited us with their new generation supercharger for the Titan just a few months back, my hope is that at some point we can get them into the VQ40 market.
 

Z1_Matt

New member
It's been pretty quiet in X land here....we've been working through a few cool things, nothing that is really ready to be talked about.

I'm still waiting on some lift parts to come in from ARB, in the meantime I decided to go ahead and snag wheels and tires so come lift time, it's all ready.

We test fit them on one of our in house Frontiers to see how they would fit.

The wheels are a Black Rhino Chamber in 17'' x 8.5'' 0 offset, tires are Yokohama Geolander MT G003 in 295/70/17. They fit okay, but contacted the front fenders so we had to do some cutting to clear. Gives me an idea on just how much the Xterra is going to have to be trimmed.

_DSC4714.jpg by Matt Yates, on Flickr

_DSC4772.jpg by Matt Yates, on Flickr
 
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Hootowl

Observer
......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...

Automotive Customizers www.4x4parts.com has had the Nissan off-road suspension thing dialed in well for several decades. I very much recommend them as a resource.

The OEM front suspension can take a little lift fine but needs to limited to about the 1 to 1.5 inch range or it looses too much droop travel. The key factor to first address in the rear suspension is not wheel travel as such but to keep it from bottoming out on the bump stop. Springs leafs as full length AAL or full packs are the only solution for this. It doesn’t take much compression travel to bottom out the Xterra’s OEM rear.

For an Xterra that is going to just run bone stock, after market Bilstein shocks plus Timbren bump stops tame down the rear suspension quite a bit. I’m not a big fan of the Nissan tuned Bilstein shocks on the Xterra and Frontier. Valving is too soft for off-road or heavier hauling.
 

Z1_Matt

New member
SO small...uh....big update:

Xterra is jacked-ish. We drove up north to Franklin, Tennessee a month or so ago to visit with our friends at Nissan and take part in one of our Motorsports events, ZCON. The night before we were up cutting fenders to fit the 295/70's under the front.

Front Suspension:
-Old Man Emu Lift Springs
-Bilstein 5100 Shocks
-SPC Upper Control Arms

Rear Suspension:
-Old Man Emu Leaf Springs
-1'' Shackles
-Bilstein Shocks - These are not the 'off the shelf' 5100's. I spent some time on the phone with one of the product specialists at Bilstein looking at longer travel options, since the vehicle-specific 5100's only allow about 1'' more travel over stock Pro4X shocks. We came up with a shock that is just over 2'' longer, which works out great with the life since we're about 2.5'' over stock. At full droop the brake lines and wheel speed sensors are at their limit, so we made some extended length stainless steel brake lines that need to go on. Wheel speed sensors are a totally different animal.

Sway bars are gone on the front and back. I'm pretty happy with how it rides, the front needs to change BUT it's okay for what it is. Soon enough it'll be getting Titan swapped with coilovers.

Wheels are Black Rhino Chamber, in a 17x8 +0. Tires are 295/70/17 Yokohama Geolander MT's. We did have to cut the front fenders to clearance the tires.


DSC_1216.jpg by Matt Yates, on Flickr

DSC_1232.jpg by Matt Yates, on Flickr

_DSC5502.jpg by Matt Yates, on Flickr

_DSC5497.jpg by Matt Yates, on Flickr



_DSC5838.jpg by Matt Yates, on Flickr
 
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Z1_Matt

New member
Automotive Customizers www.4x4parts.com has had the Nissan off-road suspension thing dialed in well for several decades. I very much recommend them as a resource.

The OEM front suspension can take a little lift fine but needs to limited to about the 1 to 1.5 inch range or it looses too much droop travel. The key factor to first address in the rear suspension is not wheel travel as such but to keep it from bottoming out on the bump stop. Springs leafs as full length AAL or full packs are the only solution for this. It doesn’t take much compression travel to bottom out the Xterra’s OEM rear.

For an Xterra that is going to just run bone stock, after market Bilstein shocks plus Timbren bump stops tame down the rear suspension quite a bit. I’m not a big fan of the Nissan tuned Bilstein shocks on the Xterra and Frontier. Valving is too soft for off-road or heavier hauling.

I can certainly agree with you on the OE tuned Bilstein shocks, they were definitely way too soft. It's sitting comfortably at 2.5'' right now, we're running OME leafs so I'm not too concerned with the rear suspension. The front certainly needs more droop travel, but that will be something we work towards with the new suspension in the future.
 

Cosmos99

Member
Loving the wheel set up. I see that in the post you have the wheels listed as 17x8 but on the site you only have 17x8.5. Was there a typo on your end or did you actually get 17X8?
 

Z1_Matt

New member
Loving the wheel set up. I see that in the post you have the wheels listed as 17x8 but on the site you only have 17x8.5. Was there a typo on your end or did you actually get 17X8?


A little late to the response, but yes that was a typo on my end. They are 17x8.5.
 

Z1_Matt

New member
The last few months have been somewhat uneventful, not much has changed other than what I've broken and replaced. (Mostly fog lights)

It's getting ready to go into the shop for timing chains and gallery gaskets since the VTC sprockets have started making noise. We suspect gallery gaskets are leaking and oil pressure is dropping, resulting in a lack of oil supply to the VTC sprockets. I guess we'll find out once we take it apart. No biggie.

I also have a set of Dobinsons IMS coilovers in the floor here that are ready to go in once we get springs here. Looking forward to hopefully getting this thing up to Went Windrock this year.

_DSC8510.jpg by Z1 Motorsports, on Flickr

_DSC8566.jpg by Z1 Motorsports, on Flickr

_DSC8573.jpg by Z1 Motorsports, on Flickr
 

SlickRope

Member
Been following Z1 on Instagram for awhile now. Glad to see a new project we can follow along with. I would love to fine a X in this condition. They are a great size. Just big enough interior but not a huge exterior.
 

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