[RMS621]

New to the form and to owning an Xterra. After watching a close friend of mine beat his 2004 xterra to hell and back and it just keeps going. I decided to pick one up.

I was looking to pick up a project and have fun with it. Since everything in SoCal is 10x more expensive I ended up looking on coparts for a rig. After looking for a few weeks I ended up pulling the trigger on a 2007 S model. It was at a buy it now price of $1250 with a clean title. The clean title was a big part of picking this one up. Well, that also bit me in the ass lol. The truck with marked as "Enhanced" meaning coparts didn't really look it over or tried to start it. I was hoping it was just a SMOD or IPDM issue. After pulling a carfax report and seeing that the car was bought and sold from the same dealership with all service recorded showing from the same dealership as well, this was a good selling point. Well after paying coparts fees and delivery a week later the trucked showed up my door. This is where the fun set in!!

I knew the truck didn't state so we rolled it off the trailer and I signed for the delivery. My neighbor helped came out to lend me a hand with trying to jump the truck or just help push.
Well after hooking up a jump pack we got nothing. Just talking and looking at the motor lol I pushed on it and said well damn....... well the whole motor rocked back and forth!!! I quickly looked under the truck and came to find out the transmission, transfer case, front and rear drive shafts, cross-member, and full exhaust was missing! Needless to say, I was upset and regretting the buy, but at $1250 and a clean title. I wasn't in too bad of shape.

I spent the following Saturday fulling stripping out the interior and cleaning it all up. The truck cleaned up pretty well despite a few very small rust spots on the rear hatch. It was from Utah.

After getting it cleaned up and now putting a parts list together. I jumped onto eBay and ordered up a transmission, front and rear driveshafts. I lucked out and found a 2011 transmission with only 95k on it for $820 shipped to my door. The drive shafts were $100 each shipped to me. I have also ordered up PRG motor mounts, a new timing chain set, water pump, thermostat, serpentine belt, spark plugs, valve covers, and gaskets, and upper intake manifold gaskets. I am going to pull the motor out and toss it up on my engine stand making it easier to work on as well as getting the back in with the transmission bolted to it.

Parts I am still needing to order are:
Transfer case (waiting to see if it comes with the transmission I ordered)
transmission mounting bolts
other missing nuts and bolts
catalytic converter (not going to be cheap since I'm in California)
cat back exhaust
Im sure I'm missing something.

 

[RMS621]

The original plan when picking this up was to do a titan swap front end and slap on some 33's. Well, all that will have to take a backseat for the moment.

 

[RMS621]

The engine is out!

 

[RMS621]

The new transmission showed up today 👍🏻

 

[whatnext]

Wow that’s quite a project! You need a new radiator?

 

[RMS621]

Wow that’s quite a project! You need a new radiator?

I’m not going to risk running the one it came with. So I’ll pop for a new one. LoL this thing better run like a raped ape after this 😂

 

[whatnext]

While you have the engine out, can you check the compression in each cylinder? Hopefully it will be good so you may skip tearing the engine apart. Or were you planning to?

 

[roXterra]

Wow, hoping for a happy end

 

[RMS621]

Going to look like a factory-fresh engine when I’m done lol. Over the years of building custom motorcycles, I have acquired plenty of tools and equipment. By far the best purchase has been my Vapor honing cabinet!

 

[whatnext]

That looks great! Sounds like this X will be a piece-of-cake project for you. (you should be done by Monday, LOL)

You find a transfer case?

 

[RMS621]

That looks great! Sounds like this X will be a piece-of-cake project for you. (you should be done by Monday, LOL)

You find a transfer case?

The pain in the ass part is figuring out what bolts I need. Trying to put it back together using factory hardware.

Ordered a new transfer case last night. eBay special that was $133 shipped lol. We will see if it actually works.

 

[IntellectualRedneck]

Can't tell, but looks like your media/vapor blast ate the seal on the back side. (it sits on the groove).
If so, that's bad news. You can't get that part. You have to buy the whole cover. Without it your oil pressure will drop and throw codes.
Be careful with those parts!

 

[RMS621]

Can't tell, but looks like your media/vapor blast ate the seal on the back side. (it sits on the groove).
If so, that's bad news. You can't get that part. You have to buy the whole cover. Without it your oil pressure will drop and throw codes.
Be careful with those parts!

That’s kind of a dumb design if the seal in that grove was falling apart when I took the cover off. It looked like it was just rtv gasket maker.

 

[IntellectualRedneck]

Not on the edge, the groove on the stem. Maybe its still there but I cant see it anymore. Also, it's machined to fit in the cam sprocket.. I would worry blasting it would open up the tolerances out of spec. Blasting the outside is fine, but internal engine parts, me personally I wouldn't do.

 

[RMS621]

Not on the edge, the groove on the stem.

Oh I still got it! I took it off before cleaning.

 

[RMS621]

I would worry blasting it would open up the tolerances out of spec. Blasting the outside is fine, but internal engine parts, me personally I wouldn't do.

No need to worry about losing tolerance with Vapor honing. With traditional dry blasting it will cut into the surface and you can have issues, but with wet blasting it rolls over the surface.
I use it on all engine components when I am building motorcycle engines.

 

[KSUfan1986]

I just purchased a Copart 2007 a couple of months ago for $750 with a salvage title due to hitting a deer. I was lucky that it was local and could look at it prior to bidding. It's a crap shoot buying from Copart, but hey what's the fun in buying a sure thing! This is my second re-build, rebuilt a 2011 Pro-4x about 18 months ago. Good luck on your build.

 

[RMS621]

Parts have started coming in. I have a big parts order coming from nissanpartsdeal.com later next week. The new transfer case will be delivered tomorrow.

 

[RMS621]

OEM part overload lol

 

[boyer]

That's pretty impressive. Bet your neighbors are always asking for work on this and that...