DuallyDatsun

I never thought of putting a hitch on the front, but that is such a genius idea. Thanks for sharing!

scratch that. Turns out I can't use the nissan quest oil pan anyway because it sits basically backwards from the xterra one (deep part to the front of the engine instead of the back.), because it's for a fwd application instead of a 4wd/2wd application.

The problem with trying to use a different oil pan is this. I have the choice between the dog legged pickup truck oil pan, or the thick nissan quest oil pan. I can't use the shallow pan from the VG30 options like the Z31/32 because, according to several sources I could find, I would have to change the oil pick up, crankshaft, oil pump, etc... (lots of parts, not worth the effort or money.) I might end up having to go with the nissan quest VG33 oil pan, but it's going to mean my engine is going to sit another 3 inches higher in the engine bay. My hope with being able to modify the xterra pan was to have the engine sitting lower, because I wanted to make sure the engine and trans sat level in the tunnel so I don't have pinion angle issues and to avoid fitment issues in the tunnel because everything is up higher. Other than that, there is no shallow aftermarket VG33E oil pan that I can find out there, if they do exist.

It would require cutting and modifying the pick up as well. Just gotta make sure I seal everything well, and don't leave any sort of metal shavings behind to get sucked up. I've also never done it before, but the internet is a wealth of info

Yeah. The VG33 in the xterras all have that massive doglegged oil pan. I'm going to have to modify it so it's not hanging down so far, because I plan on lowering the truck, and I would rather not crush my oil pan. Sadly, it's a huge pain to try and just swap on the shallow VG30 oil pan. The pickup is in a different location, and that pickup only works with the vg30 crank, vg30 oil pump, etc... and it's a huge PITA to swap. So, the best answer is just modifying the VG33 oil pan and pick up.

Gonna need to redo both mounts anyway, because at their currently length the oil pan is sitting on the steering linkage. Which is no good for obvious reasons. 😆

Forgive my bad welds, I'm still learning and only have a 110v gasless flux core mig to work with. Regardless of the ugly, you can see just how bad I messed up on measuring the driver's side mount. I accidentally cut things out with it angled the opposite direction than it was supposed to be. So that entire piece is gonna get scrapped and redone. And honestly, I'm gonna redo the passenger side one, too. So it actually sets onto the mount better, but at least that one is close enough to where it needs to be that it will be easy.

Nice! Thank you for the link. I don't think I've seen that one yet. I'll definitely be looking through there for any tips I can use on my build. Progress has been a little slow for me because my job keeps shifting my schedule, I have a side hustle that takes up a lot of my extra time, and I made the decision to start going back to college again. I got the passenger side engine mount made, and I did make a driver's side engine mount, but I messed up my measurements pretty bad somewhere, so I need to make that one again. Really wish I had more time to work on the truck consistently. I got the new flywheel, clutch, etc... for the engine, so I can use it with a manual transmission, instead of the automatic it came with and a FS5R30A 5spd to put behind it. Still got a few things, like all the wiring, to tear out of the Xterra before I finally get rid of it. But hopefully that'll be gone soon. But yeah, overall I just wish I had more time to work on it. I really want to get it done.

You might need to call into a dealership. See if anyone has them on hand, and take one in to compare. That's the best way I can think of to confirm. Might need to order through a dealer, but that usually makes it easy to return if it's not the right part, too.

oh wow! that's super clean. Love the striping.

Technically the Datsun name was only created by Nissan for the American market. So Datsun by Nissan would be correct.

I'm pretty sure I've seen photos of the bird before, but didn't know there were others. That's super cool.

I think those instructions are just for the nob on the switch, but I may be wrong. It's been a while since I took my dash apart, but I think I remember the plastic bezel on the front should be able to unscrew.

Theres a search bar in the upper right corner. You can search specifically in this forum or all of ratsun. It'll come up with basically everything that may have the words you're looking for. You can also google "Ratsun" + whatever issue you're having. and a lot of times that will lead you to related past threads.

honestly, with 250k, As long as the cylinders aren't marred up, I would just dingle ball the cylinder, resurface the block and heads, get new gaskets and seal everything back up and keep running it. Seen plenty of these engines go well over 300k miles without issue.