Hello there, does anyone know was there ever a Pathfinder on manual transmission with 4 liter gas engine? I know that there are frontiers with 6speed manual. I was wondering if the gearbox off the Frontier will fir Pathfinder? The reason I am asking about as I have a project in my mind to make a turbo pathy. I know wehre to het almsot all the parts need for the project. the only issue is the gear box. I am pretty sure that the stock auto gear box will not be able to handle the power that will be available once the turbos are installed. Manual gear boxes are usually much tougher than autos. What do you guy think/know?

Carl has a supercharger on it and the auto handles that power, alothough he'll be the best person to give advice on it..But then again depends on how much power your plannin to put down..

Wouldnt a supercharger be a better alternative since there'll always be turbo lag and you dont want that when off roading..also stillen makes a supercharger for the 4.0l

I have read posts somewhere from a guy with a turbo Xterra. 357whp if I remember correctly...

I've read about supercharger. It seems to me that the price is waaaay to high for the output it offers. For that sort of budget I can achieve around 500-600 hp easily at wheels. Plus with the sound profing (or lack there of) in the Pathy the whining noise of the supercharger will be pain. Plus I am just a turbo guy. Have old Nissan 200SX and love the way turbo kicks in. I am planning to install small diesel turbos or something similar so the lag won't be a huge problem. Or perhaps will install two different turbos and make them work sequentially to broaden power band. Basically with turbos there more things that I can play with compared to supercharger. With turbo's I can have many settings: one for fuel economy, one for stoplight races, one for offroading, etc.

I plan to have around 400-450 whp and the auto will not hold that power for long for sure. That is why I was looking at gearbox swap option. The project seems interesting on its own. Pathy is so versatile so if one day I decide to use other car for offroading I can make a rocket out of pathy. Something like the guys in arab countries do with Patrols and other SUVs kiiling Lambos and Ferarris, etc

bigmankz wrote:Hello there, does anyone know was there ever a Pathfinder on manual transmission with 4 liter gas engine? I know that there are frontiers with 6speed manual. I was wondering if the gearbox off the Frontier will fir Pathfinder? The reason I am asking about as I have a project in my mind to make a turbo pathy. I know wehre to het almsot all the parts need for the project. the only issue is the gear box. I am pretty sure that the stock auto gear box will not be able to handle the power that will be available once the turbos are installed. Manual gear boxes are usually much tougher than autos. What do you guy think/know?

I'd be more concerned with beefing up the bottom end of the engine. Where do you think you'll end up on the engine peak torque? I see you had a goal for almost doubling peak HP...

The JATCO JR507E has an input torque limit of 333lbft according to the google resources I have found. Seems a little low, since the torque of the v8 is 380lbft, and I thought they shared the same tranny. Maybe a different torque converter?

Also not sure how adaptive the JATCO tranny is, so you may be correct and could be stuck with a manual tranny conversion to make sure you can get all you can out of the upgrade.

Who will provide the ECU programming and fuel maps for the upgrades you are planning?

I am not sure about bottom end. I mean I have not seen any stats on what would be the torque. I assume it will be significant as I experienced with my 200SX. I think it will be testing and learning process. My hopes are that the VQ series is usually a very good engine and the crank will hold up to the torque I will have. pistons and rings are no problem. I will also see about rods. It also should not be a problem. There lots of parts for the VQ35 engine and perhaps I can use some of them. I assume Nissan increased the displacement of the VQ40 by having a different crank giving more stroke and perhaps more bore. I also have seen Darton sleevs for vq40 engine which also should help. once installed I am not planning to put as much power as possible from the very begining. It will be a stage by stage process to make sure I will not loose much of reliability of the engine. will go by small steps. The first step would be installing manual and make it work properly with the stock engine. only then will go with the boost. since vq35 is very similar engine I have seen people getting around 400HP at the wheels with whetever torque with completely stock internals. I don't think that vq40 internals will be less reliable.

I also thought of other converter but figured out that playing with different torque converter will be a more expensive procedure that having a manual installed. The cost of the converter is basically a half of the tranny. ANother issue with the auto tranny is that there are no specialists here who could provide programming for the tranny computer.

Electronics part there should be no problem. I will have a custom setup using a system similar to Apexi Power FC. I have some friends who are into rallying and they have lots of experience with their cars and programming of ecu. They achieved some good results and their engines are pretty reliable.

In any case I understand that it will be learning process. But I hope that it will work out well. THe only thing now is to find out whether the maual tranny will fit the engine and where to get it. I checked ebay and they have only 2wd manual available. will keep looking.

thanks for the input.

bigmankz wrote:I am not sure about bottom end. I mean I have not seen any stats on what would be the torque. I assume it will be significant as I experienced with my 200SX. I think it will be testing and learning process. My hopes are that the VQ series is usually a very good engine and the crank will hold up to the torque I will have. pistons and rings are no problem. I will also see about rods. It also should not be a problem. There lots of parts for the VQ35 engine and perhaps I can use some of them. I assume Nissan increased the displacement of the VQ40 by having a different crank giving more stroke and perhaps more bore. I also have seen Darton sleevs for vq40 engine which also should help. once installed I am not planning to put as much power as possible from the very begining. It will be a stage by stage process to make sure I will not loose much of reliability of the engine. will go by small steps. The first step would be installing manual and make it work properly with the stock engine. only then will go with the boost. since vq35 is very similar engine I have seen people getting around 400HP at the wheels with whetever torque with completely stock internals. I don't think that vq40 internals will be less reliable.

I also thought of other converter but figured out that playing with different torque converter will be a more expensive procedure that having a manual installed. The cost of the converter is basically a half of the tranny. ANother issue with the auto tranny is that there are no specialists here who could provide programming for the tranny computer.

Electronics part there should be no problem. I will have a custom setup using a system similar to Apexi Power FC. I have some friends who are into rallying and they have lots of experience with their cars and programming of ecu. They achieved some good results and their engines are pretty reliable.

In any case I understand that it will be learning process. But I hope that it will work out well. THe only thing now is to find out whether the maual tranny will fit the engine and where to get it. I checked ebay and they have only 2wd manual available. will keep looking.

thanks for the input.

No problem, sounds interesting. I work in the Heavy Duty Vehicle industry (motorcoaches), so have some experience with HD auto trannies. I wonder if you should just try it with the stock transmission. Maybe you can get a Titan or Armada torque converter from the wrecker? I think the transmission would be adaptive, so should continue to work with the new power input. At 380lbft for the V8, the transmission should be able to accept 450lbft at least, I doubt you would exceed that, and if you did, only every so often. Auto tranny would definitely help with all that power, the manual can't be very slick... you don't want to feel like your driving a souped up dump truck!

I always wondered what I would do once my VQ40 engine failed (in 10 years or so). Maybe a diesel install, Cummins ISB, or even the Nissan one they offer in Europe/Australia.

my vq is not failing on me right now but with the quality of fuel and lubricants here and the way I drive I think it will start giving me trouble some time soon. so by the time it will start I will have all the things ready for an upgrade.