The Nissan Xterra is an SUV that was designed to handle rough roads and trails. Here, the hosts are using Xterras as the starting point for cheap “overland” builds—basically turning them into budget adventure rigs.
A “cheap car challenge” is a structured build constraint where the hosts try to create a capable result under a strict budget. Here, the constraint is $5,000 or less including the vehicle and all modifications.
Overland is about using a vehicle to go on longer trips where you might camp and be far from help. People usually add gear so the car can handle rough roads and still let you live out of it.
A supercharger is a device that forces extra air into the engine so it can make more power. The hosts are saying one of their Xterras has that boosted setup.
The timing chain helps the engine’s internal parts move in the right order. If it’s having problems, the engine can run badly and, if ignored, it can potentially lead to serious damage.
New tires don’t just bolt on and go. They get mounted on the wheels and balanced so they don’t shake at speed. Sometimes you also do an alignment so the car drives straight and the tires wear evenly.
The timing belt is a belt inside the engine that keeps the engine’s moving parts working in sync. If it breaks, the engine can get out of time and can be badly damaged, so it’s something you don’t want to ignore.
The water pump moves coolant through the engine to keep it from overheating. Sometimes it’s replaced when the timing belt is replaced, but in this case the speaker says the water pump is not powered by the timing belt.
They’re saying it’s basically a gamble. Even if one part looks new, you can’t be sure the other critical maintenance (like the belt) is actually done, so something could still fail later.
The radiator helps cool the engine by letting hot coolant give off heat to the air. For some repairs, mechanics need to remove it to get enough space. The host is saying that’s part of the process here.
A serpentine belt is one belt that powers several engine accessories at once. The host is saying this truck doesn’t use that simple one-belt setup. Instead, it uses multiple belts, which can make the job a bit more involved.
Accessory belts are belts that run things like the alternator and other systems that help the car work. This truck uses multiple belts instead of one. That can make maintenance take longer because each belt has to be handled separately.
The AC compressor is the part that makes your car’s air conditioner actually work. It squeezes the refrigerant so it can cool the air, and sometimes you have to move it out of the way to reach something else in the engine area.
Part
idler intention or pulleys
The idler/tensioner pulleys are small wheels that guide the belt and keep it tight. If they get worn out, the belt can start slipping or making noise, and that can cause other problems.
A supercharger is a device that forces extra air into the engine so it can make more power. Because it’s usually driven by belts, if the belt/pulleys are misaligned or worn, it can cause problems.
A pulley setup is the belt-and-pulley system that drives components. If the pulleys aren’t lined up right, the belt can slip, wear out, or even come off.
A wiring harness is the car’s main bundle of electrical wires. If something mechanical rubs against it, the wires can get damaged and cause electrical problems.
Conduit is protective tubing or sheathing that shields wiring from abrasion, heat, and moisture. If the conduit is worn through, the underlying wires are more exposed and more likely to fail.
An idler pulley is a pulley that just guides the belt along the right path. If its bearing or alignment is off, the belt can wear quickly or even fall off.
The alternator belt drives the alternator, which charges the battery and powers electronics. If the belt comes off, the battery may not get charged and the car can have trouble running.
Term
accessory polis
This sounds like they mean the pulleys that run accessories with belts. If a pulley’s bearing is worn out, it can make grinding or rattling noises that can be mistaken for bigger engine problems.
Power steering helps you turn the wheel more easily using a pump. If that pump or its belt/pulley is going bad, it can make knocking or rattling sounds—especially when the engine is idling.
“Knock” means a sharp banging or tapping noise. It can come from different parts, and here they’re saying it might be the power steering pump making that sound.
They’re using a stethoscope-like trick to listen for where the noise is coming from. Instead of guessing, you put the tip on parts and listen for the loudest sound.
Fluids are the liquids your car needs to run—like oil and coolant. Making sure they’re at the right level helps prevent overheating and other failures.
The Ford Falcon is a car model made by Ford. In the podcast, the “Falcon Rubitrex” part sounds like it’s actually talking about a type of tire, not the car’s engine or features. Tires like that are meant to help the car grip better on rough roads.
“Smog” here means exhaust emissions. The host is saying they’re not worried about passing an emissions check or dealing with emissions problems right now.
A transmission cooler is like a small radiator for the transmission fluid. It helps prevent overheating, and in some setups it’s connected to the main radiator, which can cause problems if fluids mix.
This describes a specific failure mode where transmission fluid and engine coolant cross-contaminate. When that happens, the transmission can lose the correct fluid properties and lubrication, leading to transmission damage—what the host calls “donated many a transmission.”
VVTI (VVT-i) is a system that helps the engine open and close its valves at the right times. A gasket is a seal—if it fails, oil can leak out and you may need to replace the seal to stop the mess.
In a 4x4 truck, the transfer case is what sends power to both the front and rear wheels. It uses special fluid, and that fluid can wear out over time, so it may need service.
The rear differential is what allows the rear wheels to spin at different speeds when you turn. It uses oil, and if that oil isn’t changed, the gears can wear faster.
The front differential is the gear system that lets the front wheels turn at different speeds when you’re cornering. It has its own oil, and that oil can wear out, so it’s worth keeping up with.
Brake pads are the parts that press against the rotors to slow the car down. As they wear out, they can develop uneven edges and the braking can feel less smooth.
Bleeding the brakes means getting the air out of the brake fluid lines. If there’s air in there, the brake pedal can feel mushy and braking won’t feel as strong.
Timing chains are like a durable “synchronizing” mechanism inside the engine. They keep the camshafts and crankshaft working together, but if they wear out you can hear loud noises and may need repairs.
Some engines use more than one timing chain. A “secondary” chain is an extra chain that helps connect camshafts, and if it wears out you can get loud timing-related noises.
A quad cam engine uses four camshafts total—typically two per cylinder bank—so valve timing can be controlled more precisely. In the early 1990s, some GM designs used multi-cam layouts that relied on timing components (chains, guides, tensioners) to keep everything synchronized.
A chain guide is a part that helps hold the timing chain in the right place. If the guide wears out—especially if it’s plastic—the chain can start slapping around and make a nasty noise.
Rockford Fosgate is a company that makes car audio equipment like speakers and stereos. They’re saying their car’s sound system is from that brand, and it sounds pretty good.
An FM transmitter lets you play phone audio through your car radio. It sends the sound over a radio station frequency, and you tune the radio to match it.
Suspension bushings are soft parts that sit between suspension components. They help the ride feel smooth and quiet, but when they wear out you can get squeaks or creaks—especially as things heat up.
Bilstein makes shock absorbers. Shocks help control bouncing and keep the tires in contact with the road, and after high mileage they can wear out and feel less effective.
An off-roader is a vehicle meant for dirt roads, trails, and rough ground. It’s built to handle bumps and traction changes better than a typical street-focused SUV.
A six-speed manual is a car where you shift gears yourself. You use a clutch pedal, and having more gears can help you keep the car in the right “mode” when driving slowly off-road.
The Toyota 4Runner is a rugged SUV people buy for off-roading. In this discussion, the host is saying it’s not as easy to find a manual version as it is with the Nissan Xterra.
It means people bring or buy way more gear than they really need. The point is usually to look prepared, but it can make the whole hobby way more expensive.
A solid axle swap is when you change the front suspension so the wheels are connected by a single heavy axle. People do it for tougher off-road performance, but it’s a big modification that takes work to install correctly.
“Cut the quarters” refers to trimming the rear quarter panels (body sheet metal) to create clearance for larger tires, suspension travel, or off-road components. It’s a common step in lifted builds, but it’s also irreversible and can affect rust protection and body integrity if not done carefully.
Here, “ladder” is a step/ladder on the back of the truck so you can reach things on top, like a roof rack or tent. It’s mainly for convenience when camping.
Air tanks are built-in containers that store compressed air. Overlanders use them to quickly adjust tire pressure (and sometimes other off-road air tools) without stopping to find a compressor.
Air down means letting some air out of your tires for off-road driving. It helps the tire grip better on loose surfaces, and then you put the air back in for the highway.
The Toyota Corolla is a very common, everyday car. Here, they’re basically saying you can still do the kind of trip or setup they’re talking about with something simple like a Corolla, not only with expensive off-road vehicles.
The Chevrolet Corvette is a sports car made by Chevrolet. It’s designed to be fast and fun to drive, and people often talk about different versions of it. The “C506” reference is likely a way to identify a specific variant or special model.
The Infiniti Q45 is a luxury car (a sedan) made by Infiniti. Here, they’re arguing about which model year the car is, based on what it looks like or how it’s identified.
“IS” here likely means the Lexus IS 300. It’s a compact luxury sedan, meaning it’s built for comfortable daily driving with a bit of performance. The podcast is trying to confirm which exact model they mean.
“Six-cylinder” means the engine has six combustion chambers. More cylinders often helps the engine run smoothly, and here it’s being used as a hint to identify the car.
The Nissan Maxima is a mid-size car that’s meant to feel a bit more fun to drive than a typical family sedan. Here, they’re talking about a specific Maxima version (SE) and a manual transmission, which is the more “driver-focused” setup.
A five-speed manual is a car where you shift gears yourself using a clutch. It has five forward gears, which changes how the car feels when you accelerate and when you’re driving at steady speeds.
The Nissan Altima is a regular family-sized sedan made by Nissan. When someone mentions a number like “240,” they’re usually talking about a performance spec from a certain version of the car. It’s often discussed because it’s common and comes in different trims.
The Hyundai i30 is a compact car made by Hyundai. In the podcast, it sounds like they were just talking about the name or number of the model. Compact cars like this are usually meant for normal daily driving.
Valve covers are the top covers on the engine that help keep oil in and dirt out. If they start leaking, you usually reseal them, and sometimes you have to take off other engine parts to reach the back one.
The intake manifold is part of the engine that routes air (and sometimes fuel) to the cylinders. If you need to reach the back valve cover, you may have to remove the intake manifold because it’s packed with hoses and lines.
RTV is a type of silicone sealant used to stop leaks between engine parts. The speaker is saying they saw different colors/types of RTV used in the repair area.
The valve train is the engine’s “valve moving system.” It controls when the intake and exhaust valves open and close, and it has lots of moving parts that need clean oil—so debris or sealant chunks can be a bad sign.
An “oil slick” is a visible layer of oil spread across a surface, here indicating an active or recent oil leak in the engine bay. It’s a practical red flag because oil can drip onto hot components and create smoke or fire risk.
The valve cover gasket is a rubber seal that keeps engine oil from leaking where the valve cover bolts to the engine. If it gets old and hard, it can stop sealing and start leaking.
Rubber grommets are rubber sleeves/bushings that sit around bolts. If they crack or flatten over time, the seal can fail and the valve cover may start leaking.
Term
torque to yields
“Torque-to-yield” is a way of tightening certain bolts so they stretch a little in a controlled way. It only works correctly if you follow the exact tightening steps, not just “tighten it by hand.”
A torque setting means tightening bolts to a measured tightness instead of guessing. With rubber seals, the correct tightness helps them seal properly without getting damaged.
“Crush rubber” means the rubber seal is supposed to get squeezed a bit to make a tight seal. If you squeeze it too hard, it can break down or even lead to cracking nearby parts.
A torque wrench is a tool that tightens bolts to a specific tightness setting. That matters because if you overtighten, you can damage seals or even crack metal parts.
This is a control valve for the engine’s cam timing system. If it doesn’t work right, the engine can run rough or feel less responsive because the timing isn’t being adjusted properly.
It means someone modified the car’s wiring by cutting it and reconnecting it to new wires. If it’s not done correctly, you can get electrical gremlins later.
Brand
Volkswagen E1
Volkswagen is the automaker whose parts or wiring components are being referenced here. “E1” sounds like an internal part/harness designation used in a retrofit, so the key takeaway is that the speaker is sourcing or adapting a Volkswagen-specific connector/wiring section.
A sensor is a small electronic part that tells the car’s computer what’s going on. If it’s not working right, the car can run poorly even if you don’t get an obvious warning light.
A “pigtail” is a short wiring harness section with the correct connector on one end and wires on the other. It’s used to make sensor replacement plug-and-play or to splice into the existing vehicle wiring with the right connector shape and pinout.
A scanner is a tool that plugs into the car and checks for stored error codes. “No codes” means the car’s computer didn’t record a problem, even if the driving feel wasn’t right.
“Pending” means the car noticed something might be wrong, but it hasn’t proven it enough to fully log it as a confirmed problem. It often shows up when the issue is intermittent.
A sulfur smell can be a sign that something in the engine or exhaust isn’t burning or working normally. Even if the car’s computer doesn’t show codes, the smell can still help point you toward the cause.
“Pre-gapped” means the spark plug gap is already set correctly when you buy it. That helps the engine start and run smoothly without needing extra adjustment.
The Plymouth Barracuda is an older American performance car. In the podcast, it’s mentioned as part of someone’s current lineup or what they’ve got at home. People often talk about it because it’s a well-known muscle car from the past.
LIVE
In a world with entirely too many shows about cars.
This is another pointless automotive podcast.
Let me get a clock going to you because we like to run.
I don't, but I mean, you and I, together if we like add via math, then we would run deep and we tend to run deep.
Yeah, it's a it's kind of a package deal.
If you know what I'm saying, hey, I'm eating, I'm eating Kraft mac and cheese as we do this.
I'm like scrambling to make our recording to raise the level of professionalism we have around these parts.
Frank's going to be eating mac and cheese while we do the pod.
Why not?
It makes sense.
It fucking makes sense.
It better be the cheap shit.
If you're coming at me with some gluten free organic bullshit.
Okay.
Good.
I've got the I have the blue box blues.
Okay.
I'm doing the crap.
Good.
I'm almost done though.
Carry on.
Well, I've finished my dog shit meal.
I will.
Thank you for that.
Thanks for guiding me in and allowing me to do this chop chop.
So guys, by the time this episode goes live, it's going to be a mere three days from when we embark on our cheap overland adventure.
And I think we need to talk about it because I looked back.
It's been over a month since we've done an update.
And I think you guys like this stuff because I love this stuff.
And let's find out where the hell we are because I have no idea where Frank is.
I'm assuming if you're watching on YouTube, check it out.
If you're not, he has a next air in his background.
So that's a good sign.
That's a good sign.
Also, you know, pleasantries.
I didn't want to ask you how you're doing while you're mowing down on your mac and cheese.
Okay.
I put the, I put the tail end of it down.
I'm going to drink a beer.
Okay.
Let me do that too.
Do that thing you're good at.
I'll do some talking.
I'll do some cracking of...
I'm still working through some post-rally bush lights.
Because, believe it or not, I only drink these during this goddamn podcast.
Fantastic.
Because why else would I drink these?
Okay.
So right into it, first off, yellow friends.
This is purely going to be an update episode on all things XTERRA.
Yeah.
Only a fistful of days away before we have earmarked our way into a rally.
And by rally, just overlanding.
Should we...
Should we put out an open invite for like three days from now?
People want to show up.
We don't even really know what we're doing.
So maybe it's not a good idea.
Yeah.
I was kind of holding that until I got some...
I know.
I'm going, Franklin.
I'm going to go.
I just don't know how deep.
Again.
You know.
I wanted to make sure it's happening before I like have people free up schedules and
whatever.
Dude, do you have something on there?
I just saw something fucking land.
It's a tiny spider.
Let's get out of here.
Oh, there he is.
Hold on.
It's like a tiny...
Here he is.
Can you see him?
Yeah.
The production values are through the roof.
We have...
We're on spider watch.
Oh, he's coming down onto my mic.
Let's see.
Bang.
All right.
Spider friends.
Anyway.
He'll speak some kind words.
But yeah, dude.
I don't know.
I was kind of holding to pull that trigger until we found out for sure that we're going.
It sounds like we are.
So I think it's safe and the weather looks good.
Everything's...
Dude, everything's kind of lining up for this.
Except...
Everything's coming up millhouse.
We'll see when we get to your...
Your...
Thrill house.
When you get to your...
When you get to your section.
But I figure we just kind of bring...
I don't pay attention to half the things I even say.
So I figure to bring the fine listeners and viewers up to speed on where our X-Terras,
we both...
Well, backstory backstory, right?
The backstory to the backstory is we decided to do another cheap car challenge.
This time, cheap overland builds.
$5,000 or less, including the vehicle and everything we do to them.
It's actually pretty hard to do today.
But what the funny thing is, no, no collusion, no working together on this, but we both landed
on X-Terras.
We did.
I got a first gen supercharged.
You've got a second gen overland trim.
Off-road trim.
But close.
Off-road.
Overland.
Soon to be.
Overland trim.
But yeah, no, it's interesting.
Yeah, we both ended up on the more interesting versions of the first and second gen X-Terras.
This is true.
And yeah, so I think we're going to do what?
We're going to do Saturday, bright and early the morning of the...
God, what is that?
The 27th?
That sounds about right.
And we're going to go up to the...
Unless we last been to change our plans to the Hollister Hills.
Yes.
Go find some trails.
Hopefully find some available camping spots to do with a night overland.
Maybe break some stuff.
Maybe not.
We're going to find out.
But we got to get to the trailhead first.
Correct.
You bought yours, I don't want to say in...
I mean, questionable condition, but I think ultimately pretty good other than some questionable
timing chain issues.
I have questionable...
He's still there.
I think belts the issues, which has yet to be resolved only a handful of days away.
And so I'm in an interesting...
I'm in an interesting quagmire because I have...
Should I just get into it?
Should I just get into the quagmire?
You know what?
So on my breakdown, and you can choose to follow this or not.
I did the good, the bad, and the ugly, which I think is a fun way to approach this problem.
So start off pretty, then start off with...
And then the worst part of where you're currently at.
Again, right now we're recording exactly seven days before we do this rally.
But when this podcast goes live, we will have only three days.
Three days remaining.
No pressure.
Where are you at, dude?
What's good?
What's good?
Okay.
So what is good?
And I don't mean that to sound like...
I'm going to have to like...
It's not a question mark.
I should call it a turd.
Although I will.
So what's good is, as constructed today, car runs, car drives, it's registered, it's tagged,
it's in my name, it's got current tags, it's got cold air conditioning, it's got functional
four-wheel drive, it does all the things that you need an off-road vehicle to do.
Nice.
Right now, the bad, I still have not addressed tires.
I still have good old street kumos on here.
Not going to work.
Which are in good shape, but they're just regular ass street tires.
And to get a decent set of decent tires, mount, balance, maybe an alignment if I'm feeling
froggy is $1,000 to $1,200.
Realistically, for good rubber.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I've got room in the budget as it says.
You do.
So I can do that, but I haven't done it yet.
But like, there's nothing stopping me from Monday morning driving off and spending $1,100
and getting decent rubber on the car.
That'll then put me at, I'm in the car again as it sits like $3,200.
Damn, that's good.
So I can spend the money and be into the mid, you know, mid to low $4,000.
So I'll have some money left in the budget.
That's the quote unquote bad.
I would also say the other part of the bad is as it sits, I have not done timing belt
water pump.
I have a timing belt and water pump.
There's nothing to say.
Like if I look at the water pump, the water pump looks like it's been recently replaced.
Okay.
But the timing belt itself, you know, sometimes people change out a water pump.
On this motor, the water pump is not driven off of the timing belt.
Like on some timing belt cars, right?
It's a service item with the timing belt.
You do it at the same time.
It's driven off, but whatever.
This is not.
So could somebody in this thing's mysterious, wildly unknown, sordid past have replaced
just the water pump and not the timing belt?
Certainly plausible.
Could that timing, could that water pump being fresh and looking nice?
Could that be a sign that the water pump has been done recently?
Also certainly plausible.
But do I want to bank a motor on that?
Probably not.
Not really wise to do so.
I'm not going to call that ugly, but it's the bad, right?
Like if we go out for a weekend and we put, you know, whatever, two, 300 miles, 400 miles
on this truck, will this unknown timing belt eat the motor during that?
Probably not.
But it's a role of the dice.
Are you planning on not doing it?
Is that what you're fighting with here?
That's what I'm fighting with here.
And the only reason I'm fighting with it is, is a combination of time or budget.
If I do it myself, it's time, right?
If I try and have someone else do it, now I'm up against, if I'm buying, if I'm doing tires and stuff, right?
Now I'm at like 41, 42, 43 hundred dollars into my budget.
Can I find someone to do a timing belt water pump on this truck for $700, $800?
Maybe, maybe it's a really straight forward job on these though.
It's, yeah, I, you know, and that's the other thing I looked about doing it.
It's like, it's like a 789 hour job, depending on what, you know, this is probably up.
It's because it's a supercharged model.
There's a couple of extra steps.
True, but it is a, it is a correct facing motor.
So it's not like a transverse four cylinder pressed against the, but it's time.
Like, I have to pull, I gotta pull the radiator.
Not that big a deal.
I gotta pull on this motor.
It's, it's not a serpentine belt.
It's three individual old school accessory belts.
Okay.
Which have the old school, like multi-step tensioner, where you got the, the swivel part.
Yeah.
You go sliding like part of it you got to do from the top and part of it you got to do from the bottom on all three of them.
Like it's not impossible.
Shit.
It's just that fan shroud and fan and radiator.
You have all the room in the world.
Yeah.
You got a lot of room.
Yeah.
Which is, but then you, in order to do, you got to pull the, you got to, you got to pull the AC compressor.
You got to pull.
Yeah.
Like there's just put it to the side.
I mean, you can't, I don't, haven't looked up enough.
I don't think I have to crack lines.
Good.
Yeah.
You could usually just put a bungee and pull it to the side.
Right.
Yeah.
But like long and short of it is it adds up.
Okay.
So let's say I have to spend eight hours on it.
I don't know that I have eight hours between now and then.
Yeah.
Straight up because also right on the other side of this adventure we're going on, I'm going on vacation for a week and a half.
Which means as a freelancer, I don't have paid time off.
Like I have, I have to meet, like I have to do basically two and a half weeks worth of work in one lead up week.
That's right.
Which does not lead a lot of time for me to fuck around with this thing.
Yeah.
So that's the bad.
The ugly is there, there is some work that I certainly have to still get done before we go.
And mainly those accessory belt I was talking about and the idler intention or pulleys.
The one to the supercharger is like 75% there.
Oh, like 25% of it's missing.
And that set remaining 75% is like skipped.
It's like hanging off the engine side of the pulley setup.
Like it's misaligned.
Oh, okay.
And then if you start looking around, you're like, oh, I can see where this has been riding in a couple of places, including the wiring harness.
There's a part where it's worn through some of the conduit on the wiring harness.
So it's off significantly.
Yeah, like it's been doing this before I bought it.
So I have to take care of that.
Okay.
Not the end of the world.
Like that's not that big a deal.
But I'm hoping that that like, okay, I do a tensioner pulley.
I do an idler pulley.
I've replaced the belts and then I'm good.
Hopefully.
Yeah.
I hate to just like, oops, I threw the alternator belt into the woods.
Right.
On our adventure.
That would suck.
Or whatever, like, or it just keeps, it just keeps throwing a belt because there's something else that I did.
There's a bent bracket or there's something that I have yet to sluice out.
And that's the thing.
Cause like, I would just do that in the course of a water pump and timing belt.
But if I'm not going to do the water pump and timing belt for time reasons, then I do this and then potentially have to undo it all over again later.
Like that sucks.
Yeah.
That sucks.
But like, okay, like that's a sacrifice I got to make to get to the starting line.
The other ugly is I have a mysterious knocking noise from the front middle part of the engine.
Okay.
Now this could be the aforementioned timing belt, right?
There might be a bad tensioner in there.
Like there's some slapping.
You hear it at idle.
You feed it a little bit of throttle and you hear it, but only, only right off of idle.
Like if you're at like 2000 RPM and you punch it, you don't hear anything.
It doesn't sound bottom end.
It sounds high middle.
It could be this.
It sounds like it could also be the supercharger.
I've yet to get a, you know, mechanics at the scope or a makeshift one on it.
Check your, check your accessory polis too, right?
Like they could make a grindy noise just like that.
That little bit of knocking noise.
And I've had power steering.
Power steering or a knock rattle.
Yeah.
And I know that some of those components are bad.
Yeah.
So I might just replace all of that.
Like a failing power steering pump makes a lot of like sounds like knock sometimes.
I use the, you said make your own stethoscope.
I use a two liter soda bottle, cut it in half.
I put a screwdriver at, you know, the back end of a screwdriver into that little hole.
It fits perfect.
Tape it.
With some duct tape, you put the screwdriver tip on things and listen and you'll hear that
rub, that like knocking kind of metal noise.
Yep.
The best way to source out one of those.
Yeah.
It's probably something like that because these, those engines are pretty stout.
Yeah.
It doesn't sound like bottom end at all.
If anything, it would be top end.
Top there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Power top.
Is that just whatever?
It should be.
It should be.
God willing.
Especially God.
God.
Especially Him.
The story is top.
Yeah.
Jesus Christ power bottom.
So no, the, so that's kind of where I'm at is I,
Andrew and Led Weber.
Exactly.
Really.
His finest work.
So yeah.
So I'm like, if I just showed up with it the way it is today, could I limp it all the
way through what we're doing?
Probably.
Yeah.
But like, I'm like, it's not just like I'm rolling one die.
I'm like, I'm rolling a fistful of die if I do that.
So I gotta like pull some die out of this.
The concern, the concern of breaking down the highway, a fair one concern of being
10 miles down a shitty one, like lane trail, not cool when something like ends it like
that.
The difference is though, though, like the likelihood of you finding a stranger who
wants to drag your ass off the side of the highway low, finding a stranger on the side
of the trail who's like super horny to drag your busted shit down a mountain.
Super high.
True.
True.
So, you know, for whatever that's worth, I don't intend to blow up at any part of this
equation.
No one does.
The sketchy individual that I bought this thing off of had just was just fucking driving
the thing with all the shit unbeknownst to him, whatever, just like dude was getting
the working back.
So like, I don't know, it worked for him.
Not that that's like how I want to work in this and in life, but yeah, it's a time crunch.
And I think I might just get all the accessory belt shit sorted out.
Tires, for sure.
Do tires, make sure all my fluids are good and just send it.
And then what I might do is if I've got all the accessory belts off, if it's only like
another handful of steps to get at least the top inspection plate off so I can look at
this timing belt and make sure that it's not like worn the fuck out or like that's like,
oh, there's like wear marks on the cover because that's what's slapping around.
Oh, dude.
Yeah.
I might do that.
And if it looks okay, if the belt looks about the same age as the water pump, then put it
all back together, replace these missing fasteners that I got at the local pick and pull and
just send it.
Oh yeah.
Just because I'm out of time.
But that's kind of where I am at.
It's not horrible.
Have you had a kidney or two in order to make budget or where you at?
So yeah, famously, I spent everything but $200 of the budget to score my 2008 XTERRA
over.
I almost said it too.
I almost said it.
God damn it.
Gotcha bitch.
It sticks.
Off-road trim.
I knew this is like counter to everything.
I usually go cheap and have room for mods.
Not this time, friends.
The only plus was he did give me good tires.
Regardless, they're good all-terrain tires so I'm unhappy with them.
They're Falcon Rubitrex, which is a pretty good off-road tire.
It's not like, it's not your BFG KO3.
You know, I've tried.
I've never solved a Rubitrex cube.
I've just never been able to do it.
Is it like the one in Hellraiser?
Because let me tell you, the pleasure.
Can I surprise you?
Can I surprise you?
No.
Don't wear the outfit of the Hellraiser guy when we're out in the trail.
Can I surprise you?
I've never seen Hellraiser.
This is fucking, this uncultured fuck.
All right, let's continue.
That's ugly right there, by the way.
It is.
So the good.
Having said, I just spent my entire budget on the truck itself.
I did sell that front brush guard and the wheels.
I made 400 bucks back, which is not enough for everything I need to do this truck.
Let's be honest.
A good smog is not a threat to me anymore, dude.
That's the strawberry milkshake of death that affects the second gens.
You don't have to worry about that with your first gen truth or stance.
But second gens, they have a transmission cooler that just loves.
It goes, it's built into the radiator.
So what happens is your trans fluid and coolant mix, not cool.
And it has donated many a transmission, which is not something you want to deal with.
The easy fixes to buy a quality aftermarket radiator did that.
That was the first thing we took care of.
I've taken care of all the oil leaks, the valve covers, the VVTI gaskets, all the basic stuff.
That stuff's cheap.
It's just labor intensive, right?
Take the top of the motor off and then the fresh tires that came with it.
So that's good.
The truck is leak proof.
It's not going to have the fatal strawberry milkshake of death.
So I'm pretty happy.
I'm happy.
I've been driving it.
It drives well.
That's the good.
The bad.
Original fluids, most likely.
So you got to remember, we're talking 180,000 miles is what we got.
So trans front diff rear diff transfer case.
All those fluids.
I don't have any records of them being done.
And in most of these trucks, that stuff doesn't get touched.
Like people don't get in there and do the front diff or the transfer case or they do
the rear diff because it's easy, right?
Like you ever get to a fluid place.
I'm like, oh, yeah, we'll do that rear diff.
Who knows.
So great chance that those are all original fluids to be brutally honest.
There's no leaks.
So I'm not worried about that because that would be a real concern.
That would be good.
Yeah.
Breaks.
I think I'm at like 20 to 30% on my pads and I do have a little bit of like a little bit
of a ridge formed around the out of the road as they look old, not in the budget.
So breaks.
They stopped.
Whatever dude.
It stops kind of.
Yeah.
A little squishier than I'd like.
I might bleed the brakes a little bit.
Yeah.
Can you bleed them?
Yeah.
I'll bleed them.
$12 for fluid.
Yeah.
You know what I'm at?
I think I'm at like 74 bucks or something.
I just posted my last episode.
So I did like the, every time I put a part up, I got the kaching and then the budget goes
down on that series.
So that's kind of fun.
But yeah, dude, I'm, I'm going at it with original questionable fluids and brakes.
So it is what it is.
Right.
Now where this truck gets interesting is the ugly.
And I want to tell you guys, this is a, I'm not comfy with this because your timing belt
job painted the dick, but I would much rather do that than switch out timing chains every
day of my life.
Right.
So timing chains on these, they, they don't fail actually, except for the secondary.
So there's a little secondary one behind the main one that connects the two cams.
This is a, you know, a quad cam engine, if you will GM in the early nineties that fails
and it chews through a plastic like chain guide and there's a little metal bolt holding
it and it will start to make this horrible fucking noise like a wine.
It sounds like drive, like driveline wine, like when your transmission is failing.
So originally it's like supercharger bro.
Yeah.
See, I could do, I bet mine sounds like more of a supercharger.
Maybe it's gotten, it has gotten louder since I've been driving it.
So we're getting at that point where that needs to be serviced.
It's not at all in the books cause it's going to be about $800 worth of parts.
And that's cause if I'm going to pull the secondary chains, I'm going to do primaries.
I'm going to do every guide.
I'm going to do the tensioner.
I'm going to do the front drive at belt assembly, which is the big long drive belt.
So do it all at once and then I'll be done.
That'll go for another like 200, 300,000 miles.
Hell yeah.
I don't have the budget right now, dude.
So right now when you drive that truck, like a constant, it's so, it's scary, but I don't
have a choice, right?
And yeah, people have reported they're like, I've run it for like years like that.
Then the person's like, Oh, cool.
Cause my belt started slapping like a couple of weeks after I heard the sound really loud.
So I'm like, the answer is the truth is in between, right?
And, and here's the thing.
Like you don't know how long it's been doing that.
Exactly.
It was quite a bit.
It might have already been five years.
Yeah.
And it really comes down to maintenance too.
Like people have said, Oh, you changed the oil frequently.
It doesn't affect it.
It's more lubricated.
Sure.
Yeah.
180,000 mile sale under $5,000 truck.
I'm really, I'm really thinking the maintenance has been perfect.
So that is the ugly.
And that's a big ugly.
That's a dude.
If my chain starts slapping, it's like cut it, right?
Yep.
Toe in the truck home.
The other thing that goes with that job is like you said, the water pump.
Mhm.
Usually you do it when you do the chain.
This chain's never been serviced and timing chain vehicles are notorious for having neglected
water pumps.
Right.
It's timing belt.
You get in there and do it even if it's not.
It's part of the service interval.
So at the end of the day, I have an 180,000 mile original water pump.
Cooling this big old truck down, which is known to have cooling issues.
So that falls under the ugly category because that thing gives up, that thing locks up or
that thing starts pouring out coolant.
That's another game over.
So the two ugliest, the two ugliest in my case are like fucking game ending injuries,
right?
Or career ending even.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, James, if I, I bend vowels on a trail, it's like, well, do I light it
on fire here or do I light it at the bottom of the hill?
I don't even have the budget to afford the part.
So I'm like literally hands tied, right?
Like so that's the biggest.
It's like in like the time to like that job is super time consuming the chain part.
But it's not built.
It's not made to be serviced.
Exactly.
That's exactly it.
And there's like a bunch of sub guides and all this.
It's pretty complicated.
But dude, just like not having the money to actually budget it to save my own ass is
a pretty shitty feeling.
Yeah.
I'm happy.
You know what's funny though?
I almost wish I was completely out of budget.
Right.
Because instead of just like being like, I can't do it because I'm a lazy asshole and
I should have done this weeks ago, but I now I'm out of time and now I'm just a piece
of shit.
Like I would argue that that's worse.
The biggest difference though.
And I agree.
I agree.
It's forcing me not to do anything.
But the biggest difference dude is like, you don't know the status of yours.
Mine is screaming.
Yeah.
It's status.
It's literally saying I'm fucking dying and you're going to die too.
Exactly.
Radio up.
He dies.
He dies.
Yeah.
Listen to this Rockford Fosgate buddy.
Listen to this.
Oh yeah.
Rockford Fosgate twins.
Yeah, we can.
It's actually a pretty good sound system by the way.
I don't know if you put, yeah.
A little bit.
A little bit.
It's got a little sub under the driver's seat.
Kind of nice.
I got to find some of my old CDs just to bump CDs the whole time.
So I got an FM transmitter so I can charge my phone.
Mine does too.
It came with one actually.
Oh killer.
I haven't ticked with it yet.
I love them.
I love them.
I'd rather like put on like a, like the reason by huba stank or something on CD.
I still have the big books of my CDs.
I might have one somewhere.
I haven't seen it in a decade.
That's true because we won't probably have like Wi-Fi or like any kind of self service
where we're going.
So that's a good call.
I'll have to dig out some CDs.
But yeah, dude.
I'm super.
Again, the truck drives.
Well, I get a lot of squeaks and stuff over anything.
Like, because the suspension bushing is warm and everything.
I think my shocks are pretty.
Oh, they're not blasted, but they're not, they're not good.
Under the original Bilsteins with 180K.
So they're, they're probably down a little bit of life.
But yeah, that's where I'm at, man.
So I'm super happy.
Like I said, the truck drives, AC, like you said, AC works.
Heat works.
Everything functions as it should, which is huge.
I'm trying to think if there's any weird, nothing, nothing really, except for the fact
that it could cataclysmically fail.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know what's funny is you said, cladaclysmically fail.
And you say cladaclysmically, and you froze for a second on my screen.
And then you unfroze.
Oh my God.
It was meant, it was meant to be.
I will not say it again, but I'm super, I'm super, I think I'm ready.
I think the truck's going to do well.
Like I said, everything else is fine.
Like it does, it does get down the road pretty nicely.
The tires work great.
Nothing, no other issues.
It's just those two big things, right?
Like, but you'll hear it, dude.
You'll, you'll definitely hear that wine.
Fuck.
Like, but like I said, like it's a known issue.
I'm going to try to, you know, I'm not driving it too much now.
Obviously I'm trying to like hold on to whatever hit points it has left.
Yeah.
But immediately got to do that as soon as I get back for sure.
Yeah.
Totally makes sense.
Bitch.
God, I'm pumped though.
Like I think this is going to be really cool.
And I think honestly, I think if like you and I just like take care of the bait,
like you've already taken care of your basic shit.
If I take care of my very basic shit, I think we'll do it.
I think we're going to have a successful operation here.
Um, like if you want to tag along message us, I guess, I don't know.
We're going to hide this.
We're going to iron this out as we get like 45 minutes before we set off.
Um, so I don't know.
We'll figure this out.
Um, yeah, I still need to pack.
Like, so I plan to consider packing dude.
So I watch, you've watched stealth camping stuff on YouTube.
It's pretty fun.
I thought we were talking about stealthing content, which is probably something you shouldn't
do.
No, don't do that.
Um, so stealth camping, this like there's a couple of guys that do it, but one guy's
really famous for it.
He like, I'm going to spend the night in this highway median and he like sets up these
stealth camps.
It's fucking so addicting.
You'll see if you're into that shit, but I was like, this is awful, but I'm into it.
Yeah.
We sleep in our, we sleep in our trucks.
And if we live in a, if we get in a situation where we can, I'm going to bring a tent and
everything like to tent out.
Yeah.
If you have to.
Yeah.
So I also don't have any real recovery gear.
I have a tow strap.
I used like, I also have a strap.
I have a strap.
Um, but that's the thing.
Like if there's two of us that kind of like.
So we can both get stuck.
We need, right?
Like two trucks with the tow strap.
And it's not like we're going.
Into like bum fuck.
Like we're going like into like a well, a semi well traveled.
Yeah.
Space.
So we should be okay.
Should.
Yeah.
I'm just going to, I'm going to pack a shit ton of tools, bring some way to like cook
out.
Cause that'd be kind of fun to have a little, a little yes.
Overlanding me.
We'll do the full budget.
Overland thing.
Yeah.
We got to, we got to, um, we've got to like do the can of beans and the campfire.
I was going to say, yeah.
Bar as hot dogs and mini ravioli, chef Boyardee style.
Exactly.
Yeah.
It's all budget, right?
Hobo pie, a hot pocket, and then do, um, and then do DMT.
Um, and then while we record, we, we have to record an episode.
Yep.
Up there about like the trials, just like live from the field.
Yeah.
We'll do one when we get to like down a trail or something.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We'll find a good place to post.
Get away somewhat away from civilization.
So we're not like completely insufferable to those around us.
Like recording it like 1am hammer drunk off of like the world's shittiest moonshine.
Yeah.
Or we do like a Sunday morning before we roll out, like do a recap of the
actual trail and the obstacles and how it went.
I kind of like the concept of recording by the light of the campfire.
I think we've been pretty sick.
Um, definitely atmospheric.
I'll give you that.
The atmospheric river.
Yeah.
Maybe the campfire that we ad hoc set up next to our broken down vehicles that are just
like completely inoperable because we didn't do it.
We'll actually be like, it'll be the burning husk of my, of my rig.
We'll just, we'll just be.
The recap episode is both our exterior is caught on fire.
Yeah.
And now we each have mesothelioma or whatever.
Again.
From inhaling the again.
I did serve at Camp Lejeune.
No.
Yeah.
It should be, it should be a lot of fun.
We should definitely.
Yeah.
I don't know.
Message us if you want to potentially witness our, our downfall.
And dude, I know it sounds like just listeners hear me out.
It sounds like we're talking a lot of shit about these vehicles, but the XTERRA itself
is a very robust fucking.
This is why.
Yeah.
It's why I'm actually pretty, pretty bullish even though.
Like not, not that my car's a piece of shit.
It's just like there's a lot of unknowns, but, but at the end of the day, it's an XTERRA
and they're so fucking rugged and similar, but like I feel pretty good about it.
And we're making a point.
These things are completely fucking slept on like as an off-roader.
Like you can go spend three to four K and get a driver right now.
You can go buy a four by four XTERRA.
If you want, you can go get a six speed manual, second gen.
You can get a manual in your generation and you can't do that with a four runner.
Can you?
Uh, in a third, in a late third gen.
Not with the ones that competed with us, not the fourth gen and newer.
Boom.
Well, I mean, here's the thing though.
Yeah.
You can get a good driver for like three to four.
If you want to spend between five and six, you can get one that's like kind of bill.
Kind of charity too.
Or not even mint, but just like already kid it out.
Like the shit that we're doing to like limp under a $5,000 budget.
If you don't, if you don't want to be idiots like us and you just want to spend a little bit more,
you could do it and then, and somebody else has already solved all these problems
and done all this shit for you.
And like the biggest message to dude that I wanted to like answer through this is
overlandings.
Oh, what?
Huh?
What is it called?
I never.
What's this practice?
I don't speak French, boy.
I did a little bit.
What did you call me?
Boy.
I don't know.
It's probably the right thing to do, dude.
Anytime I hear the term pull out, I just think of boys.
Anyways, carry on.
There's a priest joke in there somewhere.
But what else is like, oh, overlandings kind of like, I think it's kind of a divisive activity
because God, the price of entry, if you're really trying to do the big boy overland thing
is very pricey.
These rigs get expensive real fast.
The gear is very expensive.
Everybody overgears.
There's all this fake imagery and, you know, posing that goes with it.
The biggest message we're trying to, and I think I can say both of us are trying to get across
is you can do this on a budget, have a blast and not be a joke.
Like actually get out there.
Get out there.
Do the overlanding.
Yeah.
Do the road trip to get there, the off-road credential, go camping, have fun.
No.
Get into some shit with your truck.
No, bro.
You have to.
You can't even consider doing any of this unless you do a solid axle swap on the front
and you cut the quarters and you do, you know.
Get a little ladder.
A whittle ladder on the back.
You know, front and rear bumpers that are also like air tanks.
And so you can get back on the highway after you air down and it's just like, oh, of course.
Like, I mean, I like that shit.
I like it too.
Cool.
But utterly unnecessary for 90% of what anyone actually does.
What we're going to do.
Yeah.
Yeah, what we're going to do.
Well, fine.
And guess what?
If we fail miserably, it's our fault.
Yeah, it's actually not.
It's actually not even the fault of like the thesis.
It's just the fault of our execution upon the thesis.
Yeah.
Author error.
Yeah.
To the point where like, if we fail, it kind of makes me want to just like, let's do it
all over again, but with like two wheel drive only.
Oh, yeah.
And just like try and like prove the point of something shittier.
Yeah.
Toyota Corolla is whatever.
I fucking love my exterior though.
I really do love it.
I'm already, I'm already super attached to it.
So cool, man.
All right.
Well, I guess when this goes live three days after that, we may or may not survive.
Yes.
An overland adventure.
Yeah.
Hopefully the next episode will be us by warming ourselves by the fire of a carcass of another
car or person that isn't one of us or our vehicles.
And good weather.
It's just going to, it's going to be killer vibes.
I got some walkies and everything, man.
We're going to be good.
I've got a bow fang around here somewhere.
You got a who?
Exactly.
Yeah.
Any who should we play a game?
I love games.
Yeah.
Games, games, games.
Today's game is our print ad quiz game.
I'm going to dig it up.
Do you want to tell them what's the hell we're up to?
Yeah.
This is a little thing that we have cleverly named the automotive print ad quiz game.
What Frank's going to do now is pull up a magazine advertisement from the 80s, 90s to
mid 2000s.
He's going to read through that advertisement without giving the vehicle away.
And then I have to figure it out just from whatever that advertisement has.
I have three guesses, 10 minutes on the clock.
He will help me out when I fail at each step a little bit, maybe not at all.
He hates me.
He wants to see me fail.
You guys hopefully want to see me succeed and play along at home because it's actually
super fun to do.
I think I covered it.
Frank, he's got it.
Oh, that beautiful bean footage.
Oh boy.
Okay.
This one is, I'd say a seven to eight out of 10 on the spicy scale.
What did I do wrong?
Simply, well, we're going to find out.
It's a two page spreader.
We've got a just a direct passenger side, broad side image of the vehicle.
It's in like a, it's in like a silvery black void in the upper right hand corner.
And then in the bottom left hand corner, it's got some verbiage that I need to zoom in on
so I can actually read it.
Oh boy.
Okay.
Was that 49 performance, luxury and secret sauce?
49% performance, 49% luxury, 2% secret sauce.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Math, math.
Math, math.
Okay.
Hold on.
This zoom process is dog shit.
Okay.
Hold on.
Fuck.
Hold on.
Here.
Okay.
I'm going to have to squint.
Oh no.
I got it.
Okay.
Here we go.
The new blank.
The recipe for performance luxury sedan has just been rewritten.
Introducing the new blank.
On the performance side of the equation, it offers an adrenaline inducing 222 horsepower
engine made it to redesign suspension and steering systems that provide more stability
and control through the most serpentine stretches of asphalt as well as an exceptionally smooth
ride on the straightaways.
On the luxury side, the blank offers the most thoughtfully designed, most opulent interior
to ever grace a blank.
With an available custom tuned Bose Seed Esterio, yards of seton leather and a masterful
set of fit and finish.
What's our secret?
We're not telling.
But rest assured, it will be revealed to you the moment you slip behind the wheel.
In queries, call 800-335-3744 or click blank.com.
The new blank.
Cars like it.
Zero.
Okay.
Interesting.
220 horsepower sedan.
222 horsepower.
Oh, triple dudes.
Yeah, sports luxury sedan.
They like to call it.
Yep.
Lots of leather.
It sounds like seton leather.
S-E-T-O-N.
This is a tough one, man.
No really engine details except for the horsepower, right?
So depending on the time period, we could be talking eight cylinder.
We could be talking six cylinder.
We could be talking probably not four cylinder.
Things to consider.
It has a website.
Okay.
2000s.
Late 90s.
Time traveler, print ad.
This is an interesting...
I'm just over here holding the fish.
That's what the kids are calling it.
This is tricky, dude.
220 luxury.
222.
Don't tell yourself short.
Well, you know, SAA adjustments.
This is tricky.
I...
Boy, bows.
Yep.
Part of the equation.
Go ahead of bows.
Everybody had bows at one point.
No highs.
No lows.
It's gotta be bows.
Mazdi used a lot of bows,
but I don't think we're talking about a Mazdi here.
222.
No turbocharger reference.
Four door.
Damn, this is tricky, bro.
This is tricky.
That number's not ringing.
I hate it when that horsepower number doesn't like...
227.
It's a WRX.
Or it's a number that's so ubiquitous.
Yeah.
It's like 140 horsepower.
Like, goddammit, some random four-cylinder piece of...
True.
Or 405, like a Corvette C506.
They put a fucking badge on it that says it.
Not that.
222 sedan.
Somewhat modern-y.
Dude, I'm at a complete loss.
You got like seven minutes to play with.
Yeah, what kind of leather are we talking again?
Seaton.
Seaton.
I didn't know.
I never heard of it.
It's...
I mean, that's just not...
It's got to be a six-cylinder.
That's just...
With a website, nothing...
Even Lexus Toyota numbers, which are subtle, right?
For their performance, their bigger stuff
is on the low end.
And that's a little low for the low.
Do you need the phone number again?
Would that help?
No. Let me ring them.
We are going to call that, by the way, when we're done.
I didn't miss anything about drive, either.
Like front wheel, all-wheel, rear wheel.
Nope.
No hints there.
What color is the vehicle?
It's like a dark silver.
Like somewhere between a silver and gray.
Yeah, it's pretty indescribable.
Jesus, man.
Jesus.
Sports sedan, they said.
Correct.
And luxury.
The recipe for the performance luxury sedan
has just been rewritten.
Dude, I'm being an idiot.
I want to go infinity for some reason,
but I just don't know how I feel about that.
222 is a weird number
because their six-cylinder stuff was more than that.
Right?
If I was to say something stupid like an M35,
that's more than 222, I think.
Or is it?
Yeah, let's just do it.
Let's start there because I don't hate it,
but I think the numbers are off.
Unless it's...
This could not be an accurate TL.
Or again, or an accurate...
What did we do?
The big guy, RL.
This is not that.
We just did that. Real luxury.
Let's...
When did those M35s came out?
Or is this going to be a...
It's a Q44? Oh, maybe.
Let's do it. Let's do older.
Infinity Q45?
Final answer?
Do you have a year for me?
2001.
This is not
a 2001 Infinity Q45.
Okay.
I will tell you this.
You are within
plus or minus
one year
of 2001.
Furthermore,
I will tell you you are in the right
country of origin.
Okay.
So right country, right era,
probably a 2000.
Oh, Japan, yeah?
Japan.
All right. What am I missing?
Luxury sedan, Japan,
Mitsubishi is out.
Oh, Mazda.
Why did I want to say Mazda at the beginning?
I don't know why I thought that.
I don't think...
What would they have?
The millennia?
I mean...
Maybe.
Shit.
Lexus...
No.
Their V6's were like
right under 300
with the 3.5.
Ooh.
No.
No, I can't be that.
Is it a...
It could be a...
Is it in...
They would have mentioned in inline 6, wouldn't they?
They absolutely...
are barric if they hadn't.
Is...
That's close.
I think that number is real close to that.
Is this a
2000?
Lexus IS 300?
Final answer?
Take mine with a manual, please.
This is not
a 2000-ish
Lexus IS
300.
You are close.
You are within 5 horsepower
and I know they were originally 220.
I think they were 225 at this point
with VVTI.
Or maybe it was 230.
Either way...
Close.
But no cigar.
I will give you...
Yes, it does have
6 cylinders.
No, it is not
an inline.
OK.
God, what else can I give you?
I'll give you this.
It's not mentioned here. It's front-wheel drive.
OK.
Cool.
So...
Lexus and Toyota, I don't know...
I'm going to abandon
Lexus and Toyota right now.
So that limits...
Why is millennia
stuck in my fucking head?
It's a weird thing to have stuck in your head.
Better than Melania, I suppose.
Ah, debatable.
Am I missing
something from Japan?
Mitsubishi, no.
Subaru? No.
Not at this time.
Not that horsepower number at all.
Um...
Dude, it's a weird one.
It can't be a millennia.
Or can it?
Those are front-wheel drive.
Have you named all the Honda?
Have you named all the
Japanese manufacturers?
I can't think of
what I'm missing. That's front...
I mean, I guess we still had
Suzuki and stuff at the time.
Who have you named?
Mazda.
Mitsubishi.
Subaru.
Toyota and Lexus.
We got Honda Acura.
I don't think you're hitting me with an RL
again so soon.
You've mentioned
Infinity.
I mean, it could be...
Nissan maybe?
I don't
know if that...
Dude, but there's no...
You haven't mentioned a Zuzu.
It's an easy one.
It seems to be a sports sedan offering.
They brought the
stylus back with a 6-cylinder.
Dude, I'd be killer.
I'd be into that.
So, at first, I did think
Maxima, but with the...
They had more power than
that, though.
I swear to God.
I guess, no, this would be before they
went to the
VQ motor. Because once they went to VQ,
you're way above that mark.
I mean, it could be...
Because we were talking about 2000, so...
It'd be the three... What about Daihatsu?
It could be a Rocky.
It could be a charade.
A charade? A charade.
Either way, that was a...
A 6-cylinder charade.
A Daihatsu Rocky
with a 3.5
Susie motor would be fun, too.
I really want to say
Mazda. I don't think that's the answer.
I think that's like 2005, by the way.
It could be.
It could be a Maxima with a 3-liter,
I think they had at the time.
I'll take mine with a manual.
Fuck it, dude.
I don't feel good about this, Frank, but...
2000...
Mazda?
What did I say, Mazda?
Nissan Maxima.
This would be an SE.
I'll take a five-speed manual.
Final answer.
Well,
the new 2000 Maxima.
The recipe
for the performance luxury sedan
is just Ben
rewritten.
You got it, sir.
Dude, I don't know why.
It was stuck in my head that I forgot
there was an age before VQs.
I've got VQ on my head.
VQ on the brain.
Because they went up to...
What was it, instantly?
270 sp.
I think it was...
I think when it was originally launched
in
the Altima,
it was, I think, like 240?
240 and change, I think.
And then,
when you had it in,
I think the Maxima
and the I-35,
I thought you might do I-30 and I-35.
I thought about it.
Which is the stable made, more luxury,
and so that would have made sense.
We've done the...
I think we've done those vehicles, though, so they...
They were off the charts.
We have, I just sent you a link.
But I really like
the styling on this generation Maxima.
This is the
2000 to, I think,
2004.
Is this one of the black lights in the back?
Yeah, the circle lights, the surround.
These are killer...
Before you got the coin slot,
the coin slot roundy one, which I think was
04.
Yeah, these are better.
Yeah, they definitely look better.
And you can get these with a manual,
which is actually pretty hard to come by.
Yeah, they're rad. I'm into them.
Great, great choice.
Can't believe we haven't done that yet.
I don't know how I was thinking.
IS 300?
215 horsepower in the year
99 and 2000.
Oh, okay. I thought they got bumped a little more
when they went VVTI, but maybe not.
So that kind of stuck, too.
I was like, ah, no, can't be.
Yeah, it's right there.
But yeah, 222 to the front wheels
with the white face gauges
on the SE. Yeah, those are good.
Cool car. Yeah, good one, man.
I don't know why I just wrote that.
Sometimes I do that. I think that's how you
kill yourself in this game.
Yeah, completely off.
Yep, yep.
Absolutely. Well done, sir.
Thanks, man. That was a good one.
We did it.
We kind of basically just did an entire episode
of Project Care Progress.
Do you have any other shit you want to talk about
for PCP or do you want to talk about
personal PCP?
Have you been, like, working out
or you just, like, waxed your ass crack?
It's so weird.
No, there isn't enough wax.
Oh, do you get bubble surgery?
I don't know.
I don't know. What have you been working on, my friend?
What kind of projects?
So I have been, I know I started a last
that I sorted an issue.
The ES300 manual
is a very interesting vehicle.
I actually put the first video out.
That thing's pretty popular, man.
I haven't watched it.
I'm an asshole.
I'm used to it, man.
You know what? I'm here for you.
It's okay.
It's only half my car.
Don't show any vested interest
in this financial burden that I currently shoulder.
Dude, license content
fucking kills, right?
And also, I found some good stuff,
so I just did the intro episode.
Dude, the fucking valve covers.
I sent you some photos.
I know.
Bro, so in case anyone's wondering,
this job sucks on an ES300.
The front one's easy.
The front one's pretty easy.
There's so many vacuum lines
and coolant lines and fuel lines
going to the intake manifold that you need to disconnect
to take the intake manifold off to get to that rear one.
Dude, the dealership
did this in 20...
Was it 19 or 17?
I think 17.
But only like what?
11,000 miles ago.
So it shouldn't be leaking.
So the first thing I look at,
I'm like, oh, gray RTV
with black RTV on top of it.
That's a pro move, right?
I remember I showed you, I was flipping it back and forth
and it was half an Oreo cookie.
Not to mention, when he did the black RTV...
Or she.
Yes, sure.
He or she...
Worth it.
Without...
What is it?
It's like my malls after not showering for a few days.
They identify as itchies.
Itchies.
So he put a lot of black RTV.
He put a lot of...
I'm not going to say the other maxing.
He put a lot of black RTV.
And I mean, dude, half a tube of RTV.
So I was lifting off chunks.
It was in, and I took some photos.
I don't know if I said any,
but there was RTV inside the valve train.
Like, just...
Everything you don't want to do. Some of the bolts were loose.
The back of the bottom valve cover
is really hard to do.
Reach the bolts because it's at a weird angle.
If you've ever looked at that motor too,
if you guys look at it...
It's canted way the fuck back.
So to get a tool down in there is really challenging.
You have to use a swivel head, all kinds of shit.
They were like
barely finger tightened too.
So I didn't...
You couldn't see a lot from the top because someone super detailed the engine bay,
which we both thought was crazy.
But I saw it coming from the front,
and I'm like, I'm going to get out of the car.
It's fucking soaked under there, dude.
It's an oil slick.
Well, if they're finger tight with dog shit RTV...
Do those have a gasket?
Or are they RTVed?
No, it's a real gasket.
RTV is always used for the cam, lump sections,
the corners.
You're supposed to help the gasket,
and it does work.
But dude, it's just
fucking RTV on RTV creates a perfect
gap between the RTV.
You could tell a technician
just because that job sucks.
I bet the book time was like four hours, and he's like,
this is taking me up.
Or it took him six, and he was so pissed.
He said slap it together.
That stuff really pisses me off, right?
Because it's a really perfect car
in like, yeah,
valve cover leak, whatever.
But it does suck. Whatever it's going on,
there's oil just taking up. It's not good for business.
Especially on an other...
It's so minty.
If one thing on these ex-herits we were just talking about,
we're like, it's going to develop cover leak,
fucking ship it, whatever, no one cares.
But on a really nice little old lady car,
Yeah.
And you're getting paid,
whatever, paid dealership tech rate,
which a lot of that's not going to the
tech, I can appreciate that.
But somebody's paying too much money
to have that thing done right, and to have it done wrong
is shitty.
What's funny on older cars,
I'm used to pulling off the valve cover and the gasket,
it's like a fucking plastic gasket, right?
Like the rubber hardens.
These were perfectly pliable.
So, you know, that's what sucks,
because it shouldn't leak after 11,000 miles.
The other thing, dude, is there's the rubber grommets
with the brass that the valve cover bolts go in.
Didn't replace them.
All original.
They were fucking all cracked and like pancake.
So he tightened the originals back down,
which actually creates an issue, because if you don't
put it, they're made to torque down to a certain amount.
Not torque to yields on the right turn, but similar.
No, but when you do the torque setting,
it's like a crush rubber.
Yeah, it effectively puts the right pressure,
and you could actually bottom them out and crack your valve cover.
Homie didn't use a torque wrench,
he just fucking tightened them in the back,
he did it by hand, apparently.
And then some of the mounting things were the intake manifold
connects, the bolt was like,
like cross drilled in and sideways,
and it was just like,
it looks good if you stand back,
but when you dig in, you don't want to see stuff
on a really nice car like that.
I caught it, I caught it.
So it's all good now.
You know me, OCD.
Maybe driving it around a little bit.
It's still, it's not all the way back together.
Well, you did send me the photo of what
the valve train looks like
under there.
Oh, unbelievable, bro.
It's, it's, it looks,
if you told me that has a head with like 3,000 miles
on it, I'd believe you.
I think this thing is,
and that's why it pissed me off those little shortcuts, right?
On a car this great, you can't,
I want everything to be fucking perfect
and it's right there.
So start with the basics, dude,
but it is a job to get to, I'm not going to lie,
that was quite an operation.
So I'm going to do everything while I'm in there,
intake manifold obviously needs a new gasket,
throttle body, clean that, math, clean that,
new throttle body gasket.
I want this car to be gourmet, because
yeah, yeah, these things are smooth operators
when they're running well, so.
Yeah, yeah, no joke.
That's all I got. So it's kind of like a,
that was like a PCP for both of us because it's our car.
Yay, so there we go.
The only PCP I've done
is
so, okay, where we last left
our heroes
in the world of the
focus.
Oh, yeah.
So
VCT Solenoid.
I got the retrofit,
the Volkswagen E1
cut and spliced
the new pigtail
bit, right?
I got it, like the retrofit kit, right?
If I was just going to order the sensor
as a bear ass sensor, it was like
$150.
The pre-modified one with the correct pigtail
and everything was like $160
from this company. I'll just fucking do that.
Great, did it?
Installed it, spliced
the pigtail, put it all together.
No change.
Interesting.
Now, I've yet to
have the time to
go back and revisit it,
but I took it out around the block
still was struggling, still felt
sluggish, still felt
almost like it had a little bit of a miss.
Brought it back, put a scanner on it, no codes.
No codes, no pending, nothing.
But it
felt bad and when I brought it back, I can smell
like heavy sulfur smell.
Okay. Like I'm dumping
fuel into the cat. Got it.
Yep.
Not good.
That's kind of where I'm at.
So now I'm at
like a couple of spots
is either A
the sync came
with no wiring diagram.
Yeah, I was going to also
like how shitty was your splice indeed?
Did something maybe come disconnected
or did you test for voltage
and resistance after just to make sure?
No.
But the splice
is good. I feel good about the splice, but what I
don't feel good about is
the part I don't feel good about is
I don't
maybe my wires are flipped because
it's not like on the pigtail
it's red wire, black wire.
On the harness side
it's a red and a black wire
and a green
and a orange wire.
Mmm.
I did black to black
and red because it was black with a white
a red stripe and I was like, yeah, okay.
Seems pretty good. I emailed the company
that makes the harness. I said, hey, like
you sent me no instructions with this.
I looked online. Nobody has anything
about this. Like what wire
goes to what?
No response.
So I might just like, okay, well
let me undo my splice
and send it the other way.
Yeah, try it out.
My other thought was
because there's only so much I've done on this car.
I took the valve cover off.
I put the valve cover back on.
I noticed there was
trials and tribulations. I know
like simple shit. I did do
plugs. The plug
wires are all there.
They're all back. I confirmed
I took them off. I made sure there was no oil
in there. Nothing to just put it back.
They're
OEM plugs. These are motorcraft plugs.
Pre-gapped
and less
like I'm pretty sure they're all good.
Like I, and physically
I inspect them before I put them in. I didn't
just like fucking throw them in.
Yeah, sure. Unless I did, right?
Like I think I did.
The other thing I think I
did was I'm pretty confident
I didn't like
leave a piece of
like fucking like a
rag in there or some shit
when I was like drilling out the bad.
Mmm.
Like I'm pretty
pretty confident. That would be way more noticeable.
Right.
It wouldn't be like rich. I don't know.
But I'm just like there's so little
that I did to end up
where I'm at.
Hmm. I don't know. And so it's like I'm
to the point where like let me just retrace all my fucking
steps because it's not that hard to do with just
pulling a valve cover again. Right.
And pulling plugs again. Like
I can spend 30 minutes and get
back to square one.
Um, A, I got to find that 30
minutes B. Like it's
I don't know. It's it's so
exceedingly silly.
Um, that like
I don't know. I I need to take a day off.
I just can't because I need to do that
and some other X-era shit. I just
put it for after the over then adventure.
That's kind of where I'm at.
But it's in because I'm an idiot.
It's in front of me in the driveway
because I just have one long
tandem driveway. So I've got
focus barracuda
X-terra right now.
And because it's at the front, I'm like,
oh man, like it's just let me just knock
it out. But I don't I never get the time
to do it. Whatever. I'll figure I'll
figure it out. It's a very silly thing.
It's just frustrating because it should be
done and solved and none of this should
have been a thing. But here we are.
So any who.
Well, I think you'll get there, man.
Shut it down. Shut the shit down.
Let's go home.
Thanks for shutting it down with us and
and getting this far like congrats.
It's a it's a feat. Feeds of strength.
Um, keep doing
this, by the way, keep coming back for
more. Tell your friends do that.
Like you could review shit. Apparently.
I've been told.
Everyone's talking about it.
Many people are saying it. So yeah,
do the thing. Give us
more than one star. That would be
lovely.
And then we also, I don't know if you want
to support this whole dog and pony show
you're open and welcome to do so.
You're also welcome to say, hell no, you guys
are not worth my money.
Deserve it. Agreed.
But if you want to give us some
of your very hard earned cash
for a really poor
additional perks
of
mainly giving us money, but also
you get a bonus episode
once a month of our
ridiculous
over the top
unhinged late night confidential episodes.
You can do that. Go to
patreon.com
slash a P a pod
and support us. We would
love it. We spend that money on things
like fish themed bush light
beers and way, way,
way more poisonous and awful things
that we drink on our bonus episodes.
So check that out and support
us there. If you want to follow me, you
shouldn't, but you could. That's at
the photographers garage and all the things.
How about you, Chadwick?
What can maybe maybe there's Lexis content?
I've been I've been told there
is a auto obscure garage
on the YouTube rescues
restorations and reviews. We are doing an ES
300 manual
sound the alarms. Dude, a lot of people like
the predominant comment is
I didn't know these existed.
Bro, get it killer.
So check it out. I do like an intro to the vehicle
do like a tour, look at all the issues and then
make a list of what we need to fix.
So that's right there. The next one's going to be
the valve covers all that fun stuff. So I had
a thought.
Dangerous. You and I
and a friend of the pod art.
Art Cervantes of
DWP. We're just talking about
like rare
like the most rare things of our
things that we've owned. It's got to be
there. Like that's in the mix
with that, especially
if you take into account like the trim on this one, like
a yeah, we were talking
like not trim and like not to go Corvette
guy, but to go like stripper
model. Ashtray delete was
a pretty popular. Yeah, it is.
But like seriously, though, the cloth
manual, no sunroof
300 and double purple exterior.
By the way, I looked up the color code that
bottom silver is actually a purple too.
So it's actually a double. Right.
The top is amethyst. Yeah. In the bottom.
I have it written that I did it in the video. If you watch
the video, Frank, let me tell you, you'll see it, but
I had a little banner flash across the screen that said
double purple.
It's it's god damn perfect.
The interior is perfect too.
It's a nice open car. It's a triple purple
threat. Yeah, it's killer, dude. It's so
good.
Yeah, but anyway, yeah, follow us
here. We'll see you in about a week and we
love you guys. Wish us a trail.
Hopefully.
Yeah, knock on wood.
Hey now. All right. Anyway,
until then, take care
guys. Bye friends.
About this episode
A quick, last-minute overland update turns into a budget-build reality check: the hosts time their cheap overland adventure, frame it as an “XTERRA” update, and lay out what’s ready (runs/drives, registered, functional 4WD) versus what’s still missing (tires). They plan a Hollister Hills night overland while juggling timing-belt/water-pump uncertainty, belt-drive noise, and other drivetrain maintenance worries. Between trail prep and stealth-camping talk, they also riff on Xterra specs, manual availability, and the costs of getting everything sorted.
The fellas will be off on their budget overland challenge a mere three days after this episode goes live (maybe). Will their sub $5,000 Xterras be up to the task? After listening to this episode, you will be the judge.
***Want to support the pod? Join our Patreon for insultingly bad perks, including unlocking the APA Pod "Late Night Confidential" Episodes!***
