Your personal opinion

[JamesDean91]

Alright so this may sound like a retarded question but I am curious what you would do.
I have a 98 runner with almost 300k on the odo, I drove a 00 and the interior just seemed better I liked the guages and the seats seemed different, for the better. also the awd feature seems like it would be really nice.

So with my truck reaching such high miles and the trans is going out I'm looking at possibly rebuilding the motor/transmission or swap good ones in and sell the truck and buy a 99+ or should I keep it and find a totaled 99+ and do somewhat of an interior swap?
All I can think for interior stuff is the gauges I'm sure I'd have to wire them in not a plugnplay prossess but I'm confident I could do it, the whole center console and dash trim, I've seen it done before so its possible. Then the whole rear cargo area. Possibly get the multi mode transfer case and the grill and a sport hood for exterior mods. Would it all be worth it?
Idk how much I'd get out of my runner now and if upgrading slowly I could find better deals.
I do know if I kept my runner I'm throwing some prp high back seats in and redoing the rear upholstery

 

[EraSevera]

That is a ton of work. I would just look for a late model to replace your current rig. Keep your old one as a parts rig for yourself, or make some money parting it out.

 

[Kanger328]

I think it depends on what type of budget you're on. If you're on a tight budget, I'd say keep your current Runner (assuming the engine is good). Hopefully, you're handy with repairs and can rebuild the tranny yourself. You can find interior parts cheap to do the 99+ upgrade.

But, if you can afford to spare several thousand dollars...I'd say sell your current rig and pick up a newer, lower mileage Runner.

 

[2runnersnyynyg]

Having a 98 and a 99 in the fleet i know these demons inside are plaguing you.
funny thing about the interior is i bought a 98 with decent leather and swapped it into my 99(lost headrest holders) but feel i did the right thing.
personal preference, high miles isnt a killer. my 98's(one parts one immaculate)have 200 plus on them and outside of a broken trailing arm mount on one they run excellent,so high miles is not a worry with maintenence done.

for the money you will spend on a new you could probably fix and mod your current.
now let your inner demons run wild

 

[T4R2014]

Personal*

Swapping a multimode transfer case would be difficult if it never came with it.

 

[busmup808]

I have a 98 Limited that I upgraded the interior to 99-02 parts for $40 from a 00 T4R at the junkyard. My interior rear panels were all scratched up from the POs dog. I was going to change it anyway, but I read about the upgrade.

The AWD feature is in the future. Waiting for the OG Trans die before doing the swap. It's not hard to do if your mechanically incline. Good luck.

 

[JamesDean91]

I've seen the multi mode swap done before and I've done my fair share of builds from doing a vr6 swap into a mk2 gti to a 3rz swap into a first gen yota(currently helping doing a 3rz into a sami) that's just wireing examples though.
If I do it I'm def going to do a crawl box at the same time.