I just did a 2" body lift. I bought this kit from
4x4parts.com
#&*^ing PhotoBucket broke half the #&*^ing internet when they killed external links to their hosted pictures without paying for a plan!
Did I mention that PhotoBucket sucks?
A lot of good write ups including this one have been ruined because the photos are now no longer available.
Here is one site I used that still has good photos:
http://www.higherground4x4.com/xterra_body_lift_install.htm
Here are some good write ups but with broken pictures (still worth a read)
http://www.clubxterra.org/forums/showthread.php?t=2191&page=34
http://www.clubxterra.org/forums/showthread.php?t=9713
A couple of notes off the top of my head:
Not all the write ups mentioned the heater core hoses. You definitely want to unclip them from the bracket or if you can't unclip them, disconnect them before the lift.
Also it has already been mentioned that you want to disconnect the upper radiator hose. I did not drain my radiator, just disconnected the upper hose and let whatever coolant spill out. Find a longer hose to replace the stock one with. I bought mine from autozone. I first looked up the part and found some reviews mentioned that it was too long and had to be cut to fit. Sure enough I bought it and it was even too long to fit after I dropped the engine 2". Perfect - I just cut it to fit. If I couldn't find a longer hose, I would have probably just bought a universal hose and cut it to fit.
I did not have any trouble removing the body bolts. I did spray them with PB Blaster a few days ahead of time. I did the entire job myself. It is probably easier with two people, but definitely possible solo.
My kit included parts to drop the radiator, but I opted not to - you just have to remove the lower radiator shroud. It just unclips, but I could not figure out how to unclip it, so I yanked on it until it broke LOL - this is probably why I am not a professional mechanic!
Another tip - most write ups cover this, you need to loosen but not remove both bolts on the steering shaft that connects the steering wheel to the steering gearbox. There is one higher up near the firewall and one lower near the steering gear box. I was able to turn the steering wheel so both bolts pointed up before I tied off the steering wheel so it couldn't move. I could use a ratchet with some long extensions to loosen both bolts from the top.
If you are not able to do this, position the steering wheel so it is easy to get to the top bolt from the top inside the engine bay, and pull the driver side front wheel off and the splash guard from the wheel well and the lower bolt is easy to get to from the wheel well.
After the lift, you want to slide the loose part of the steering shaft (the part between the two bolts you loosened) so that both ends have as much bite as possible.
Another issue I ran into is that the airbox was impossible to hook back up to. I had to remove the 3 bolts that held the air box down in order to hook the air intake hose back up. Even then it was still hard. I loosened the bolt on the lowermost support for the airbox before hooking the hose back up and moved the bracket until it rested against the airbox once it was hooked back up and tightened it. I did not attempt to bolt down the two upper mounts for the air box. I suppose you could zip tie them to the original mounting locations, but my air box does not move at all. I can pretty much guarantee you will not be able to connect the air intake hose to the airbox if it is bolted down in its original position. None of the write ups I saw mentioned this.
Not all write ups mention that you need to remove the bolts holding the brake lines / evap lines to the frame behind a shield (that you also have to remove) behind the front passenger wheel. Follow these same lines back and unbolt them along the frame.
There is also a bracket that holds the emergency brake cable to the driver side frame rail that needs to be unbolted.
Go slow when actually lifting each vehicle side and look for any hoses, wires, brake lines that are getting stretched.
There were a couple of wiring harnesses that were clipped to brackets that I had to unclip to get some more travel. Some of the brake lines that were clipped into plastic clips popped out of the clips and were rubbing on other brake lines. You don't want break lines rubbing on each other or other parts.
I used some 3/8" power steering hose that I slit and then wrapped where any brake lines touched anything and then zip tied the hose to the brake line.
Overall definitely worth doing, but takes time, especially by yourself.