OIL IS CHEAPER! Nissan Titan 5.6L V8 VK56DE Engine Teardown. I Can't Believe This Stayed Together!

there is very little that I love more than suggestions on engines to tear down and when I see the same ones mentioned over and over again I try to make a promise to those people okay I tell people it's on the list it's on the list of engines I want to look out for and today's teardown end of the year teardown is a brand new engine for the channel it's obviously not a brand new engine but today we're going to tear down a Nissan 5.6 liter vk56de out of a Titan and I was just at the right place at the right time I don't know how bad it is I don't think it's going to be anywhere near as bad as last week's Dodge Viper teardown I don't think we're gonna find broken wrist pins but it'll still be interesting to see what failed in this Nissan's VK family of engines came out in the early 2000s there were three different displacements you could get a VK in the 4.5 liter the M45 the Q45 and the fx45 and then there's also a 5 liter and the 5.6 liter the 5.6 liter came out in Titans armadas the QX56 the Pathfinder and the Envy cargo van speaking of NV cargo vans this is ours we've actually had this thing since it was brand new in 2012. we have 145 000 miles on it and it has needed nothing nothing just maintenance that's it has been such a good vehicle I'm a huge fan of the engine just because it's been so good it uses very little oil and even though they're rated 315 to 320 horsepower this thing made 281 at the wheels why do I know that we kind of Dino did we also freezed a equally geared Dodge Ram with Hemi in it and it's faster we wouldn't do that on the street though never not in the company work vehicle no that would never happen normally the first thing I do is pull the plugs or try to turn it over but because I know where this engine came from I need to check to see if it's drained because I have a suspicion even though they're always tagged drained that it's not drained ooh sparkles certainly not drained this has no dipstick tube to fight by the way well you guys have another video without a dipstick battle because this one's missing but let's check out that sparkly oil it's not too bad we certainly seen worse it's also a lot of oil that would have been a giant mess let's get these plugs out that didn't sound good foreign [Music] well folks No Malice in the combustion Palace today however while these are all the correct plug they have a rather large gap I don't think you're supposed to re-gap these plugs a gap is supposed to be 43 thousandths I think and uh well I don't have a gauge here but these are really worn normally I'd be turning the engine over however I really need to get this fan out of the way it's kind of a problem so we're going to do our best here I don't think that's my biggest fan now we can turn this thing over oh uh oh is that some macaroni and cheese I hear well it powered through whatever that was so this is just a really tight spot a really tight spot nope that's not a tight spot that's nope it's a tight spot well this one might actually be bad after all a couple interesting things about this core so first off this was a core of return so somebody bought a good engine from a yard to do business with and this was the engine they brought back next it has a pretty slick JB welder epoxy repaired the valve cover it seemed to do a good job because nothing's wet here but finally this cold air intake coupler was around the oil filled neck why would someone return that with this that doesn't make sense maybe someone just put it on there I don't know now we can pull the intake manifold there's just a whole bunch of 10 millimeter bolts that hold this in oh oh I started from the back what is going on I'll start at the front on this one it should just lift right up there's a hose here hose are always getting in the way oh the intake ports seem to be pretty okay nothing's jumping out at me oh there's a bunch of junk in that one more junk I don't see anything bad I don't see any metal now we'll start peeling the valve covers off at first everything looked just a little dingy but if you look a little closer a little bit of metal on that cam sensor which is magnetic and then when you get to the bolt heads a little bit of metal built up inside of those we'll find in here let's get the other side off wow they fixed the crack on both sides impressive same deal on this side there's also some water inside of this crankcase it's kind of hard to see but down there that lobe is dipping into it and then a couple of these crevasses have some built up metal it's not the worst we've seen but it had to come from somewhere now I'm going to take just a minute and remove some of these pulleys and tensioners idlers oh you don't want to come off huh that comes off right yes that has to come off see if blue will help us out here yes what else deal with the water pump in a minute I think now I have easy access to these covers here well the inside of this looks about like under the valve covers the Chain's still on it so that's important but there's also a build up of I don't know if that's bearing material but it's bearing material in that low spot right there oh even more this side has quite a bit of bearing material built up now we're going to get a few more things off of uh the front of this engine I got anything in it nope perfect now we'll get the thermostat housing and coolant crossover off oh it's got this pipe on it next we'll remove the water pump oh it just comes right off not fussy at all thing looks pretty good a little bit of corrosion on the outside but I don't really see any damage I should probably keep this as a spare now let's see if we can get this crank fully off oh it's gonna be like that oh it's one of those okay we can do stuff with that let's try it with three quarter unfortunately I don't have any weighted sockets yeah yeah that wasn't too bad didn't have to breathe on it at least this time is that that's not pressed on this is a Nissan at least I think I can get it off this way I think it's just laughing at me no it's moving you know what we're gonna be smart about this I've torn down enough of these to uh to have learned a thing or two I'm gonna kind of thread this in there so when it does come off it doesn't land and Chip up my concrete or hit me in the foot or leg yeah worked like a charm while we're here I'm going to get the oil filter off if I can nope let's get some pliers get it off now I guess one of my gripes is the factory oil filter is very small on these and its location is pretty poor it gets all over the front this is a mobile one filter so at least someone spent some money on on the oil filter yep more Sparkles now I really need to get the front timing cover off next but I have to pull the oil pan pretty sure I have to pull the oil pan to get the timing cover off on this I could be wrong this is the first one I've had down this far but I need to get some of the oil pan bolts which are kind of not accessible because of the oil cooler so we're just going to flip this over we're going to peel the pan off of it then we'll flip it back over so we can pull the timing cover the cams and keep going no idea how hard this is going to be wow this is rather uneventful well it's pooping out some ploppy stuff but it's really not too bad perfect so this is what I was talking about this oil cooler blocks this 12 millimeter Bolt so we're just going to take this 22 millimeter nut off and Slide the oil cooler off the pan first we'll pull the lower steel oil pan oh no well uh the consistency of whatever you want to call this well I think that's a bigger piece of bearing foil oh look there's some gold in it now that's not gold this is so much bearing material I'm I'm just I'm shocked I mean we've we've seen a lot but this is there's so much of it it's like a it's like the Bering Sea in an oil pan oh look at that there's layers of it that is uh not what you want to find in a pan I'm gonna pick up there's a bunch of that in there too so obviously all this metal has been circulated through this engine and notice there's a large chunk right there see I think all the pieces are here to the bearings I just don't think we can put them back together now the whole reason I had to pull the lower pan is there's one bolt that that obscures right here that I wouldn't be able to pull the upper pan from the Block if I didn't take that off [Music] foreign since we're already here let's just let's take a look pretty okay can't tell on those uh oh a little bit of a knock there oh that's not supposed to do that that's not supposed to do that okay so just three cylinders I mean still got more than half that don't do that all right I think it's time to turn this thing back around now it's time to peel the timing cover off I've got nearly 30 10 millimeter bolts to remove there is one good place to pry that I found so far and that is it oh here's a good one oh it's leaking one timing cover and yes I don't think I could have removed that part of it with the oil paint in place before we go any further talk about the timing chain let's get the oil pump removed oh yeah that's it as far as the timing is concerned it's really simple in here nothing seems to be out of order there's only two chains No Lie before I peel these chains off I actually put my quarter inch long extension in cylinder one we're going to turn this engine over till number one is at top dead center and that way I believe the cams will be under the least amount of load timing stuff should come off easiest at least that's just a theory I don't know that that's a good one that also seems dangerous what I'm doing but it's fine yeah it's fine so when that is at top dead center that's where we're gonna stop here oh that's where it gets tight no I don't oh yeah that's super tight okay I'm content with that now I'm gonna crack the cam gears loose all right now I'm going to crack the timing chain tension is loose this should be fine let me put my put your goggles on I don't think this is gonna oh this that that's not under tension that was fine just fine one more yeah that was fine now we can get the rails off these are usually pretty tight see what this looks like hardly anywhere things mint yeah timing components are perfect I definitely think it's a higher mileage engine just judging by the where where the tensioner was but didn't really affect how well the guide held up yeah nothing to complain about here well that's all really nice and easy no I needed that chains though gosh beautiful now we can finally crack the cam Caps loose oh explosion averted I think yes let's just give this a little uh Boop what do I do here oh it's it's this okay I know what to do we're gonna turn it by that oh first please don't hurt me yeah it wasn't so bad well the cams have some damage there's obviously been debris run through the oiling system you can see some of it is still on the journals it's not as bad as I expected I expected much worse judging by the amount of bearing material in the oil pan I guess the filter in the screen did a pretty decent job I still don't know that these are in good enough shape to reuse and the journals in the head they're not quite great there's a few grooves in there that I don't know they may devalue these cylinder heads I don't know what the market is on these engine parts I've only sold complete engines the head bolts on this engine are 10 millimeter Allen or hex headed bolts probably my least favorite Fastener of all time I think they have the least surface area and they are the easiest to strip and round off but we're going to just assume that everything's going to go perfectly make sure these are seated all the way and just hope for the best [Music] see how easy this is to remove here um I don't think easy is the operative word did I miss a bolt what's going on here oh just had to break the seal that's all it's probably stuck in the dowels as well at first glance everything looks okay but if you look at the crown of that piston it's nice and clean that's from hitting the cylinder head and uh the rest of them look to be okay we still have to do our test we know that the bottom end has a little bit of adjustment built in so this just you know for science just do do the test nope that one's good I think that one's bad that one's bad okay so two out of four it's not bad the cylinder head looks pretty good considering it was struck by the Piston it was in this cylinder here you can see how that's a little bit cleaner than the rest but it doesn't look like the valves made contact with the Pistons which means the valves should seat just fine hopefully this is a reusable head before I forget I need to remove this cam sensor because this blocks access to one of the head bolts let's cram these Caps loose pretty similar story on this side maybe the journals are just a little worse there's just a little bit more wear the Caps the Finish is not as good as the other side either foreign 's going to need a little help too before we get too ahead of ourselves we need to finish the test that's the one that's got a problem but the rest of them no problem found not yet anyway this engine has a little bit of water in here there's also some vertical scratches on the bore once we get the rods and pistons out we'll see how bad those are these do not appear to have made contact with the cylinder head and that tight spot could have been that junk that we saw that was the one that we saw the junk in the intake Port could have fallen in there and well I had to compress it this head looks pretty good see any issues nothing notable I haven't run them through the washer yet and I'm not going to do that tonight but that's usually when we find the cracks this engine doesn't really show any signs of overheating so I'm not terribly worried about it time to get the rods and pistons out as always we're going to start at the front of the engine foreign is pretty dark on the last six rods Ah that's not okay a simple click click would have done just fine but foreign one does this come off I seem to have run into a problem there we go oh well that's that's that's really bad wow these things just fall right out of the bores well uh that one's not in the right spot so uh that bearing is spun absolutely trashed oh like magic the bearings came out of this kind of no or if we give it just a little tap oh it's it's bad can we get the rod away from that uh I don't even know what to do next let's just get this out oh it did have a bearing on it who knew foreign where'd the other one go well can this one be worse uh I'm gonna go with probably [Music] oh is there a bearing on this side there is I think that's that's not a bearing anymore two more you know I always put my hand in there trying to pull those caps off like they're just going to come off when history has taught me otherwise more of the same at least it does have a bearing well it's kind of welded to it yeah that's spun get that rod and piston out foreign oh wow normal fish the best bearings in this engine are still terrible which means that the worst bearings are awful to the point of where they're gone this had at least three spun rod bearings or at least in three cylinders had spun rod bearings you can see that these have been heavily distorted chunking they were coming apart I am surprised this engine stayed together with this much bearing damage and that explains the sheer volume of sludge and metal bearing mining going on inside of this pretty bad then when you look at the rods you can see that these aren't really discolored from Heat but these these are going to be no no bueno these are no good good desk ornaments if anybody wants any these aren't really that exciting but that's about the only use that these will have and the Pistons they have some pretty good skirt wear wrist pins are some of them are pretty stiff surprisingly even the Pistons that struck the cylinder head like that one didn't break any crowns or ring lands didn't do any of that kind of damage really not as bad as I expected considering the condition of the bearings now it's time to pull the final piece of this puzzle and start getting the main cap bolts out oh gotta start at the front [Music] thank you that is the thrust bearing so that one's going to take a little effort man these are in there foreign [Music] for my next trick that one was tough oh no what in the well that's a new one to me all gonna be like this let me get this out first I'm going to show you the okay bearings that's the front Main and these are not okay that's why they're not here and also not okay but present there's another one of the fronts the other side and then what is going on here I have never seen this happen in my entire life but I've pulled a lot of engines down what is that from is that from that looks like it's from the other that's a rod bearing this is the main bearing and it's a rod bearing that's it it sucked it in it's just crumbling there we go yeah see that's a complete main bearing and that's the remnants of the missing rod bearing unbelievable and then when you get to the crank we're going to start at the back I don't want to hear it these journals are well rough and then there's that one there's more parts of the rod bearing that somehow made its way in there here's the other side see if we can get this yeah that's not nice not good this bearing's still here what is behind it foreign that was some work to get off that's not supposed to be there where did that come from and then this main bearing is stuck on here too well these are all pretty tore up yeah this this crank is uh this crank is is done like well done over well done and those journals who knows what those would bike out at this is this is not worth the repair I can tell you that this will end up in the bin here's some of that boar damage it's not awful but it's also not perfect it seems to be in just about every cylinder nothing is too deep on this side but certainly not a perfect condition block this is probably the worst cylinder here those grooves are pretty deep the rest of these are about like the other bank what you guys thought I wasn't gonna remember not that old yet yeah I have oh it's gritty super gritty there's not a lot of damage though they expected much worse a little bit of wear in the housing just pour the oil on my table it's fine yeah there's a little bit of wear there's been some stuff running through here there's some of the wear on the housing that's about the worst of it I really expected this to be much worse there's not a lot of wear on the gears either this was clearly an oil related failure and for the first time on the channel I can definitively tell you that this was not run low on oil it had seven or eight quarts of some of the smelliest darkest ugliest oil that has come out of a gasoline engine on the channel and if you couple that with the fact it had a mobile one oil filter not saying anything bad about that whatsoever but perhaps there's a maybe there's just a chance the previous owner of this engine was under the assumption that if you're on really good oil and a really good filter that you can go really long between oil change and you know there is something to be said about the quality of oil and filter that you run but if your car is designed for 5 000 mile intervals 20 000 miles is not fine I don't care what the bottle says it I don't care I'll argue with anybody over this we've seen enough bearing and oil related failures on this channel oil is always always cheaper than replacing your engine and I'm actually pretty impressed this engine held up remarkably well it had so much bearing damage in this engine it still turned over pretty well and it didn't scatter itself we've seen engines with way less bearing damage like last week that just totally scattered themselves put holes in everything blew the whole thing up and this didn't do that now I understand this doesn't make quite the power of a viper but you can't tell me that it wasn't hammering this thing was making all kinds of Racket and it just it stayed together and I'm pretty impressed if you'd like to buy parts out of this engine there are some desk ornaments and there's a couple good parts out of it or if you want to buy parts off of anything else I've torn down you can go to importapart.com and if you don't see what you're looking for you can always fill out our part request form it sends us an email of exactly what it is you're looking for you can also email us at importapartsales gmail.com really hope you enjoyed this tear down I hope you guys have a great New Year it's a it's a it's a new me well okay it's the same me from last year I'm gonna have some new content this year uh more project car stuff perhaps increasing the volume of tear Downs towards the end of 2023 no promises just just the thing I wanted to mention I really hope you enjoyed this as always I love all the comments all the feedback and even the criticism I love it all and I'll catch you on the next one

Channel: I Do Cars

Views: 968,690

Keywords: Nissan, Titan, Armada, QX56, Pathfinder, VK, VK56, VK56DE, NV, NV1500, NV2500, NV3500, Van, Truck, 5.6, Towing, Capacity, Problems, Specs, Horsepower, Engine, Motor, I Do Cars, Teardown, timing, cover, burning oil, oil change, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, M45, Q45, FX45, V8, Swap, issues, diagnosis, exhaust, exhaust clips, Dyno, IPDM, Build, Rebuild, Supercharger, itb, cammed, sound, exhaust clip, Headers, CAI, Cold air intake, Mods, Install, How to, Remove, Replace, Timing marks, Chain, ticking, noise

Id: T8wwMOsAXxw

Length: 39min 21sec (2361 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 01 2023