D22 “facelift”, effort but worth it!

[Fnoke]

Not sure if I posted this on the right part of the forum but thought I would share.

My d22 ST-R 2.5 2012 model started making knocking noises when starting up cold (“cold” is relative as the lowest temp it drops here is around 20 but never heard the noise when starting it during the day) and had a belt squeal. It has 195 000 ks roughly on it. After checking out the front I found the water pump was making a noise and the knocking seemed like classic timing chain.

So I decided to order a dual timing chain from yd25 and a new oil pump from them.

After realising what a horrible job it would be to do it in the chassi I ended out pulling the engine out. Unplumbing the engine is quite simple but getting it out was a feat. I’m a diesel mechanic by trade and hats off to the people in LV trade cause what a **** job. Had to drop the front diff and steering arm.

When taking the timing cover off and disassembling the front chains I realise the knocking had come from the bottom tensioner, the oil in it was a gooey substance. I also found sticky gooey oil in the head of the engine and I think it had originated from when I bought the car from a Nissan dealership second hand I hustled them about changing the injectors and intercooler as it was blowing black smoke like nothing else. They had sealed the rocker cover injector holes with silicon of I assume poor quality or not letting it set before running because it most likely has melted and created the gooey oil.

Also found that it had put itself out of timing as I assume the chains might have been slapping when not getting the right oil feed. Corrected the timing. Put new chains on, resealed. Doing the timing chain was fairly easy.

Replaced the water pump, SCV, resealed the injectors (super easy as well). In hindsight I should have gotten a new rocker cover as I didn’t realise the rocker cover seal kit doesn’t come with them. Apparently you have to get a new rocker cover. I did end up sealing it with some quality silicone and let it set, hopefully won’t experience the same issue as before. Probably will end up getting a new cover once I financially recover from all of this.

I also ended up doing a bearing roll, changed the bearings on the main caps and big ends. No real wear on the bearings but peace of mind to have them changed while the engine was out.

Replaced clutch release bearing while the engine was out, never noticed any clutch issues but the bearing was average. Clutch was in pretty good condition.

While having the engine out I placed dynamat on the firewall, would be crazy not to while the engine is out!

Put the engine back in the car, which also a horrible experience. If this car fails again I’m burning it.

Put it all back together, new filters, new oil, new coolant. Car started, happy days!

However noticed when driving that it was absolutely gutless. I had a crank angle sensor code, turns out I had managed to damage it getting the engine out. I had failed to see the note that it has to come out to get the engine out. Don’t judge me too hard I was pretty tired and cranky ant the end of it. Explains what I was getting stuck on. It also sounded rough when started. Amazed that the car started and ran without a functioning CAS in general.

Replaced the sensor and holy crap after owning this car for so long it actually runs really well. Responsive and smooth. While the cab was pretty quiet before the dynamat definitely helped even more.

Took me a while as I have another car I’ve been using in the meantime. It was not the smoothest job as you have to drop a fair bit to be able to get the engine out. But worth the effort now when she runs so well.

Also if anyone decide to do the timing chain, get the yd25 oil pump! Having to remove the sump and moving the transmission to get the oil pump off is a nightmare and so inconvenient.

Going to run a liquid Molly engine clean with new filter and oil in case there’s any left over gunk in the galleries, cleaned the oil filter housing and cooler and that seemed quite clean.

The chains and the oil pump was the most expensive part of it as I went for double timing chains. The bearings, scv, water pump, injector and rocker cover seal kit and release bearing were all relatively cheap.

Now haters gonna hate but as I had it out I figured I’d take my time to paint it. Probably not everyone’s cup of tea.

However pretty happy with the results, hopefully she’ll be running good for a while longer now.

 

[Boogieboots]

Looks mint

 

[Old.Tony]

Awesome job and write up, thanks! Hope it lasts for ages now!

 

[rags54vnv]

Looks mint

Wow looks awesome, wish i had the knowledge to do that !!!! onya man

 

[gazza414]

Why did you change the SCV ?

 

[Fnoke]

Why did you change the SCV ?

Figured I might as well while I was doing work to it, it was only $50 or so. More preventative maintenance than anything. Thermostat was still good but swapped that too while I did the water pump.

 

[Fnoke]

Wow looks awesome, wish i had the knowledge to do that !!!! onya man

Thank you! Unfortunately most information out there is for d40s and not d22s so it would definitely be difficult without experience.

In hindsight maybe I should’ve done a little video guide haha

 

[Fnoke]

Not sure if I posted this on the right part of the forum but thought I would share.

My d22 ST-R 2.5 2012 model started making knocking noises when starting up cold (“cold” is relative as the lowest temp it drops here is around 20 but never heard the noise when starting it during the day) and had a belt squeal. It has 195 000 ks roughly on it. After checking out the front I found the water pump was making a noise and the knocking seemed like classic timing chain.

So I decided to order a dual timing chain from yd25 and a new oil pump from them.

After realising what a horrible job it would be to do it in the chassi I ended out pulling the engine out. Unplumbing the engine is quite simple but getting it out was a feat. I’m a diesel mechanic by trade and hats off to the people in LV trade cause what a **** job. Had to drop the front diff and steering arm.

When taking the timing cover off and disassembling the front chains I realise the knocking had come from the bottom tensioner, the oil in it was a gooey substance. I also found sticky gooey oil in the head of the engine and I think it had originated from when I bought the car from a Nissan dealership second hand I hustled them about changing the injectors and intercooler as it was blowing black smoke like nothing else. They had sealed the rocker cover injector holes with silicon of I assume poor quality or not letting it set before running because it most likely has melted and created the gooey oil.

Also found that it had put itself out of timing as I assume the chains might have been slapping when not getting the right oil feed. Corrected the timing. Put new chains on, resealed. Doing the timing chain was fairly easy.

Replaced the water pump, SCV, resealed the injectors (super easy as well). In hindsight I should have gotten a new rocker cover as I didn’t realise the rocker cover seal kit doesn’t come with them. Apparently you have to get a new rocker cover. I did end up sealing it with some quality silicone and let it set, hopefully won’t experience the same issue as before. Probably will end up getting a new cover once I financially recover from all of this.

I also ended up doing a bearing roll, changed the bearings on the main caps and big ends. No real wear on the bearings but peace of mind to have them changed while the engine was out.

Replaced clutch release bearing while the engine was out, never noticed any clutch issues but the bearing was average. Clutch was in pretty good condition.

While having the engine out I placed dynamat on the firewall, would be crazy not to while the engine is out!

Put the engine back in the car, which also a horrible experience. If this car fails again I’m burning it.

Put it all back together, new filters, new oil, new coolant. Car started, happy days!

However noticed when driving that it was absolutely gutless. I had a crank angle sensor code, turns out I had managed to damage it getting the engine out. I had failed to see the note that it has to come out to get the engine out. Don’t judge me too hard I was pretty tired and cranky ant the end of it. Explains what I was getting stuck on. It also sounded rough when started. Amazed that the car started and ran without a functioning CAS in general.

Replaced the sensor and holy crap after owning this car for so long it actually runs really well. Responsive and smooth. While the cab was pretty quiet before the dynamat definitely helped even more.

Took me a while as I have another car I’ve been using in the meantime. It was not the smoothest job as you have to drop a fair bit to be able to get the engine out. But worth the effort now when she runs so well.

Also if anyone decide to do the timing chain, get the yd25 oil pump! Having to remove the sump and moving the transmission to get the oil pump off is a nightmare and so inconvenient.

Going to run a liquid Molly engine clean with new filter and oil in case there’s any left over gunk in the galleries, cleaned the oil filter housing and cooler and that seemed quite clean.

The chains and the oil pump was the most expensive part of it as I went for double timing chains. The bearings, scv, water pump, injector and rocker cover seal kit and release bearing were all relatively cheap.

Now haters gonna hate but as I had it out I figured I’d take my time to paint it. Probably not everyone’s cup of tea.

However pretty happy with the results, hopefully she’ll be running good for a while longer now.

I should probably have clarified in my post if anyone else is going to do this job.

The sump needs to be removed or atleast dropped a fair way to take the bottom timing cover off (the oil pump). There’s two bolts holding the sump on that sits in the bell housing which is why you have to separate the transmission and engine. There’s a sneaky bell housing bolt that sits on top of the starter motor that goes towards the transmission.
In my case I went for taking the engine out as I wanted to do a bearing roll. You can shift the transmission back to reach them if you don’t take the engine out. It doesn’t need to be separated by much to be able to reach the bolts however, maybe 5 cm ish. There is two bolts in the bottom of the oil pump for the oil pick up that holds it on. Very frustrating as doing a timing chain would be a lot easier if you didn’t have to go trough that. I got the yd25 oil pump because they’ve engineered the pick up to the oil pump so that you don’t have to take the sump off to be able to remove the oil pump.
Even if the sump is in two pieces you still have to drop the steering arm and front diff to be able to get it out. Even when dropped it’s a tight squeeze and I had the engine lifted off the mounts to be able to get it out. Make sure to take the oil level sensor out of the sump too. Removing the front diff would probably be the easiest way but I was not keen to do that. Absolutely horrendous engineering and makes a small job into a big job.

And don’t do my mistake and leave the crank angle sensor in if you’re taking the engine out lol. Sits on the back of the block on the intake side. You can see it if you look behind the tyre in the tyre well.

My intake camshaft had put itself slightly out of timing and you can’t put the tensioner and guides on properly if it is, it can be moved back just make sure it doesn’t do full rotations. I also did not have a proper timing pin to pin the fuel pump but did a dodgy with a 6.0 mm drill bit. Made sure it was tight so the fuel pump didn’t move when removing chains etc.

The rocker cover injector seals can’t be changed. Seal kits comes with the rocker cover seal (between head and cover) which I’d recommend to change. You can get away with silicone on the old seal though. The kit also comes with the seals for the injector fuel lines. These just pop out and easy to pop new ones back in.
My injector seals was leaking and I did not realise at the time that you have to change the cover for that. If anyone has this issue I’d get a new rocker cover. I did a bit of a dodgy one since I was sick of working on my car at the end of it and just wanted it running and I put silicone on the top of the seals. Not ideal but for now it works.

The injector seals were easy, the injectors have one bolt holding the fuel drain pipe and another one on the hold down clamp. They can be popped out with a heel bar, I used a rag on the end of the bar to not damage anything. One of them was a bit tighter than the others and I used a bigger bar with a rag to gently pop them out.
There’s one o ring on the injector to be changed (put a light coat of oil on the oring) and a copper washer on the injector that needs to be taken off. I put the new washer on the end of a skinny screwdriver and let it drop into the injector hole and made sure it sat flush. The injectors makes a little “pop” when it gets pushed back in. I did them one at the time to assure that they go back into the same cylinder they were in and that once they were popped back in that they were flush with the other ones.

Water pump is an easy change on the front of the block, the thermostat is on the exhaust side of the block off one of the coolant pipes. It might be a bit stuck in there but can be gently pried out with a heel bar or screwdriver.

As far as the bearing roll goes I don’t know if I’d recommend anyone doing it without some experience as it can be tricky. Then again I would hate to know the cost of letting a mechanic do it lol.

Hope it helps someone that is thinking about doing similar work.

 

[pistol-W]

Not sure if I posted this on the right part of the forum but thought I would share.

My d22 ST-R 2.5 2012 model started making knocking noises when starting up cold (“cold” is relative as the lowest temp it drops here is around 20 but never heard the noise when starting it during the day) and had a belt squeal. It has 195 000 ks roughly on it. After checking out the front I found the water pump was making a noise and the knocking seemed like classic timing chain.

So I decided to order a dual timing chain from yd25 and a new oil pump from them.

After realising what a horrible job it would be to do it in the chassi I ended out pulling the engine out. Unplumbing the engine is quite simple but getting it out was a feat. I’m a diesel mechanic by trade and hats off to the people in LV trade cause what a **** job. Had to drop the front diff and steering arm.

When taking the timing cover off and disassembling the front chains I realise the knocking had come from the bottom tensioner, the oil in it was a gooey substance. I also found sticky gooey oil in the head of the engine and I think it had originated from when I bought the car from a Nissan dealership second hand I hustled them about changing the injectors and intercooler as it was blowing black smoke like nothing else. They had sealed the rocker cover injector holes with silicon of I assume poor quality or not letting it set before running because it most likely has melted and created the gooey oil.

Also found that it had put itself out of timing as I assume the chains might have been slapping when not getting the right oil feed. Corrected the timing. Put new chains on, resealed. Doing the timing chain was fairly easy.

Replaced the water pump, SCV, resealed the injectors (super easy as well). In hindsight I should have gotten a new rocker cover as I didn’t realise the rocker cover seal kit doesn’t come with them. Apparently you have to get a new rocker cover. I did end up sealing it with some quality silicone and let it set, hopefully won’t experience the same issue as before. Probably will end up getting a new cover once I financially recover from all of this.

I also ended up doing a bearing roll, changed the bearings on the main caps and big ends. No real wear on the bearings but peace of mind to have them changed while the engine was out.

Replaced clutch release bearing while the engine was out, never noticed any clutch issues but the bearing was average. Clutch was in pretty good condition.

While having the engine out I placed dynamat on the firewall, would be crazy not to while the engine is out!

Put the engine back in the car, which also a horrible experience. If this car fails again I’m burning it.

Put it all back together, new filters, new oil, new coolant. Car started, happy days!

However noticed when driving that it was absolutely gutless. I had a crank angle sensor code, turns out I had managed to damage it getting the engine out. I had failed to see the note that it has to come out to get the engine out. Don’t judge me too hard I was pretty tired and cranky ant the end of it. Explains what I was getting stuck on. It also sounded rough when started. Amazed that the car started and ran without a functioning CAS in general.

Replaced the sensor and holy crap after owning this car for so long it actually runs really well. Responsive and smooth. While the cab was pretty quiet before the dynamat definitely helped even more.

Took me a while as I have another car I’ve been using in the meantime. It was not the smoothest job as you have to drop a fair bit to be able to get the engine out. But worth the effort now when she runs so well.

Also if anyone decide to do the timing chain, get the yd25 oil pump! Having to remove the sump and moving the transmission to get the oil pump off is a nightmare and so inconvenient.

Going to run a liquid Molly engine clean with new filter and oil in case there’s any left over gunk in the galleries, cleaned the oil filter housing and cooler and that seemed quite clean.

The chains and the oil pump was the most expensive part of it as I went for double timing chains. The bearings, scv, water pump, injector and rocker cover seal kit and release bearing were all relatively cheap.

Now haters gonna hate but as I had it out I figured I’d take my time to paint it. Probably not everyone’s cup of tea.

However pretty happy with the results, hopefully she’ll be running good for a while longer now.

Great job.. thanks for the coverage..love the paint job

 

[NavaraAdmin]

That is very sharp looking.

 

[some bloke]

Not sure if I posted this on the right part of the forum but thought I would share.

My d22 ST-R 2.5 2012 model started making knocking noises when starting up cold (“cold” is relative as the lowest temp it drops here is around 20 but never heard the noise when starting it during the day) and had a belt squeal. It has 195 000 ks roughly on it. After checking out the front I found the water pump was making a noise and the knocking seemed like classic timing chain.

So I decided to order a dual timing chain from yd25 and a new oil pump from them.

After realising what a horrible job it would be to do it in the chassi I ended out pulling the engine out. Unplumbing the engine is quite simple but getting it out was a feat. I’m a diesel mechanic by trade and hats off to the people in LV trade cause what a **** job. Had to drop the front diff and steering arm.

When taking the timing cover off and disassembling the front chains I realise the knocking had come from the bottom tensioner, the oil in it was a gooey substance. I also found sticky gooey oil in the head of the engine and I think it had originated from when I bought the car from a Nissan dealership second hand I hustled them about changing the injectors and intercooler as it was blowing black smoke like nothing else. They had sealed the rocker cover injector holes with silicon of I assume poor quality or not letting it set before running because it most likely has melted and created the gooey oil.

Also found that it had put itself out of timing as I assume the chains might have been slapping when not getting the right oil feed. Corrected the timing. Put new chains on, resealed. Doing the timing chain was fairly easy.

Replaced the water pump, SCV, resealed the injectors (super easy as well). In hindsight I should have gotten a new rocker cover as I didn’t realise the rocker cover seal kit doesn’t come with them. Apparently you have to get a new rocker cover. I did end up sealing it with some quality silicone and let it set, hopefully won’t experience the same issue as before. Probably will end up getting a new cover once I financially recover from all of this.

I also ended up doing a bearing roll, changed the bearings on the main caps and big ends. No real wear on the bearings but peace of mind to have them changed while the engine was out.

Replaced clutch release bearing while the engine was out, never noticed any clutch issues but the bearing was average. Clutch was in pretty good condition.

While having the engine out I placed dynamat on the firewall, would be crazy not to while the engine is out!

Put the engine back in the car, which also a horrible experience. If this car fails again I’m burning it.

Put it all back together, new filters, new oil, new coolant. Car started, happy days!

However noticed when driving that it was absolutely gutless. I had a crank angle sensor code, turns out I had managed to damage it getting the engine out. I had failed to see the note that it has to come out to get the engine out. Don’t judge me too hard I was pretty tired and cranky ant the end of it. Explains what I was getting stuck on. It also sounded rough when started. Amazed that the car started and ran without a functioning CAS in general.

Replaced the sensor and holy crap after owning this car for so long it actually runs really well. Responsive and smooth. While the cab was pretty quiet before the dynamat definitely helped even more.

Took me a while as I have another car I’ve been using in the meantime. It was not the smoothest job as you have to drop a fair bit to be able to get the engine out. But worth the effort now when she runs so well.

Also if anyone decide to do the timing chain, get the yd25 oil pump! Having to remove the sump and moving the transmission to get the oil pump off is a nightmare and so inconvenient.

Going to run a liquid Molly engine clean with new filter and oil in case there’s any left over gunk in the galleries, cleaned the oil filter housing and cooler and that seemed quite clean.

The chains and the oil pump was the most expensive part of it as I went for double timing chains. The bearings, scv, water pump, injector and rocker cover seal kit and release bearing were all relatively cheap.

Now haters gonna hate but as I had it out I figured I’d take my time to paint it. Probably not everyone’s cup of tea.

However pretty happy with the results, hopefully she’ll be running good for a while longer now.

Looks fine, beats my lazy efforts painting engines which invariably get CAT yellow if they look good or not.