New old far... fella

[Olpha]

Hi all,
Yep, I have one of these dream (sometimes nightmare) machines.
By virtue of having been conned by a supposed expert that I had a blown motor (long story) I removed and fully stripped the V9X and learnt that the problem was not major at all.
In doing this I discovered some very interesting points about this motor which might surprise a few doubters.
I appreciate the thoughts that people offer up on various topics and hope this continues for everyone's benefit. No thought bubble is too silly to put forward.
Remember, everyone in this world has a story to tell

 

[Old.Tony]

Welcome to the forum.

What was the car doing when you were told the engine was failing, and what was actually wrong with it?

 

[Olpha]

Hi Old.Tony,
It started giving an EGR limp mode which I had already guessed as being the solenoid valve blocking open.
To be sure, I took it to someone recommended to me.
After 10 days in his shop he sent me a video of it spewing vapour and oil out of the filler cap!
Naturally I was a trifle concerned at his assertions that I must have a hole in a piston and that this was common to this motor (v9x). His suggestion that he could have it fully rebuilt for a total of about $20K made me think it would be like putting a gold knob on an outhouse door.
As I had other means of transport and a bit of time I decided to remove, strip and rebuild it myself.
Interesting! A real pain to get out of the vehicle, easy to strip and inspect, not bad to reassemble, painful to get back in the vehicle. I have lots of tips on that!
What did I find? Absolutely nothing wrong. I have been stripping and rebuilding motors for the last 50 years and there was nothing worn or broken. There was no wear to the pistons or rings (hone marks like showroom, rings tighter than factory specs, pistons not even showing heat marks) and the bottom end was a jewellers delight in precision.
The injectors were tested and were all in spec, valves were all perfect. The only thing I did pick up was that the camshaft on the left bank was about 1-2 degrees out (********) from factory.
Looking for simple answers first (well not quite as first as it should have) I pulled the bonnet on a friends car and asked him to start it up while I took his oil filler cap off. I quickly realised a certain expert had tried to rip me off blind!
The filler cap is directly above the left bank timing sprocket which is presure fed with oil and it allows the oil droplets to be thrown up and out the filler hole. MONGREL!!!
There was never anything wrong but the EGR.
Suffice to say, I now have a very intimate knowledge of this motor! If you have a reasonable knowledge and experience they don't present too much of a challenge (tooling excepted). If anyone needs help I have a few photos that may help.
An interesting issue was that it is almost impossible to get a gasket kit for these motors. $2500 for the general gaskets and $75 for each readily available head gasket. Work that out! Good thing is - these are silicone gaskets and if you are gentle taking them apart they are fine to use again (not the head gaskets).
This was 3 years and over 40000 kms ago. Still good.
So what did I learn. In simple terms, I went one step too far in my thought process before satisfying the what causes oil drops to come out of that little hole. I should have gone straight to Nissan and had the EGR fixed which I already knew had to be done, but I got blindsided by a recommended hotshot that was after a quick buck. With tongue firmly in cheek I ask you this, has anyone had this happen to them before?
Let me say, I love this forum and appreciate everyone's input whether it be right or just off the mark. Good work everyone. Keep it up.

 

[BarneyB]

Hmmm...this is very interesting to me. Thank you for the info Olpha.
We have a 2010 V9X D40 in the family....but it's parked & labelled for "parts only" because we believe the crankshaft has failed.
It was / is a much loved vehicle (that motor is so awesome when it's reliable).

BUT....we haven't fully diagnosed it properly.
Is it possible we have also jumped the gun with our terminal diagnosis, based on advice from two local workshops ??

Background info:
2010 D40 V9X, approx. 185,000 kms
Flash tuned to around 700Nm. EGR blocked with a simple plate. No other mods. We don't believe it has a DPF either (not 100%).

Symptoms in the following chronological order over about 2 weeks:

1. C.E.L. On. Scanned it & found a code related to Oxy sensor #2 overheat/overcycle (can't remember it exactly). Code came back after reset.

(....a week later...)

2. Mild knocking sound, louder at cold start-up & then gets progressively quieter as engine reaches O.T.

3. Large amount of oil leaking from back of the engine at the bell housing area. Oil sprayed out all over chassis.

4. No discernible loss of power. (but it's not like we've given it the berries once the knocking sound started).

5. Inspection by local rural workshop + phone calls made to specialist diesel w'shop etc etc. Consensus reached that we had likely snapped the crankshaft (or spun a big end?) towing our 1.7 tonne excavator. Was told a percentage of V9X's have broken the crankshafts. Not unheard of...apparently.
The feeling was that the unstable crank has lunched the rear main seal, which explains the "automatic undercarriage rust proofing system".

6. Much phone calls & research by me discovered the aftermarket & OEM support for this engine is woeful. No longer any significant engine parts available...anywhere. Never was much when they were current. Renault dropped parts support some years ago & Nissan doesn't care either way.
Apparently some w'shops have rebuilt them with locally machined cranks but it's been hit & miss.
It's a shame because IMO it's an engine worth supporting!

Unlike your experience Olpha, our local w'shops did not offer the expensive rebuild because they were not confident it was the right thing to do.
They admitted we were probably between a rock & a hard place.

So now it sits....on the grass.
PS - I'd love to swap a VK56 into it..... but time, money, life....blah blah...

 

[Old.Tony]

Olpha: mate, those pics are fantastic. It's just a pity that you had to go to such lengths ... even the 4-cylinder generates heaps of blow-by and if you remove the oil filler cap from the 4-banger it sprays oil like a whale breaching.

BarneyB: I highly recommend removing the glow plugs, dropping the sump oil and shoving an inspection camera in. Have someone turn the crank over by hand while inspecting the rear of the shaft. What kind of symptoms were you experiencing to come to the conclusion of a broken crank? Well, we should actually take this discussion to its own thread, too!

 

[BarneyB]

Olpha: mate, those pics are fantastic. It's just a pity that you had to go to such lengths ... even the 4-cylinder generates heaps of blow-by and if you remove the oil filler cap from the 4-banger it sprays oil like a whale breaching.

BarneyB: I highly recommend removing the glow plugs, dropping the sump oil and shoving an inspection camera in. Have someone turn the crank over by hand while inspecting the rear of the shaft. What kind of symptoms were you experiencing to come to the conclusion of a broken crank? Well, we should actually take this discussion to its own thread, too!

Yeah I should apologise for the shameless thread hijack. I got excited when Olpha started sharing info about fixing a V9X!
Can you move this thread to the right spot?... Or should I copy /paste?

 

[Old.Tony]

Nahh let it go, it's relevant here, you can start a new one if you want to get into it. Somewhere like here would be a good place to put it:

https://www.navaraforum.com/forums/d40-engine-drivetrain.95/

 

[Olpha]

BarneyB,
I was wondering if you could clarify where exactly the oil appears to be coming from.
Thinking back to the make up of the rear of these motors, it would be unlikely for oil to be right around the bellhousing if it was leaking from the rear main.
I would only expect to see it coming from the lower section and going back from there due to the seal between engine and bellhousing being pretty good.
A broken crank usually results in a motor running a bit rough (the crank position sensor is on the flywheel flex plate). Is that happening at all?
There are some interesting oil feed pipes at the back of the motor of which I will attach a marked up photo for reference.
These vehicles have a bad habit of leaking oil from the left (inlet) side of the intercooler which will coat the whole of the bottom of the vehicle in quick time if it is working with a load.
With regard to the fault code coming up, simply blocking the EGR with a plate will bring up a code. Usually P0488. Additionally, when the car is first started, the EGR opens and closes a couple of times and it is not unusual to hear the note of the engine change as it alters the fuel mixtures. Given the blanking plate, I wouldn't be totally surprised if you might hear a bit of detonation knock. Also, I had the oxygen sensor fail on me and it made it ping like hell. You mentioned a code for oxygen?
Maybe I have given you too much to think about, but having been bitten before I would suggest getting under and getting dirty with an open mind looking for simple things first.
Let us know how you get on and I hope it turns out to be quite simple.