Looking to switch platforms

[Local Apparent Friday]

Quick wheel question to which I am pretty sure I already know the answer...17x9 with a 0 offset would cause 285's to hit the slider, yes?

 

TIA

[crusty]

I expect it to.  The zero offset is what hurts the most.  Lots of rims with the right bolt pattern, most are the wrong offset.

[Local Apparent Friday]

Yah that's what I figured.  TY

Still on the hunt for an engine, but we've been picking up other goodies here and there in the meantime.  Hope to have an engine secured this week.  

[Local Apparent Friday]

So...learning things.  For instance, if you only have one auto-down window button (driver's side) on your master switch, the switchdoctor listed switch will not work.  The only option is the factory switch.  Based on the current weight of silver and the weight of the factory switch, it's 7 times more expensive, at an average price of $260, than the equivalent weight in solid silver, so i guess that's on hold until I find someone doing a part out.

Also, I am interested to learn that the spec'd replacement shocks for the NV are the same across the line, whether you have a 1500 or a 35. I would have expected something a little heavier, but I guess not.  Rancho has nothing that is a fit, only replacements I'm seeing are Gabriel and Monroe.  In the meantime, we put front leveling kit on and got the new BFGs mounted on the factory wheels.  Truck looks great. 

 

- laf

[Local Apparent Friday]

Here are some pics to add some flair to this thread

https://ibb.co/KGGrtRN
https://ibb.co/znZDkcv
https://ibb.co/DQPPRMN

 

[Local Apparent Friday]

Found a used switch via car-part delivered for $85, and put in Monroe rear shocks as well as the Sumosprings.  Was originally eyeing the Gabriels as they are listed as generally having a stiffer ride quality, but Rockauto listed the Monroes as the heavier duty.  Weight difference between the monroe and the stock tokico was about a pound heavier...probably irrelevant info but posting anyway.  Engine will be here tomorrow.  I'm going to move this to a conversion thread soon and we can carry on there, no point in continuing to post here in intro.  

[Local Apparent Friday]

Replacement engine showed up today.  I took the van to get it, as my other tow vehicle was occupied with a moving job.  Rather amusingly, the knock became so loud that I ended up making other arrangements and having AAA take the van to my shop.  I've since gotten the new engine onto my stand and pulled the pan.  Everything looks good, so tomorrow i'll start stripping off the extraneous accouterments and prep it for install.  I've printed off the service manual and ordered a set of JBA shorties and resonated B pipes from CajunBPipes.  Hoping to get it apart and back together again by May, but the schedule is busy.  

[Local Apparent Friday]

Still waiting on parts and just picked up replacement engine #2 on friday.  First one had massive issues on leakdown test.

[Local Apparent Friday]

So.  Today seemed like a good day to yank the old engine out of the van.  Got it pulled over the course of a couple hours, mostly going by the service manual directions, with the exception that it wasn't necessary to remove the radiator or the transmission.  Anyway, started working on getting things moved over, and right out of the gate, the power steering reservoir bracket doesn't line up.  I confirmed via VIN that the engine came out of a 2012 Armada...not sure why the holes don't line up or whether or not I can swap that without major surgery...ran out of time at the shop.  But anyway, things are progressing!  Did you guys see that dope '21 4WD for sale? 

 

Edited May 4, 2022 by Local Apparent Friday

[Local Apparent Friday]

So...I'd have to swap the entire timing cover.  I confirmed via the nissan parts guide that the NV timing cover is different than the armada/titan/pathfinder.  Debating on whether or not to go through the trouble, as compared to just drilling out the hole, and also wondering what else I've yet to find that's different.  In the meantime, headers should be here tomorrow.  Uprev wants an extra 200 to decompile the ROM, so I'm thinking I might just do it myself.  We'll see.  Hope all 3 of you are having a great weekend. 

 

- laf

 

edit:  I forgot the pic links showing the timing cover as well as the differences between the NV and Armada brackets.

 

 

Edited May 9, 2022 by Local Apparent Friday

[Local Apparent Friday]

So.  For anybody else that may be reading this in the future, if you need a replacement engine, the armada/titan engine from 08-16 runs about a third of the price of the NV engine on car-part.com.  If you go this route, you will need to move the following from your NV engine to the replacement:  Power steering reservoir bracket, timing cover, oil cooler, oil pan, all sensors, engine wiring harness. 

 

It's all glued on with about 15 tons of RTV or whatever they use for gaskets these days.  Also, there are hidden timing cover bolts behind the cam gear covers...if you forget those, you will crack the timing cover.  This also necessitates that you have the appropriate tools to remove a crank pulley, commonly available for rent at local auto parts stores.  Additionally, there are some single use O rings on sensors and behind the timing cover that the manufacturer recommends be replaced any time they are opened up.  Pics below with differences.  This place sure is quiet these days, I hope you are all out adventuring.  Also, I'm throwing out another recommendation for Hart Nissan, they've been great for parts.

 

Edited April 8, 2023 by Local Apparent Friday

[radin2son]

Not that anyone, well maybe you, wants to deal with this, but appreciate the info if we ever have to. 

[Local Apparent Friday]

Yah no worries, just passing it along for posterity's sake. 

 

While I'm at it, if you are following the removal sequence that's in the manual, you can get away with not pulling the trans or the radiator.  I just put a piece of 1/2 inch ply over the radiator to protect it if I slipped, but honestly I had plenty of room and never even got close to it.  Jack under the trans to keep it from dropping, and then tied it up to the firewall so I could push the van back out of my shop.

Also there are various little brackets here and there that are different, but all the holes line up so those can be moved over easily enough whilst moving sensors.  While I'm on the topic, generic metric o rings are not a match for the sensors...barring some unknown source, you'll need the Nissan OEM rings.  

[Local Apparent Friday]

Y'all aren't going to believe this, but I FINALLY started putting things BACK on the engine today, instead of just removing them.  I'm going to grab a water pump gasket that I didn't think I'd need, and then the only other thing that's backordered is the headlight harness, but we are GOLDEN to start putting the engine back together to get it in.  Two weeks late, but better than never. 

 

- laf

[Local Apparent Friday]

After two weeks of vacay and sinus infection, we're back to this project.  Engine is back together minus the main electrical harness.  Hoping to have it in by this weekend, wx dependent.  In regards to the engine manual, I couldn't find the torque specs explained, but they are on all the diagrams.  Below is the breakdown, first value is newton meters, then kg meters, then inch pounds as denoted.  Wild how little torque is used on these aluminum engines.  Get yourself a very good 1/4" drive inch pound tq wrench.

 

 

Edited June 16, 2022 by Local Apparent Friday
imgbb doesn't seem to work so uploading photo directly

[OpenRoad]

Although I have been quiet on the sidelines I have been following your thread and appreciate your sharing the info.  You are going where no one has gone before.  Hoping you can finally get past the engine project and interested to see what you do next.

[Local Apparent Friday]

Don't be shy, we need more people posting!  Thanks for the kind words...spent most of yesterday in the blistering heat putting the last touches on the engine and cleaning up the shop and the mess of the three teardowns so that my shop is clean again.  We have family in town and I took a hiatus today to pick up a sailboat, so it's looking like Monday for the final push (quite literally to push it back into my shop) to get the engine in.  Thankfully, we have family in town, because it's a heavy van!   

I'll post more pics later and go back through and resize and post the other photos directly here, since imgbb seems to be not playing nicely these days.  We have to be in Georgia on the 16th, so hoping to have at least some type of spartan build out by then.  Updates coming next week.  Have a great weekend everyone.

 

- laf

[Local Apparent Friday]

Okay so tomorrow is the big day.  Gym first thing and a couple errands, then van.  Thought I'd share some info about mods while we're making them...when I popped out the existing engine I found out that we had a cracked exhaust manifold...this is a common issue with the factory manifolds and is well documented on the titans.  You can buy new manifolds for the low, low price of $980 each, but Nissan never resigned them, so they'll just crack again later.  I hit up Cajun B Pipes for a set of shorties with resonated b pipes...$1600 delivered for the pair.  They say that they won't throw a code, I'll report back with my findings.  I'm also doing an airaid CAI while I'm in here. 

 

Interestingly, all three engines had black goo in the intake runners and manifold.  It's thick and tarry...very gummy.  Pic below.  I thought it might be reversion but, after more inspection and seeing it all in the intake manifold, i'm thinking this is coming from the PCV/Blowby hoses.  We were able to do a pretty solid cleaning with brakleen, rags and brushes.  I've ordered the cheapest reasonable looking catch can that I could find on Amazon...I'm going to tee the PCV lines from the manifold and from the rocker covers and then run it through the catch can as a closed loop with wire dish wool as a separator and see if I can clean up the air a bit.  I'll likely just loop the blowby hoses on each end, essentially eliminating them.  I don't think it will throw a code, but I'll report on that as well.

 

Lastly, in order to take advantage of the mods as well as to sort out some of the shortcomings from Nissan, we'll look at tuning the van.  I've ordered a cable so that I can pull the rom from the truck...Uprev wants an upcharge for non-standard core, so I'm looking at pulling it myself via romraider and tuning it, although I may still end up going the uprev route.  Quote from cajun on tune is $825...none of these options include actual dyno time and are all just done remotely from datalogs.  

It'll hopefully be running tomorrow and we can get to the build...I need to be in NC next week and then we've got a big trip covering almost the entire eastern seaboard planned for july into August.  I don't expect to have the full buildout done by then, but we'll go with what we have, take notes, and then modify/continue when we get back after the trip.

 

[Local Apparent Friday]

Aaaaaannnnnddddd I'm back again.  Short version, it doesn't run, but it's all mostly all back together.  Got almost everything buttoned up and went to start it to fill up the oil filter and the battery is dead from me pushing the van around in neutral, so now it's on the charger.  Also, I loaned my welder out so tomorrow I have to find someone to cut the flange off the right hand B pipe and weld it back together again.  The B pipes were supposed to be direct bolt in according to the email exchange before I purchased, but apparently the one flange is rotated differently on the back of the bpipe as compared to the trucks.  

SO - If you are ordering the JBA catted shorties from Cajun with any of their B Pipes, I would request that they not weld the one flange (passenger side - rear) onto the B pipe and then you can either do it yourself or take it to a shop.  Alternatively, the catted shorties match up to the factory b pipes just fine, so you could just order the headers and then keep the rear cats/factory B pipes.  I'll come back in a few and upload a photo once I grab my phone so you can see what I'm talking about.

 

Also, if you're like me and after having to swap a bunch of parts because the engines aren't the same, and then you bolt the engine in there, and then the very last thing you do is bolt up the plate/torque converter at which point you have an "Oh S%^t!" moment because you never once compared the two, have no fear, it bolts up just fine.  

 

My airaid came early, so that's cool.  Short list for tomorrow;

 

Cut/weld b pipe flange

Acquire 6" fernco for airaid intake

Acquire 3/8" tee/steel dish cleaner for catch can hose reroute

Acquire distilled water for cooling system

Acquire 5/8" hose for blowby reroute

 

Connect battery, clean TB, profit.  Only things left at this point are to put the cowl all back together, the pass inner fender liner, and put the hood back on.

 

Some thoughts while it's fresh in my mind;

 

Be realllllly sure about your tq specs...remember the last of the numbers in the diagrams is INCH pounds.  It's baffling how little some of these bolts are torqued.

 

Don't leave the tq converter to the last thing...you'll have to loosen the tranny.  Better plan is to start all tranny bolts, then start tq converter bolts while you still have separation.  Alternatively, you can use a flat bar to provide enough friction against the tq converter in order to spin the plate separately to line up the holes, after you've loosed the tranny enough to reduce the friction.

 

If you follow the nissan engine manual, you can skip pulling the radiator, the trans and the lower crossbar. In the case of the trans, you'll need to remove 3 bolts holding the oil lines to the trans/engine on the pass side, as well as the trans harness, which drops down the back of the engine.  There are 9 bolts to remove the trans, 8 of them can be gotten from below.  The last is on the top on the pass side of the starter, all are 19mm.  

 

Once the shroud and mechanical fan are out, there is a mountain of room up front.  Just be sure to protect the radiator...in my case I took a 5/8" sheet of plywood roughly the size of the radiator, drilled two holes in the top, then used a loop of string to hang it from the hood latch in case the engine came swinging forward, but I never got close.

 

If you pull the engine mount bolts that run from the bottom up, you have to jimmy it forward and you risk bending the mounts.  Instead, pull the 4 that run top down, and it'll lift right off the beds, you'll still have (2) alignment dowels from trans to contend with.

 

Ziplock baggies labeled with a sharpie for each individual set of fasterners, ie coils, inner fender, intake, etc, etc and it helps to use painters tape to label the wiring harness, but it's also not hard to figure out.  Just take a bunch of pics beforehand.

 

On the pass side, there is a grounding wire from the harness that bolts to the side of the head, and then there is a much smaller gauge wire with an eye on the end that comes off of that.  It goes on the underside of the inner fender.

 

Just because the engine is out doesn't mean the truck will roll wherever you want it.  You still have to reconnect the battery, turn the key and put it in neutral in order to push/pull it around.  

 

Lastly, don't forget to charge the battery after you're done pushing/pulling it around, or you're going to be disappointed when it just clicks.

 

If I think of anything else once I'm done done, I'll add it.  If anybody has any specific questions that come to mind, please ask for perpetuity, it may help someone in the future.

 

- laf

 

Edited June 21, 2022 by Local Apparent Friday
Adding pic

[OpenRoad]

Sounds like you are getting really close.  Trying to fire up a new engine is stressful but feels so good when it runs.  Best of luck in successful completion of this part of your project. Very impressed with your progress and all the hurdles you have cleared so far.

[Local Apparent Friday]

It's ALLLLIIIIIIVVVVVEEEEEE!

Still have some things to get sorted, like re-torquing and then re-re-torquing the headers.  Also I'm throwing a random misfire (0300) code that I think is related to an o2 sensor.  I pulled the data from my scanner and I'm not showing any voltage reading on the front left.  I'm going to swap them tomorrow and see if it switches sides before ordering replacements.  Also unclear on why I have such a difference in the rear voltage readings.  I have to peel off first thing to go help a buddy out with his van, but hoping to get the headers torqued, the o2 sensor confirmed, then I can put the cowl back together and put the hood on.  We have a 4 wheel alignment scheduled for Friday, and I also need to see about getting it to Nissan for the airbag recall, and my front seat is currently a wal-mart foldable camping chair, but progress is being made!  I put the blower motor back in, resolving my A/C issues, and pulled it back into the shop under her own power tonight! 

 

For your amusement, it takes [me] 34 minutes to take the truck apart, swap the starter, and put it all back together again, and then it takes [me] another 15 to find the loose cable between the battery and the relay box and realize that it wasn't the starter at all, and that I missed the main starter supply cable when hooking the wires back to the distro block.

 

 Thanks for following along.

 

-laf  

[radin2son]

When you started this project, it was buy the best used NV for the least amount of money. Then there was the almost completed engine swap...  

 

While sitting in the initial trip ready build, take the time to read Mahu’s build. You need this type of project to keep you busy... Or keep this forum going. 

 

Speaking of Mahu, all we know about his van use is that he parked in Mammoth, CA and went skiing. 

[Local Apparent Friday]

Oh we are just getting started.  I've also added the link to the bio on our instagram...hoping to pull some of the 8 or so NVs that follow us here for info, but not a lot of people these days spinning their own wrenches. 

 

Current total all in for the van, the engine, and the parts to fix all the little issues is $12342.83.  Not too bad for a '14 with 154k miles...the engine only has 115 but they don't count lower mileage unless you replace the whole drivetrain. 

 

I'm headed to the shop rn to do the cowl and the hood, I guess I could have done a step by step but a)it adds a bunch of time between taking photos and posting and b)we more or less followed the manual procedure anyway.  I've got a call out to Sebastian @ Dahle to price a 4wd conversion if we decide to go that route, and I'll post more info on the mods we're making once I have everything done up correctly.  Ty for the info on Mahu, I'll dig up the thread tonight and check it out.

 

- laf

[Local Apparent Friday]

It's been a day, just getting back from the shop.  I was able to get the headers tightened again, 36 lbs per JBA specs.  It's a bit quieter now.  I haven't been able to track down the Mode 6 Diagnostic Data Sheet from Nissan, but using the real time generic data, a buddy of mine that works for Tesla caught that it was just the passenger bank that was misfiring, which I had completely overlooked.  That eliminated a vacuum leak, the EVAP system, and any issues with fuel, so I set about removing and testing the various components.  Ultimately it was the VVT solenoid that was stuck.  The P/N didn't match the ones that I pulled from the armada, so I used my test bench to actuate the solenoid while I cleaned it with brakleen and got it working again...likely just a piece of debris that got stuck in my various wrenchings.   She's running tip top with no CEL now, so tomorrow I will finish the catch can install, put the cowl and hood back on, then put the cab back together in time for a 4 wheel alignment on Friday morning and we'll call this swap done and successful.  Pic below is of the data from Mode 6...for anyone that's curious, I'm using an OBDLink LX that I snagged from ebay for $34 a while back, it's been a great tool for working on all these fancy fandangled modern contraptions.  I highly recommend snagging one if you have the chance and throwing it in your tool box, it'll also output everything a scanguage will and a whole lot more.  Thanks for all the support! 

 

One other thing that I was noticing I had wish that I had done today...when the engine was out and everything was apart, it would have been a prime time to use a blow tip on the air compressor to clean all the bugs out of the front of the radiator by spraying it from the back forward.  C'est la vie.

 

-laf

[Local Apparent Friday]

On 6/21/2022 at 12:18 AM, OpenRoad said:

Sounds like you are getting really close.  Trying to fire up a new engine is stressful but feels so good when it runs.  Best of luck in successful completion of this part of your project. Very impressed with your progress and all the hurdles you have cleared so far.

 

 

I missed this the first time, thanks for the kind words.  It was super stressful to have a CEL, but luckily I was able to work through it and get it resolved.  We drove it  home from our shop tonight, headed for an alignment in the morning.