Under the Valve covers @395,000 miles Nissan Xterra VQ40

[JTK]

Looks awesome! The 2nd gen Frontier owners over at a Frontier board I participate on would love to see these pics / mileage.

Sorry if I missed it, but has this VQ40 ever been opened up for timing chain work?

I could only hope the direct injected VQ38DD in my 2022 Frontier would look so good.

 

[Tman220]

I think it's counter-intuitive to believe the valve cover with the PCV will be the cleaner side. The fresh air is probably drawn from the left valve cover, drawn through the engine and evacuated on the right side at the PCV valve.

Therefore, any by products of combustion will be drawn, accumulated, and condensed on the side of the engine where the PCV valve is located.

 

[cptbarkey]

Its common on the PVC side to varnish up more, have seen many example photos. Great looking engine OP!!

@atikovi its neat to see another photo of the house, do you have a dog? Just curious on the soccer ball and the two other balls.

 

[Heywood_6078]

Looks fantastic for non syn oils.

Yes it does I agree.

 

[malibuguy79]

Its typical to have different color banks on a V engine because one side gets the breather and the other side gets the pcv.

Looks fantastic

 

[atikovi]

@atikovi its neat to see another photo of the house, do you have a dog? Just curious on the soccer ball and the two other balls.

No dog. Not sure what you mean by soccer ball, but do have two other balls.

 

[cptbarkey]

No dog. Not sure what you mean by soccer ball, but do have two other balls.

 

[demarpaint]

Impressive!!! Some would think those results could only come from a high end premium product.

 

[atikovi]

View attachment 189696

Oh those. Find them at my storage place thrown over the fence. List them on Facebook for lunch money.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Looks good

 

[SC Maintenance]

In the OP's photos I cannot see what powers the cam shafts.
Where's the sprockets?

On the other side of the front cover. Outside the bottom of both photos. there under there own cover. Google VQ40 timing chain images, lots of picks posted.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Looks awesome! The 2nd gen Frontier owners over at a Frontier board I participate on would love to see these pics / mileage.

Sorry if I missed it, but has this VQ40 ever been opened up for timing chain work?

I could only hope the direct injected VQ38DD in my 2022 Frontier would look so good.

I posted earlier @ thenewx.org since this is my Xterra. I am also a member of clubfrontier because I have a 2011 Fronty as well but I try to post on one or the other dependant on vehicle. There is a lot of cross traffic between those sites.

The secondary timing chain guides failed at around 200K. You obviosly are familiar but others may not be that these engines had a QC issue in the earlier years with the secondary tensioner guides. There was a class action, etc and Nissan apparently fixed the issue around 2010. Mine failed too late for even the extended warranty. I replaced all the chains and tensioners but honestly the only thing that looked remotely bad were the secondary guides.

 

[SC Maintenance]

I think it's counter-intuitive to believe the valve cover with the PCV will be the cleaner side. The fresh air is probably drawn from the left valve cover, drawn through the engine and evacuated on the right side at the PCV valve.

Therefore, any by products of combustion will be drawn, accumulated, and condensed on the side of the engine where the PCV valve is located.

As you describe and as I mentioned, my slightly varnished side is the PCV side. Its also the configuration you mention - the breather is on the other side (the cleaner side), however there is also a cross over hose between the two valve covers, so not sure how that affects things. Thats likey the difference in mine as well - seems logical.

 

[Astro14]

Back on topic - that engine looks great. Nice job taking care of it!

 

[Hootbro]

 

[DGXR]

Impressive!!! Some would think those results could only come from a high end premium product.

Shows how good modern oils are, even the non FS products. Also the short OCI helps for sure lol.

 

[Graham Piccinini]

Shows how good modern oils are, even the non FS products. Also the short OCI helps for sure lol.

I think that last part helps a lot more than people give it credit for these days.

 

[cheesepuffs2]

This looks impeccable. Mind sharing which other conventional and syn blend oils you used?

 

[demarpaint]

It looks fantastic for the amount of miles on that engine.

 

[SC Maintenance]

This looks impeccable. Mind sharing which other conventional and syn blend oils you used?

So shorter answer - a lot of Valvoline - then whatever was around for cheap!

For many years I bought Valvoline Supreme 5w30 - in the white bottle. This was my go to. Had great luck with it in earlier vehicles and it was always fairly inexpensive at walmart. They got rid of that blend for whatever reason. For a while they didn't really have anything - only synthetic, at least at walmart.

From memory - I tried a Castrol of some type - it seemed to make said valve covers leak worse. I then tried the basic quaker state, then I think some clearance supertech once, I tried the havoline semi syn box - not a fan of the box, although I liked the six quarts because this engine takes 5.4, then I found the Chevron supreme in the blue bottle, so have been using that up till this valve cover gasket job. I am out of that now, but I got 12 quarts of Valvoline daily protection for cheap on Amazon and thats in their now.