VK56 Engine Teardown

[GR_CoB]

Stuff like this only cements my decision to stay with 5000-mile oil change intervals. When he popped the valve cover - it looked like many valvetrains posted here. And usual responses are along the lines of "varnish is not a problem", "what's the obsession with clean engines?". But seems to me that varnish IS a problem. A problem that causes damage where it can't be seen easily by simply removing the valve covers. Bearings, chain components, etc. Yet many disregard the varnish (i did too for a short period) and preach blanket statements that todays engines and oils are made so much better, that 10k OCI is the normal and any engine can do extended OCIs on almost any oil made today. If some varnish was able to kill an almost unkillable VK56, then many here should rethink OCIs and oil of choice in their engines.
5000-mile rule should stay, especially with basic non-EURO oils. Engines I own and maintain will keep getting Euro rated oils, (A3/B4 or better) at strict 5k OCIs.


Random rant o'clock. I guess this is my "Old Man Yells at Cloud" moment.

 

[supton]

I'm never quite sure what to make of his teardowns--I love watching them, but without a backstory, it's impossible to know for sure.

Is it possible that the first owner did push the OCI length, got it all varnished, then the second owner tried their best (witness the Mobil 1 filter) but the damage was done? Or did the first owner take really good care of it, and the second owner did nothing more than just add oil (and the filter was never changed)?

 

[Chris Meutsch]

Nissan/Infiniti engines have been known for many years to be hard on oil. I learned that here based on testing.

 

[UncleDave]

The stated OCI/ FCI is 7500 miles for this vintage VK56. It shears oil big time.

This wreaks of neglect.

 

[Greasymechtech]

Don't care what the owners did. Obviously, it wasn't enough. Will the owner(s) learn or continue their shenanigans? Too many owners don't learn.

Is sad because with a little more maintenance, some of these videos might not exist. I've seen many fall into financial hardship because of repairs that could've should've been avoided. Ran out of oil, a little late with maintenance, and my favorite, only skipped one or 2 intervals... yes, skipped!

Don't worry about your engine failure.... we'll just force you into an electric car and you won't have to worry about oil changes and sludge.

 

[fisher83]

I just recently discovered that channel and actually watched that teardown over the weekend. Interesting stuff for sure!

 

[PoorMans180SX]

I'm not sure how you're drawing the conclusion that the varnish is what killed this engine. Can you explain?

 

[Greasymechtech]

Varnish doesn't kill the engine. Varnish, varnish leading to sludge, or sludge, are telltale signs of improper maintenance intervals, or oil levels, for said driving style.

 

[Hall]

I'm not sure how you're drawing the conclusion that the varnish is what killed this engine. Can you explain?

Was going to ask the same question

 

[xgmad]

I think the use of just cheap bulk oil from the jiffy lube 20$ special kind of made the engine dirty with over extended oci's .

Imagine buying an expensive truck just to take it to the jiffy lube

 

[Boomer]

I have said it on this forum before and I will say it again. I am absolutely amazed by people who pay 40, 50,60 or 70,000 dollars (or more!) for a vehicle and then use non-Top Tier gas, cheaper oils, push the oil change out to 15,000 miles or more and leave the filter on for multiple oil changes. Locally, there is a Sheetz (non-Top Tier) across from an Exxon. Both charge the same price for gas. And yet the number of new cars at Sheetz is amazing while the pumps at Exxon go unused. My VW mechanic at the dealer once told me that almost all the injector issues they encounter come from the use of one brand of gas....Sheetz.

So if you can lay out all that money for a new car, surely you can spend a bit more to do 5000 mile oil changes, put on a new oil filter each time and use decent gas. Jusy my rant for today.

 

[aquariuscsm]

It's my understanding from reading here on BITOG that varnish is the precursor of sludge, and that varnish is sticky and can wreak all sorts of havoc if it's bad enough. Previous owner of my Accord went strictly by the mm with GTX from a Houston quickie lube (according to the Carfax report),and my top end was fairly varnished up. 3000 mile oil changes with synth has done wonders to cleaning it up. I bought it with around 40K and now has 132,000K.

 

[Overfill]

Today's engine oils aren't "so much better" in a vacuum of driver. OEMs stepping in the direction they need to move WRT efficiency has them pushing engine designs in ways that are going to stress the oil out more, mostly in terms of deposits. The specs have been gradually updated to accommodate specific needs. The benchmark in-use warrant on the OEM side hasn't (successfully) evolved too much in ~25 years. They are balanced. This is really with greatest respect to API-S[x] oils, and obviously if you pick an oil with greater performance, more can be expected, ect ect.

 

[WeyounDS9]

I have a vehicle with a VK56de (it's a Pathfinder V8, which is quite rare)
These engines have forged pistons, forged rods, closed deck engine,titanium valves even, its like they been factory prepped for racing or forced induction.
Short of extreme abuse and neglect 9broken cat converters throwing ceramic into the cylinders via backpressure) these engines are mechanically bulletproof.

My 185,000 mile example uses not a drop of oil between oil changes (4000-5000 miles Mobil 1, 0w-40 w/ mobil 1 filter, previously also ran Valvoline 5w-40 synpower and Valvoline 10w-30 hi milage syn, as i like to alternate the detergent packs)
Longest its ever been between changes while I owned it was 7500 miles when i did a lot of hiway driving, and this was an outlier.
Near perfect compression on all 8 cylinders despite years of hard summer time towing.
Engine takes 6.5 qts give or take

 

[wwillson]

I think it's fair to say simply that the engine oil chosen for this motor wasn't capable of handling the way it was used and produced varnish and sludge. In the video at 31:00 you can see that the ring groves are full of carbonaceous material. The rings are stuck/sticky and the motor certainly suffered from low compression and oil consumption.

This is neglect. The oil should have been changed more often.

Many people aren't interested in engine oil or how often it should be changed. Nor are they interested in oil specs, varnish, sludge, severe use, etc. To me, not being interested is ok, not even being aware of the very basics isn't ok.

How can anyone justify buying an expensive vehicle, then ruining the engine because they have zero awareness of oil change intervals or severe service? The result of ignorance is an expensive repair bill.

 

[KGMtech]

I like these videos, but they are very far from scientific. I never go beyond 7k kilometres or 6 months on synthetic oils, it's just foolish IMHO for my mixed driving. If I ever start driving 90% highway, I might go to 8.5k km.

However the reactions here are typical BITOG ~ preaching to the choir. The average car owner these days doesn't want inconvenience of servicing something that doesn't provide a tangible difference. You fix brakes, the car usually feels safer afterwards. Change the oil & filters at proper intervals and the average person could never detect a benefit.

 

[GR_CoB]

I'm not sure how you're drawing the conclusion that the varnish is what killed this engine. Can you explain?

As mentioned by others - varnish is the foundation for sludge. I'm not too worried about varnish buildup on crank webs, but such buildup on crank pins and main journals are likely what heavily contributed to the bearing failure. Camshaft lobes & heels are worn too, but you can see the varnish buildup in the cam journals as well. Varnish = ticking time bomb. And it usually goes off on used vehicle buyers like myself. 2nd/3rd/4th owner...

 

[4WD]

Did anyone hear how that engine was operated ? It clearly was owned by an irresponsible fool - so likely more than just motor oil pushed too hard …

 

[Soft Cars]

The varnish topic is too dangerous to get into anymore. Now days I avoid that topic like the plague.

 

[PoorMans180SX]

As mentioned by others - varnish is the foundation for sludge. I'm not too worried about varnish buildup on crank webs, but such buildup on crank pins and main journals are likely what heavily contributed to the bearing failure. Camshaft lobes & heels are worn too, but you can see the varnish buildup in the cam journals as well. Varnish = ticking time bomb. And it usually goes off on used vehicle buyers like myself. 2nd/3rd/4th owner...

Varnish does not build up on crank main or rod journals, or the surfaces of the camshaft that roll against an oil film or bucket.
This was a straight up oil failure, where it had been used too long and probably had a low crankcase level. Super extended drains over time probably slowly wore the bearings until the clearance was too big to create a proper hydrodynamic film, at which point they failed and the engine started knocking.
The varnish you see did not cause the engine to fail, and the "sludge" in the crankcase is from all the bearing material, and did not contribute to the actual failure until the pickup started sucking up metal bits. I see no holes or oil passages blocked with varnish or sludge.
Are varnish and sludge bad? Yes of course, but they did not cause this engine to knock its rod bearings out. Lack of hydrodynamic lubrication did that.