just slap some duct tape on it and youll be good.

 

Ow many miles on the motor? I still have no idea how that never happened to my car.

 

Almost 105k on it at the time. Any suggestions for sourcing an oem DE non-rev motor online? I've started looking through junkyard inventories nearby.

 

I've seen a few on Craigslist and there's a guy on Facebook selling motor and trans with 70k for 1.3k right now.

 

Update: Got the old motor out and "new" motor in. Headed out to TWS in a couple weeks and hopefully don't have the same results. I'm in the process of tearing down the old engine to play mad scientist with the dead carcass, and last night I discovered the culprit of what happened last time. I was under the assumption that it may have been the result of oil deprivation, but when I dropped the oil pan out I found chewed up parts galore. Take a look at the picture of the oil pan and notice the part I circled in red. This is the lower end of the connecting rod. If you notice how sheer it is and relatively untouched, it leads me to the conclusion that the connecting rod bolts came out while running around the track. Otherwise, if it had been oil deprivation, the damage would have been more catastrophic. Once I break down the cylinders over the next week I'll get a better look at it all and confirm this is what happened.

I have to say if this is in fact the reason I had to perform a heart transplant then this is the first I've heard of it happening on the VQ35DE. My old engine was made in 09/2002, and the "new" engine was made in 10/2004. Does anyone know if the connecting rod bolts were addressed/modified by Nissan?



I thought this one was interesting. You can see all of the metal shrapnel that must have taken the path of least resistance (i.e. back up the intake manifold) upon detonation.




Here is the oil pan shot with the lower end of the connecting rod circled in red.


Looking up into the engine from where the oil pan used to be. You can see the gash on the right side of where parts spewed out.

 

Jesus Christ.

 

That is pretty crazy!

Are the threads in that rod stripped out/damaged in anyway?

 

Good thought. I'll have to clean it out and check. If the threads are clean it's the cam shaft bolt. If it's stripped, then it's something else.

 

On your update: since this is your first teardown, I wouldn't jump to any conclusions. While it may have indeed been a connecting rod hardware failure, there's been no reports this has been a systemic problem. But looking at the bottom half of that rod sitting in the pan, I might hazard a guess that the rod itself may have had some stress and possibly failed. With the kind of mileage you had on that VQ, any missed shifts or overrevs could have stretched the rods slightly and created the potential for a catastrophic engine failure.

 

Question. If that was your only car, what do you drive now? Get to work, the store etc.

 

just did HARRIS HILLS in my 04 with 170k miles on it. i have a 25 row oil cooler and a oil catch can.

take precautions if you wanna do track days like that. stock motor is strong n/a, but it cant keep the oil cool during a 15minute hard session. i was driving hard too. 4th gear going into the last corner, about 100mph. also i was going clockwise.

 

My g/f and I live together and carpooled to work for a week before we almost killed each other Fortunately a good friend of mine lent me his beater of Mercedes for transportation. Have my car back now, but shopping for a truck that will be a daily driver and tow vehicle.


My motor blew up in turn 2 going clockwise. During the swap I put in a mishimoto radiator and I'm looking into a 19 row oil cooler. Which one do you have? I had been around almost every track in TX and FL up until H2R did her in. As DK mentioned, it may have just been all the crankshaft could handle and finally said

 

Source a new motor.

 

See post #25 Got a motor with only 40k in it now and runs strong. Put in NISMO flywheel and Z1 performance clutch combo too. Let the Spec Z build begin.