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Hey everyone, I am VERY new to this platform. I purchased this car from a tow yard whom didn’t know anything about the car. I had to get it towed to Nissan for them to make a key, and upon start up it blasts white smoke out the back. Figured it’s just a head gasket.
Anyway, I’ve spent the last week tearing down the engine to replace the head gasket and have discovered metal chunks and shavings in the oil Pan. Can anyone help identify what it could be from, and how screwed I might be? The bigger chunks came out of the oil pickup tube outside of the screen.
Welcome, and I hope you got this Z for cheap. Looking at the debris in the oil pan (not to mention the color of the oil/water left over), there's little doubt that major damage somewhere in the reciprocating parts has occurred. No use doing anything else but proceeding with the teardown until you determine the extent of the damage. Be prepared for a full rebuild. How many miles were on this VQ?
Welcome, and I hope you got this Z for cheap. Looking at the debris in the oil pan (not to mention the color of the oil/water left over), there's little doubt that major damage somewhere in the reciprocating parts has occurred. No use doing anything else but proceeding with the teardown until you determine the extent of the damage. Be prepared for a full rebuild. How many miles were on this VQ?
Thank you for the response. It was relatively cheap, about $1500. The only reason I took the risk on it is cause the odometer read only 51k miles. Just my luck, I ran a car fax about a week after I got the car and it showed the true mileage to be over 121k miles, so I assume the previous owner swapped the cluster at some point.
Based on this discovery today, I’m debating if a motor swap would just be a better option to consider. I saw a good deal on a low mileage JDM VQ35DE. Do you know if this motor is good for a swap being that it’s a JDM version?
What do the pistons looks like from when the heads were off. Is the debris aluminum or steel ?
I’m not quite there yet. The motor is still in the car, and I still gotta pull off the timing components to get the heads off. So the mystery continues until I’m able to do that.
If it was chunks from a rod wouldn’t the car not be drivable? I was able to drive it short distances, like from the street to the garage, but the smoke screen that shoots out the back looked like a James Bond movie so I never took it out on the street.
Hopefully you guys can see this video. This is from the first start up. And the smoke only gets worse the more the engine revs or drives.
White smoke is typical of fluid - non-oil - smoke so yes, would tend to believe that's "just" a head gasket but the metal debris is clearly something from a moving part - con rod, piston, even crank journal - something that got shredded during a motor mishap like an overrev, piston-to-valve unhappy meeting (from a wonked timing chain which could be another possibility), or pure lubrication loss from a fragged oil pump (any oil pressure at the gauge? All just speculation of course.
Since the pan is off, any visible damage to the crank or rods looking from bottom? Either way, with that much junk in the pan, you're in for a full teardown.
Whatever is losing its shid, might not cause a non-running motor issue but close to it.
I’m not quite there yet. The motor is still in the car, and I still gotta pull off the timing components to get the heads off. So the mystery continues until I’m able to do that.
If it was chunks from a rod wouldn’t the car not be drivable? I was able to drive it short distances, like from the street to the garage, but the smoke screen that shoots out the back looked like a James Bond movie so I never took it out on the street.
Whenever you see a display of smoke like this, it's only a matter of time before the engine fails completely. Whether it's a component failure or because lubrication is compromised, you're about to waste a motor. What's truly remarkable is once you find the points of failure, is that the VQ managed to run at all. Does it really matter if it's a rod, bearing or other key component?
The next question is, do you have the tools and skills to assess and possibly rebuild this amazing engine yourself?
Deal with the heads after the motor is on an engine stand.
Originally Posted by Jojomalibu
I’m not quite there yet. The motor is still in the car, and I still gotta pull off the timing components to get the heads off. So the mystery continues until I’m able to do that.
If it was chunks from a rod wouldn’t the car not be drivable? I was able to drive it short distances, like from the street to the garage, but the smoke screen that shoots out the back looked like a James Bond movie so I never took it out on the street.
Unless you're planning on building a built motor, don't bother taking it apart. Just junk it and get a used motor, or use it as a core for a rebuilt long block.
Thank you for all the responses, I’m gonna end up getting a used motor and use this old one for parts in the future
Its a not a bad idea to keep the old engine for parts but consider this engine 'contaminated' anything that oil has come in contact should either be scrapped or cleaned very very well. If you find any metal fragments in the engine than there are metal fragments (of all sizes) through-out the engine. If you carry those over to a new engine and if they're not caught in the oil filter they will clog-up an oil passage in the engine and cause harm.
and remember about the difference between VQ35DE and VQ35HR. So if you have DE engine - get a similar DE engine. If HR - then try to find the HR version. This will allow you to end up with real bolt-on fitment. Otherwise, it will be real headache
To me, those pieces look like remnants of busted piston ring lands due to their size/shape (or crank bearings, either main or rod). For them to get into the oil pan tells me there's more going on here. Get your replacement engine in there and handle the post mortem analysis another day
So motor swap was a success. BUT there is some smoking that happens after about 45 seconds. The person who sold me the motor swears there was nothing wrong with it, and sent me videos of it running with no smoke. The seller believes that there’s a ton of nasty liquid from my old motor in my catalytic converters and exhaust and that’s why there is still smoke.
The video I’m attaching below shows that there’s no smoke on start up, but possibly as the pipes get heated up that may be causing the nasty stuff to start burning (thus smoke). What do you guys think?
Metal chunks/shavings in Oil Pan....hellllllp
