ZD30 - Name that tune!

[3VILC]

Nope haha. Not a trace of anything in that end of the engine anyway

[3VILC]

For anyone that was following this,
The correct answer was extreme piston slap!
Finally got the block dismantled and its now pretty obvious that something has caused #1 piston to flap around. Exactly what will probably remain a mystery. Did the 2nd comp ring seize first, causing the piston to bang around, or did one of the chunks break off around the crown first and get jammed down the side of the piston, or is the oil jet clogged with one of the bits of liquid gasket I've found inside??

[fh2014]

Im going option C no oil . But hooly. RIP little engine.

[3VILC]

could be..see when i get the crank out if i can get at the oil squiters and see if that ones clogged. I have found a few stray bits of silver gasket maker in various places, looks like it is used to seal the oil pan onto the block, but whether factory or its been apart before I don't know, there was even a bit stuck in the gauze screen on the oil pickup. Shame as everything else, the other pistons, bearings etc all look mint, prehaps its been striped down once before.
Ill get a pic of those turbo flanges for you now too

[Crash bandicoot]

what condition is the face of the piston like in relation to the other three.

[3VILC]

Crown wise they don't really look hugely different apart from the chunks missing around the edge obviously

[tweake]

i wonder if no1 injector is leaking and caused piston to over heat.

[3VILC]

That is also possible. The worst looking injector was #3 but I suppose hard to really tell without a way of spraying liquid thru them at high pressure. It would certainly seem something has caused only the one particular piston to run hot. They've all gone in the scrap bin now, that 2nd ring I couldn't even budge with a screwdriver, parts of the oil run were also stuck in the groove. That piston was also the only one that required a hammer to get the gudgeon pin out

[3VILC]

The pistons went to the scrap metal shop in the sky without thinking to photo the tops. But this is what the combustion side of the head looks like. #1 is on the left, looking at it now it does look a bit darker and doesn't have the pale colour on the valves like the others

[slide]

my bet is a damaged piston (and probably a scored up bore). Probably not a hole in it, maybe cracked or scored up. I doubt it'll be a damaged valve

shit damn I hate it when I'm right...

[3VILC]

Someone had to be close lol.
Actually I wonder if that may explain the slightly odd smell that it's had for a while that I couldn't work out. Didn't smell like over rich but may have been masked/mixed with the bit of oil it was burning.
Never mind, QD is almost ready to go in just got a couple of wires to work out. Can find plenty of wiring diagrams for other vehicles but none which show the specific plug im trying to find details for. If all else fails join colours like for like and tape the extras up haha

[Crash bandicoot]

which wires have ya got left over? or having trouble with. Also the qd/td is a simpler engine in most aspects so wouldn't be surprised if there are a few left overs.

aslong as the following....

injector pump (three plugs from memory)? two multi pin and and one hall effect sensor for the tacho.
glow plugs
No1 lift sensor
cps
afm
oil pressure
water temp
ECU water temp
fuel stop solenoid (back of pump)
exciter wire to alternator

it should run.

[3VILC]

Where the 'engine control loom' joins the 'body loom' by the ECU. I can find the connector in the petrol R50 manuals but cant find anything in the EL or EC sections which actually show any of the wires that are in it or where they go.
There are 3 plugs together, 2 the same design both of these are the same on the QD and ZD looms and plug in, the other is a different style but the ZD one is 10pin the QD is only 4pin, it looks like 3 of the wires match colours in the ZD plug but the other one isn't in the ZD one. Its a red/white one which theres several others of so possibly a generic power feed or such and can just be tied across to one of them. The others I'm guessing are for the extras that the QD/TD doesn't have have like the VNT solenoid, power to the other ECU mounted on the ZD pump etc.
Same issue I've had when doing other nissans, 2 of the body to engine plugs fit the other one is different so must be a common theme to use just use one plug for extra features etc.
Oh got the air con pump too cheers that's the one I needed, glad you chucked the hoses in the fittings are different not sure what the sensor on the back of the pump is must be located elsewhere in my system so hopefully will be fine not connected

[Crash bandicoot]

It is the fuel stop solenoid, regardless of diesel injection configuration they all need it, it will be a simple loop with a 8mm nut that bolts it on.

http://nissanforum.org/nissan-forum/sho ... hp?t=23580

this manual has all the revisions and plug changes between models in the d22 covers TD25/27/qd32/zd30/yd25 , the american market vg33 + auto and manual.
should be able to deduce from that what wires are needed on the qd32 to make it run

from memory there will be a ecu bank, power distribution bank, and dash/auto trans bank. i think the key ones in the third plug are the idle control valve for when the like of the AC is turned on and any inputs the auto trans needs from the engine control's such as engine speed and throttle position.

[3VILC]

Sorry, i meant to say its white with a red trace, not a white and a red, yup I see those 2 in the pump loom at the engine end..its the other end of the loom that the different plugs are on..ill take a pic in a minute. That may just be the manual I am looking for D22 is reasonably similar have been trying to find a D22 one..i actually remember I've read that exact page too so why I missed the download link I dont know haha.

[3VILC]

Here are the offending plugs with both looms side by side. The ZD one being the bigger connector and the one that matches the truck (which I will graft onto the QD loom once Ive sorted out what goes where. I have a feeling this is the main power plug as the Yel/Red is much fatter on the zd connector and goes thru to the secondary ECU mounted on the ZD pump.
The Black/White is present in both and I'm pretty sure is universally Ignition+. White is present on both I did see this is some of the power diagrams I've got.
The lonely one is the White/Red. The other small wire on the ZD connector I am pretty sure is another yellow/red unless its meant to be white/red. Unless anyone knows what nissan uses white/red for.
Downloaded that manual now will have a nosey thru that

edit: helps if you attach the image haha

[3VILC]

Thinking of doing a writeup for the tech section on this conversion since I couldn't really find a lot of useful info. Plenty of ZD to TD42, or the reverse QD to ZD but doesn't seem to be a lot specific to throwing the ZD away in a terrano or navara, even navara.asia didn't reveal anything overly useful. Might be handy to someone

[BlakeNZ]

good on you. it will be very useful to quite a few people in the future , I'm sure. All the best.

[3VILC]

Argh well getting somewhere..dont want to start a write up yet until I've ironed out all the bugs.
Its now in there and is driveable, but was getting fault codes for AFM and coolant temp. Went back to the books and managed to work out the AFM wiring, rewired and that code seems to have gone. But cant work out the coolant sensor as I havnt touched it, it just plugged straight in..must be something not right at the ECU end, but that is puzzling as everything else is wired identical, EGR/shutdown solenoids work, warmup switch on the dash even works, so not sure why they would've changed the body loom just in the coolant sensor wires.
First bet will be to plug in the spare sensor from the ZD and see if the code goes away.
But lacking wiring info for the QD ECU will make it difficult trying to work out whats meant to be where. The 'TD27Ti' manual shows a completely different ECU despite the fact that the TD27ETI is an identical ECU to the QD32ETI (I believe they are even interchagable). Going to look at the Navara FSMs but pretty sure theres no 'ETI' models in that one either..although it should be the same but in theory the navara should be a QD32ET..but Nissan seems to have blured the lines a lot with the naming conventions on the later diesels.
So if anyone has a QD32/TD27ETi manual from any model that has an ECU with the single 'super-connector' not the 2 separate square connectors it would be much appreciated if you could share (it is infact the exact same connector as the ZD30 but pinouts are mostly different, VG33 is also the same but again probably different pinouts even for sensors common amoung them all). I know wire colours between models will vary but with the correct pinouts I can work out what goes where.

edit: OK, now I feel light a right knob end..but I guess we've all done similar when doing conversions especially when rushing to get it done late at night. Unplugged and replugged the coolant sensor a few times, the last time the plug appeared to go on a lot further than the other times..clip must be a bit sticky, it wasn't bloody plugged in properly Check engine light is now gone, hopefully should drive a lot better now

[fh2014]

nice one dude make a coffee table out of the zd block

[3VILC]

Haha yeah was strangely considering making some sort of sculpture out of the crank cams pulleys etc, who knows why I don't have a lot of time and I'm not very crafty but always thought they loom cool and never had a junk engine to get the bits from I suppose lol

[Crash bandicoot]

mine has the single super connector and i have the manual in pdf form on my other computer, i take it, it's the pinout diagram for the ecu you are after?

even better, the engine/dash loom and ecu plug are still in the dash of my truck too..

[Crash bandicoot]

the VG pinout will be more closely related to the nissan skyline rb series then the diesel terrano's etc.

[3VILC]

Thanks Crash..sorted last time I posted tho Although if you have a manual that does cover the ETI a copy would be much appreciated. The Navara ones only cover the mechanical QD/TD then seem to jump straight to ZD/YD, checked all the supplements, only slight variations in the wiring diagrams and quick-glow system no ECU controlled pumps.
I did try to compare the 2 ECU connectors together while I had the looms apart and it seems some pin locations are the same at least. The electrical side wasn't actually that hard at all, requires swapping a plug from the ZD engine control loom to the QD loom and running an extra wire that is part of said plug, hardest part was getting the AFM to work seeing the wire colours make absolutely no sense at all between the 2 (I have a spare identical afm plug which is 3 different colours again!) had to work it out from the pinouts. Swap a couple of other plugs from the ZD engine to make everything plug in rather than having a heap of crimp connectors or extra joins.
Biggest PITA is think is going to be the air con..which should work just need to work out how to mate the hoses up.. managed to separate the fittings Crash gave me for the QD pump from the hoses, just need to see if I can bend my pipes around to make the hoses line up (will get our refrigeration guy at work to fit some proper hose crimps when he refills the gas for me).

Still having issues with the trans, mainly the converter not unlocking sometimes when coming to a stop, but likely fluid level is not quite right, never have much luck trying to read those dipsticks hard to tell whats smeared on from the side of the tube where you've filled it up and where the actual level is. All the cooler lines were drained obviously from removing the radiator, I didn't spill any when to took the converter out, but I did create a nice puddle when I cleverly fired up the engine with the cooler hoses still disconnected I've added probably a little bit under 1.5L so should be around the right ballpark now I guess (most of the first bottle was refiling the power steering system)

[Crash bandicoot]

tc lock up...or in your case not unlocking will be to do with the engine speed sensor talking to the TCU. its unlocking to late for the stall value. be careful driving it as it may snap the lock up clutch . may pay just to wire it up manually to a switch on lever

[3VILC]

Had wondered something like that, seems strange they'd wire it different but who knows. The TCU isn't throwing a code.
If you slow down nice n easy it unlocks but still shudders like its not really wanting too.
The old one used to have a reasonable shudder when it locked but often felt like it never locked fully anyway. So I'm wondering at a long shot, could the lockup solenoid in the box be sticking and always has been but its gone un-noticed because the lockup clutch was actually pretty well stuffed? And its now noticeable as I've swapped in a good converter (in an attempt to fix the shudder it had before)? Does that sound like a plausible idea or no?
Surely unless the fluid was ridiculously low or high it wouldn't completely jam the converter on unless the solenoid is stuck and not letting fluid out/letting it out too slowly.
I suppose a temporary switch would be a simple test, if disconnecting it still doesn't unlock it the something is definitely no good.
It's hard to tell in the crap scanned trans manual I found but can the lockup solenoid be swapped thru oil pan? If so its not too major to swap the one out of the other spare gearbox.
Thanks for all your input Crash. Sometimes you just an extra brain to think about things from a different angle

[Crash bandicoot]

may need the valve body flushed out by the sounds of it, if a different speed sensor and torque converter don't make a difference to it it'll be the valve body. when was the trans last serviced?

[3VILC]

I topped it up a little more this morning, and thus far seems to have at least stopped the stalling/near stalling when coming to a stop quickly, so I think it's just my interpretation of the dipstick reading, so bloody hard to tell where the level actually is especially when youve just poured fluid down the tube. To me it looks too full but its probably just excess getting picked up off the sides of the tube in looking at when maybe it's the heavier 'drip' around the low mark I should be reading as the level. This is hot, with engine running after cycling through all gears.
650rpm idle seems a little low for a 4cyl auto to me too but I could be wrong (both in neutral/park and in gear, so its idling up to take up the load in gear as it should). Idle with the warmup switch on is around 1200 so that seems about right. Prehaps I'm just forgetting that it's never going to idle as smooth as the ZD with its fancy fluid filled engine mounts and a shit ton of sound deadening screwed to most of the exposed parts of the block.
All in all tho I'm happy with the swap, and the power increase suggests the ZD has probably been on its way to knackered for some time

[michaelmohr]

I can tell you one thing though, if you do rebuild it, use BD30 rods and pistons or aftermarket pistons and rods, the zd30 runs the largest gudgeon pin size vs smallest piston mass of any nissan engine with the qd32 following close behind. the effect the fastest heat saturation point...reach that point and it's all over rover

the reason the qd32 doesn't blow up is because it isn't as highly strung as the zd30.

the qd/td werent designed or required to meet the stringent emissions laws that the zd had too being a later engine, hence does not run as hot and have the god awful emissions controls to make them eat its own fumes like the zd is made too..

Hi, I know this is an old thread and dont wanna hijack it but I have a few questions:

I have a 2005 Navara D22 with a ZD30. about 140tkm. I've put an intercooler in already. Can I reduce the risk of melting piston further by stopping it to eat its own exhaust fumes"?
What would that involve? How do I do this?

Also: a recent post mentioned a strange exhaust smell. Is that definitley an early warning sign or could that have been unrelated to the later failure?

[tweake]

goggle "navara egr block butterfly mod"