Rebuild Of D22 ZD30DDT

Hi All,

I joined this forum a few weeks ago and posted in the new members area where I received some good help and described the problems I was having. To recap, my engine is a ZD30DDT in an 05 D22 with 110,000k'ms. Coming back from a weekend away at Salt Creek here in SA (Beach/Dune driving) my engine started making a high frequency whining sound. We didn't really have much of an idea of what it was, so while thinking about it, huge clouds of white smoke came out the exhaust and the engine now longer ran. We towed it back to Adelaide where I took it to the usual dealer to see what they thought. They did a compression test and found all cylinders were low. I thought the worst and my initial resaearch on the web indicated that failures of these engines were common particulary piston failures. The dealer wasn't very helpful, they pretty much said I need a new engine and turbo for $15000, so I said no thanks and towed my car home.This was back in Feb, just before I got married and been away on honeymoon so haven't had time to pull it apart. Last weekend I got around to it.

I can't really offer much advice on the removal of the engine as the workshop manual tells you pretty much all you need to know, and I don't really want to type it out! The only thing I would suggest is that it does recomend to remove the front final drive, this is not necessary as there is enough room to lift the engine straight up if you pull the tranmission back a bit. If anyone has any specific questions, let me know
@ [email protected].

The first thing to come off was the turbo and manifolds. The manifolds had a coating of a gritty paste on them and the turbo poured out oil from the inlet side and the shaft had extreme amounts of radial play. Next to come off was the head. There was no internal damage to pistons or valves but again this gritty paste over everything. Remember my last trip was to the beach? Well, you guessed it, the paste was a mixture of sand and oil. The oil came from the turbo failing and the sand came from, well, I can't tell! All hoses etc were intact, and when it first happened, I took the air cleanaer out and all seemed ok. I am still at a loss how it got in there. There is no sand in the pre-cleaner, so something must have failed, I will keep looking. The low compression in all cylinders can be explained by this gritty paste being stuck under the valves stopping them from closing

So, the engine is out but I can't take it anywhere at the moment for testing as my other car with a tow bar is at the crash repairers and i'm sure the loan car won't tolerate an engine in the boot!

I have been chasing up parts for the rebuild. I went to the dealer for a bechmark price, they are expensive! Through my trolling through the internet I found [email protected], his pricing and service is awesome, highly recomended. SO I have ordered a gasket kit, and clucth as I thought I will replace it while its out because its an absolute pain to get to! He is away for a couple of weeks, so I will order some other bits then as required.

Stay tuned for the next stage.

Cheers

Simon

Thanks for an interesting (if sad) post.

Wonder how the sand got in? did you have any nose dives off dunes ect?

So do you think the sand caused the turbo bearings to fail? If so the sand obviously got in pre turbo inlet.

Do you recon the sand gas damaged the bore/rings? Guess it would.

Simon good to see progress.

Garry aka Nizzbits is a top bloke. Deal with him for all my Nissan parts.

He will be joining up when he gets back from his trip.

Not good to hear about the sand. I over service mine and am probably over the top with my preventative maintenance but its never let me down.

Good luck.

Dave.

Every owners nightmare. Thanks for the recommendation for an alternate parts supplier, handy to know when things turn ugly. All the best though.

I have finally got the rest of the engine of to the machine shop and waiting for test results. Spoke to a diesel place here who recomended a few preventative measures for the future:

1) Turbo Timer
2) Intercooler, mainly to catch the turbo bits when it fails!
3) Not to block the EGR valve, as this engine is designed to run on some exhaust gas. Although looking at all the gunk on the inlet manifold where the EGR gas returns, that stuff can't be good for the engine.
4)Modify the catalyst to allow better cooling and easier escape for the exhaust
5)Snorkel


Dave,

What is your maintenance routine?

Sorry for the late reply.

My servicing consists of oil and filter change every 5000km's.

Gearbox, tranfer, diffs ect as per manufactures specification's.

Once a week I pull the air filter out and bash/blow it out.

I have noticed everytime I tow a tonne or beach driving it always goes better after it.

Diesel's like to be worked hard, the highest km ZD30 I know of was a 2000 model GU wagon, spent its whole life towing a 3t trailer everyday. Got traded with 500,000km's on the clock.

From what I was told it was getting abit tired but still did what was asked.

Dont forget the 2000 motors are the worst for melting piston's. Dave aka Sudso, his boss owned it and there running another ZD30 powered Patrol.

Talking to a BP tanker B-double driver the other day and he was saying his Cat C15 powered Kenworth had a engine rebuild at 1,000,000km's after the turbo let go. The turbo was changed at 800,000km's for good measure, however the replacement turbo only lasted 200,000km's.

Truck engines are industrial motors sure, but all diesels liked to be worked hard. These things are working hard all day everyday, the only time they shut them down is for servicing.

1, turbo timer. Yep, very worth while.
2, agree with old mate. Lowers the EGT's aswell.
3, I have been told to block the EGR by every diesel mechanic I know. Says enough for me.
4, I reakon the the Catalyst converter and the EGR are the main problems on these motors.
5, Snorkel is worth while. Always clean air and and cooler air.

Dave.

Dave_str said:

My servicing consists of oil and filter change every 5000km's.

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Totally agree!

Dave_str said:

Gearbox, tranfer, diffs ect as per manufactures specification's.

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Yep, about every 20K km

Dave_str said:

1, turbo timer. Yep, very worth while.

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Personally, i can't see why you cant just drive steadily for the last 5 mins and let it idle yourself for a minute or 2. Also i wouldn't trust any handbrake to hold and vehicle, leave it in gear.

Dave_str said:

2, agree with old mate. Lowers the EGT's aswell.

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Yes also increases efficiency. (more torque/power for less fuel)
Also a decent exhaust reduces your egt's. You then can tune it back up to safe level/temperature for even more power and better economy. (and by tune i mean, optimise timing and fuel quantity)

Dave_str said:

3, I have been told to block the EGR by every diesel mechanic I know. Says enough for me.

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Defonately worth wild. Exhaust gases + oil = big mess (see pics)

Dave_str said:

4, I reakon the the Catalyst converter and the EGR are the main problems on these motors.

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Guessing you mean catalytic converter? Has no relationship on the engine itself. only effects exhaust gases after they have benn purged from the turbo. The egr is nissans way of reducing emissions and controlling the amount of air that enters the cylinders. Remember diesels have no throttle to limit air into the engine. adding some exhaust gas has the same effect, reducing the amount of fresh air that can be used in the combustion process.

Dave_str said:

5, Snorkel is worth while. Always clean air and and cooler air.

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i'm niether here or there on snorkles, but if going amywhere near water then yes, if sticking to graded dirt road and bitumen dont bother.

The reason why most diesel car engines, wear out/ have problems, which lead to failure are mostly due to the way they are driven. Diesels need heat to burn the fuel. (no spark, flame started by compression) When the engine is cool, then the burn is incomplete/inefficient, hense causes a carbon build up on the pistion/cylinder wall. If this carbon cannot be burnt away, it continues to build up, which results in:
1. Ring wear
2. additional carbon in oil (less lubrication)
3. Carbon on exhaust/intake ports (less air in/out, fuel ratio up = more carbon produced.

This keeps building up until either:
1. the vehicle is driven for a long period at operating temp, which slowly removes the built up carbon. leads to large ring gaps and oil gets into combustion chamber. rebuild time
2. peice of carbon or other material (remember oil + exhaust gas slude above) continues to burn after the diesel has burnt. this material continues to burn right through the 4 stroke cycle. results in holed piston. probably what happened on some patrols. number 3 cylinder is the most vulnerable.

Really diesel aren't suited to city driving unless you do a long trip every so often.

PS sorry to hear about your engine

tommy222220_0 said:

Guessing you mean catalytic converter? Has no relationship on the engine itself. only effects exhaust gases after they have benn purged from the turbo. The egr is nissans way of reducing emissions and controlling the amount of air that enters the cylinders. Remember diesels have no throttle to limit air into the engine. adding some exhaust gas has the same effect, reducing the amount of fresh air that can be used in the combustion process.

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catalytic convertor has some effect on the engine. there was a pic on patrol forum showing how clogged up they get with all the soot. poor fuel, to much egr etc makes way to much soot which seams to foul up the cat, especially if its not hot enough to burn ut off ie city driving.

don't forget with the egr you also have swirl valve which reduces the amount of air going into the motor and the main butterfly which reduces airflow so more egr can be poured in.

Just an update on the engine progress. Well, progress has been very slow. The company where I took the engine to took for ever to get quotes to me. I wasn't really pushing them too hard though. When they finally got a quote, I asked them to break it down in parts and labour so I could see if it was worth while me free issuing parts to them, which then they said they didn't want to do, so I have now taken it somewhere else. Has been a bit painful. I have found on the web Engine Australia. They have given me some awesome prices and service for parts which I will be ordering and issuing to my new rebuilder. The new rebuilder has informed me that there is nothing really wrong with my engine, so the main failure was the turbo. However with the turbo metal going through the engine, it really should be reconditioned, which I agree with.

Engineaustralia can supply me with an aftermarket turbo provided by Your One Stop Diesel & Turbo Performance Specialists - MTQ Engine Systems (Aust) Pty Ltd, has anybody had one of these turbos before? My original repairer said the only replacement turbo is a nissan one.

I have asked previously asked on this thread, does anyone think the advice I got on intercoolers make sense, ie if the turbo fails again, an intercooler will catch the bits and not destry the engine. Does anybody agree with this? Where is the best place to get an intercooler kit from?

Cheers

even though my d22 is a non-offroad 4x2 version do you still reckon a snorkel is work it?

Turbo Australia | inside.garrett_turbochargers.ews

Check these guys out.

Ask about a ballbearing turbo thats the same size as the standard unit.

As for the intercooler, yes. Will increase the engine power abit aswell.

Maddogrc, is it dusty out that way. Drive through fords often. If yes do it.

Dave.

I have now got all the parts for the engine rebuild. Engine Australia supplied them and their pricing and service was excellent, I would definitely recomend them. Pistons and rings are 0.5m oversize. I will get them to the rebuilder next week. I am still trying to chase up a turbo, it seems the only one available is a nissan one, no one seems to make an aftermarket version, so a ball bearing version is not an option. Anyone had any experience different to this?

In regard to the intercooler catching a failed turbo, how does it do this? My understanding of the internals intercooler is that it is similar to a radiatior, and I just can't picture how it would catch all the small bits of metal.

Cheers

afaik the turbo is a HT12-19 (Hitachi).

I'm putting the engine back together now, the rebuilders built it to a long motor, and I am putting on the manifolds, pumps etc. Had the injectors and injection pump tested, both failed, needed new injectors and rebuild pump, another $2000

The total cost now is about $10000, but that included a few extras like clutch, snorkel etc. I am still a bit annoyed about the whole thing, but at least it will all be over soon.

Glad to see you are getting closer Simon. Pity about the other things (pump etc.) but I guess at least now you will know all is in great nick. Hope it is back on the road and serving you well soon.
Garry

Hi All,

I am putting the finishing touches on the engine before dropping it back in. Just for a sanity check, do any of you have any photos of the ZD30 engine? Its just a bit easier than looking at the manual drawings. I am particularly interested in accessory brackets etc. Thanks for your help.

one thing, if you have rebuilt the engine make sure you have replaced the balancer bearings. afaik nissan don't supply these. i assume there is an aftermarket source for them.

otherwise i hope its all going well, looking forward to it back on the road

Thanks Tweake. Yep, its got new aftermarket bushes and new genuine balance shafts. The old balance shafts had scores about half way around where its sits in the bush. Apparently the rebuilders said this is a common problem with these engines. Why do some engines have balance shafts anyway? Seems a bit half arsed to me, why not build an engine that is balanced in the first place. The only other engine I have seen them in is a Sigma... say no more!

Spill tube

Has anyone had to put their spill tube back on before? (the tube that connects the injectors) Where it bolts on in 5 places it has a gasket that goes between the injector and the tube and between the bolt and the tube which are both connected together. The problem is, is that when you torque up the bolt, the top gasket turns and because it is connected to the bottom gasket which is being compressed, the joint between the two breaks. I have tried all sorts of ways to stop it from turning but can't get it right. The manual says that it may break an this will not affect operation, but it just doesn't seem right. I am worried about the broken joint falling into the engine. I have thought about cutting the joint between the two gaskets so they are independent. I can't see this being a problem, particularly since the manual says that breaking the joint won't effect the operation, as all they are their to do is seal the joint. I think they make them like this to speed up manufacture, because it allows you to install 2 gaskets at the same time and reduces the risk of dropping the lower gasket intto the cylinder head. Any thoughts?