Deleted due to misinformation

 

Removed in anticipation of coming conversion harness. Nissan changed up various terminals through the years. A conversion harness will just simply make things easier.

 

Nobody interested? Hmm...

 

I'm reading in complete awe of you sir.

I hope to see this project completed.

Sent from my HTC EVO with AutoCrash mobile app.

 

Thanks, it will be a bit tho.

This seems like a very thorough write-up, nice job. My guess is that nobody is going to take what you have done and use it until you show that it worked for your truck. I'm very interested to see how this turns out.

Good point. I just figured I would share this rather than sit on it. Like I said I have a bunch of other projects in front of this one unfortunately.

 

This seems like a very thorough write-up, nice job. My guess is that nobody is going to take what you have done and use it until you show that it worked for your truck. I'm very interested to see how this turns out.

 

I was waiting to reply so you could snag the first couple posts for yourself to edit and add on later. To be honest this is probably not something I would even attempt unless I was faced with needing to replace my engine and I found a killer deal on a VK, but it is cool none the less and I'm definitely interested in further updates. So far it is probably the most thorough and well written engine swap write up I've seen including all of the swaps I've read about on Honda forums.

 

Trust me once you get past the wiring it's easy. It seems like a lot but it's not.

I'm sticking this one for now. Looks super thorough. In the event things don't quite work out, or if this project doesn't get finished; I'll unstick. If it's successful, I'll help clean up the chatter so it can be a more comprehensive writeup. I just want to keep it at the top for now so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle.

Carry on, gents. Excellent work, SinisterFrontier06

Thanks. Just keep in mind as I have said before this will be a slow project. Just try to be patient with me!

 

I'm sticking this one for now. Looks super thorough. In the event things don't quite work out, or if this project doesn't get finished; I'll unstick. If it's successful, I'll help clean up the chatter so it can be a more comprehensive writeup. I just want to keep it at the top for now so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle.

Carry on, gents. Excellent work, SinisterFrontier06

 

How much would it cost total for a DIY
Just give a really rough estimate

 

Uh thats a hard question, high side (full stainless exhaust, stillen headers, b-pipes etc) I would estimate $4-5k.

Low side $3k

It just really depends on where you buy your parts. The main components engine and trans I would say you can get for about $2k all day. It just depends on where you buy the rest and what comes with it.

I have a VK that needs to be rebuilt (blown headgasket) that I got for free, and I picked another one up for $75 that also needs to be rebuilt as it was in a Titan that was in a flood. I picked that one up for my brothers 05 Frontier when I went to buy the trans off a guy. It shifts fine but has high miles. Im going to rebuild it too. I got the trans plus pretty much the entire front suspension for the Titan plus hubs calipers, master cylinder rotors and brake calipers for $575.

It really all depends on where you look and how much time you can take. If you want it done asap expect to pay on the high side. If you take your time, shop around and keep your eyes open you can easily swing the low side or less.

 

Sub'd for updates. I wanna see this run. I was thinking about attempting this if the next gen didn't become avail with the turbo diesel. And if it doesn't come with the equipment or options I want then I still may do it when I run the warranty into the ground on this one.
Thanks Iggy!

 

This will be cheaper than going turbo diesel. Expect at least a $30-$40k price tag on a turbo diesel Frontier. And the rumored spy pics.... Yuck.

 

Deleted due to misinformation

 

Ok
This might be a long term plan for me
3k for a vk56 ain't too bad

Thanks for the thread/sticky

 

MSRP on my current Pro-4 was almost 35 so not too worried about the cost. I've never paid list price anyway, always someone willing to deal : )
And I like the new truck, assuming that's what we actually get here in the states. My only concern is what platform it'll ride on and what trim and option levels the TD will be available in.
Always been a fan of V8 swaps though. My third truck started life as a slant 6 D-100, 3 spd OD and lives on as a 450 HP gutted pre-runner desert bomber with a built 727 powerglide :thumbsup:

 

Very nice. I just have a hard time justifying dumping that kind of coin on something I'm going to use and abuse but hey that's just me. I won't buy a new truck till Nissan comes out with one that I immediately fall in love with (die hard Nissan fan) Hell I didn't even test drive my 2nd gen it was shut up and take my money basically.

 

I used to worry about scratching my "fancy" trucks too until my nearly fully built pride and joy burnt to the ground in my driveway. Kinda put things in perspective. It's a truck, not a Bentley. The new '14 has already got more paint damage and carnage from wheeling than my last 3 trucks put together haha! But I understand where you're coming from.

 

Dang sorry to hear that. Yeah I drive a all black truck that I like to take through trails periodically when my buddy has get togethers at his land. I'm not big in to wheeling.... Yet.... To get too crazy, But I got over trying to keep it pretty after someone backed out of a driveway hit the truck and left and then I slid out avoiding hitting a stupid deer and hit a guard rail and then a concrete truck going up a steep hair pin turn rolled backwards and dented the hood right above the headlight. So all the dents and scratches on a all black truck I gave up lol. I am going to monsta-line the whole thing soon after I finish assembling the paint booth in my shop, no more scratches and added armour due to the density of the paint. I'm debating waiting until I swap in the VK though.

 

Awesome write up! This is exactly what I wish I had two years ago. I've been researching the FSM's myself and had a lot of this figured out on napkins but handn't had the time to write anything up. Great work.

I've got a full Titan brake swap project and a radiator project in the works for now, but with this information, the Titan swap will be my winter project for sure.

Everyone should be thankful for you posting this stuff up, that's what the forums are all about. The more information we can share for the Frontier, the better aftermarket support we'll end up getting due to increased interest in the platform.

 

Feel free to quadruple check my work as I have triple checked it already, and my parts compatibility info as I have read your thread on your swap and it seems you will get to it before I do. Any and all info helps!

 

First off. Thanks for this great post. This is a lot of work and I am sure it took a lot of time. Cudos sir!!!

I think this will probably be more work that dropping in a Stillen supercharger, but I like it much more. I am now going to alter my automatic craigslist search engine notifier to start searching for a Titan V8 and tranny.

 

Deleted due to misinformation

 

Ok I traced the harness. In the FSM and physically as the transmission I bought is from a column shift. Only difference between the harnesses is that you have 1 extra brown wire in the F32 plug position #8 (BR), you just dont use it.

This page explains the difference in the harness:


There are two diodes that are wired in series with the ignition signal wire for the transmission. Diodes, for those of you that dont know what they are, are like check valves for electric circuits. Still dont know what they are? They basically only let current flow in one direction. Check valves and diodes are like one way streets, traffic (voltage) can only go down one way. Well if we all paid attention in science class, particularly to conductivity, we know if we touch one end of a wire, or anywhere on that wire for that matter, with a voltage source, any where else we touch on that wire we will get the same voltage reading as the voltage source which we can say is comparable to a 2 way street, traffic (voltage) flows in both directions. Now if we put a diode in, we can control the voltage flow direction.

So if we look at the way the diodes point this is the direction of flow. We cant go against that. So if we look at diode 1, before diode 1 is orange wire (O) then after the wire it turns to brown (BR). The diode points towards the brown wire. So this means if I were to touch a 12 volt source to the orange wire I would get a reading with a voltage meter of 12 volts on the brown wire, but if I were to touch 12 volts to the brown wire, I will get 0 volts (no signal) to the orange wire, which limits flow one way, thus how a diode works.

Sorry I know that was a lot, you still with me?

So by knowing this, and looking at the wiring diagram we can see if we simply eliminate the brown wire we used in the above example, we will still get the needed voltage for the transmission from the yellow wire with a red stripe (Y/R). We can also conclude we dont need that wire because that wire doesnt exist on the floor shift Titan harness.

You can go the extra step and trace the wires, eliminate diode 1 and 2, but its not necessary. You can simply cut the terminal off the extra brown wire and tape it off.

So in conclusion shift type of either transmission, ECM or harness does NOT matter. I also edited my post on the re-pin of the F33 harness to reflect the additional brown wire. Judging by the FSM the Trans is not married to the ECU, this is why I say a manual conversion for the VK56 is not only possible but easy and I am sure I can show anyone how to do it by simply rewiring a few sensors.

Nice work, I noticed a difference on the wiring diagrams and simply figured I would shy away from column shift models just to eliminate any possible problems along the way. Good to see that it doesn't matter too much.

There IS a difference between the flex fuel vehicles and regular vehicles as well. FFV models have a 'fuel pump control unit', which is located near the fuel pump itself. The chassis wire harness which has the fuel pump plug on it is different between regular and FFV trucks. I believe the ECU modulates the fuel pump voltage to increase/decrease fuel flow based on the amount of ethanol in the tank. It uses the air/fuel and O2 sensors to determine the amount of ethanol and the control unit adds voltage or reduces voltage to the pump.

Oddly, the factory service manual doesn't address the fuel pump modulator in the fuel section, or the engine control section. However if you go to Courtesy Parts and look up parts for the fuel system it comes up for all flex fuel Titans (part number 17001-A60001).

Nissan Parts, NISMO and Nissan Accessories - Courtesyparts.com

What I don't know is whether an FFV truck's ECU would 'miss' the fuel pump control unit if it's not there. For me I already have a Walbro fuel pump to support my supercharger so I probably have more than enough flow to run E85, but the the FFV ECU may throw codes if it doesn't 'see' the fuel pump modulator.

I looked into swapping the Titan chassis harness in, but the plug which connects it to the main body harness is completely different than the Frontier plug. It's a huge locking connector with over 50 wires so re-pinning it would be a major pain in the butt if it's possible at all.

 

^^^^ Oh yes, I saw those diagrams. What I meant was that it doesn't address removal and installation of the fuel control module.

I spent a fair amount of time looking around for any other real difference between the FFV and regular fuel models and there aren't many others. They have different part numbers for the actual fuel tank itself, but the fuel lines and rails are the same.

What's UpRev's solution for the NATS system? I know they can eliminate it from the ECU itself, but if the BCM has NATS it won't work. As far as I know, all the Titans came with NATS standard. Personally I have a very rare non-NATS Frontier (a 2005) which I actually swapped NATS into to get keyless entry, but I saved my old non-NATS BCM for this reason.

 

That I couldn't tell you I have just read on other swaps vk related and non that they used Uprev to bypass NATS, but come to think of it those were on vehicles that didn't have NATS to begin with. I personally want to keep NATS (as big of a pain in the *** it is) for the extra security features. I'm not sure what Uprev charges but the local dealer said $80 to reflash and that's if I don't bite the bullet and buy consult for my shop.

 

What about the changeover from Consult II to Consult III that Nissan made in late 2006/early 2007? I remember reading that this was making it difficult to swap in the later generation VK56 engines with VVT (which is obviously desirable). Do you have any insight on this?

 

Consult is just a diagnostic tool. I would think that would have zero impact on creating more difficulty on the swap.

If you think about it, (and I'm just stating this to all that are following this) all we are doing here is getting the engine and ECM in harmony with the rest of the vehicle. Essentially we are making a Titan engine think its in a Titan and a Frontier think it has a Frontier engine, making it think that nothing has changed. VVT and it's functions are all controlled by the ECM and we do not have to mess with any of the wires that effect any of that. So if we think about it we have figured out any transmission should work, even a manual conversion. The only thing you absolutely have to do is make sure the engine, ecu and wiring harness come from the same type of vehicle, doesn't have to all be from the same vehicle just the same type of vehicle.

 

As for the transmissions. You CANNOT use the V6 transmission. While they have the same family code there are differences that cannot be fixed with a simple bellhousing swap. Things like the programming in the TCM that is in the valve body is for a V6. The case length is different. The input shaft length is different. Even the gear ratios are different.

I learned this the hard way on my first V8 swap into an Xterra. The transmission will build line pressure but you will have no drive. The V8 torque convertor won't drive the V6 input shaft. That was a couple days of fighting it to finally realize the V8 trans was the one that was really needed.

And as far as column vs. console shift. There is different logic in the transmission computer as to the controls. You need to source a console shift if you want any of the manual control over the gears. You can make a column shift work, just P through D, nothing below that. Unless you get the TCM changed over to console shift.

One source donor is the way to go. While it doesn't look that different when you start getting different pieces from different sources, it is. There have been many small changes over the decade of Titan production. Many are not interchangeable. Be patient, even it if it costs a little more up front and takes a little longer to find getting the right donor will save you so much headache during the swap. There have been a couple of swaps that tried to source parts from multiple donors that have turned into total failures. The successful swaps are the one that were done with a single correct donor vehicle.

 

Thank you for the very useful info on the v6 vs v8 trans. Clears up a lot of questions.

As far as the column shift vs floor shift, couldn't you just do a valve body upgrade for a floor shift application, swap out the column shift valve body with a floor shift valve body since that's where the TCMs are located?

 

So, just to check in on this again... is there anyone who has performed this swap with a pre-2007 Consult II truck who swapped in a 2007+ Consult III motor? Inquiring minds want to know.

Bigger power to be made with the 2007+ motors, and I'm ready to pull the trigger on one as soon as I finish my brake and radiator projects.

 

I really don't think consult differences should be a worry. I think a as long as you have a matching ecu engine and engine harness you should be good. I can't possibly see a reason nissan would re invent the wheel so to speak just for a consult based system. Maybe consult 3 has more control of functions, from a marketing stand point it makes no sense to make parts incompatible for a consult change.

 

Removed in anticipation of coming conversion harness. Nissan changed up various terminals through the years. A conversion harness will just simply make things easier.

 

Finished the harness completely here is the finished product:


And all the wires I removed that weren't used:

 

I randomly got a email newsletter from Titan talk. In it this thread got my attention:

How To: Column to Console Shifter Conversion - Nissan Titan Forum

More importantly, this question followed by the OP's answer:



So it looks as though you can use a column shift trans and still retain manual mode, you shouldnt have the problem as described above where the gear indicator doesn't show as there is a wiring difference in the body harness of the titan where ours does not.

 

This is getting really technical.... so lets just say I get a salvaged titan that was totaled because of rear end damage... what do you think it would cost me to have a good mechanic take the engine-n-stuff out of the titan and plop it in my fronty? ... rough price of course...

 

It's not that technical. As of right now the swap is pretty straight forward, buy a matching year engine, harness and ecu and a transmission. Repin harness, swap engines and tow to nearest dealership for ecu reflash.

I would imagine it being pricey as the chances of a average mechanic wanting to take on such a swap will be slim to none. Price would be hard to say as rates are not universal mechanic to mechanic

 

Any new updates?

 

Unfortunately not I'm working on gathering parts for my other project which can be seen here if anybody cares: My Datsun Roadster Remake

I started this project long before I started planning the VK swap so I want to finish it first. As you can see I haven't updated the blog in almost a year because I have been working on remodeling my shop. I have been buying parts left and right for it lately and will have updates soon.

As far as the VK swap goes I simply wanted to put the information out there for anyone who has the resources to start this swap before I can. The more information we have on this swap and the more popular the swap becomes, the more doors will open when it comes to aftermarket support.