We all love a good low-buck junkyard motor build. Whether adding forced induction and crossing fingers or going full teardown and rebuild, the stories about how much power you can pull out of a used GM LS-based small-block V8 are endless. But what if you want a V8 that isn’t an LS in your homebrew hot rod? While Ford’s five-liter Coyote V8 is awesome, it’s also still a bit expensive. On the flipside, Gen III 5.7-liter Hemi V8s are everywhere, but the factory pistons are known to be weak points when chasing serious forced-induction power, and they don’t offer a huge edge over a GM truck motor. So how about a completely different V8, one with overhead cams and a stout build? Welcome to the Nissan VK56DE, an underrated motor that’s probably already in a wrecking yard near you.
Back in the early 2000s, Nissan decided it needed a full-sized truck for America. In that era, a half-ton truck needed a proper V8, so Nissan took a look at the 4.5-liter VK45DE V8 in the Infiniti Q45 and punched it out to 5.6 liters. Still an all-aluminum quad-cam V8, this beast originally cranked out around 305 horsepower and 385 lb.-ft. of torque. Unsurprisingly, it did the trick in the Nissan Titan, Nissan Armada, Nissan Pathfinder, and Infiniti QX56 as a workhorse to battle Ford’s modular V8, GM’s LS, and the melange of V8s Chrysler was putting out back then. However, it didn’t take long for a higher power to come calling.
For 2010, Nissan modified the VK56DE to be a 600-horsepower racing engine in the GT-R Nismo GT1. From there, it shrunk down to five liters and found its way under the hood of the Altimas raced in Australian Supercars. Oh, and then there were the Formula Drift builds.
So wait, why a truck motor? Well, in addition to the high-RPM friendliness of overhead cams, Nissan went with a closed-deck block for strength, along with a forged crankshaft, forged connecting rods, and touches like six-bolt mains. In short, Nissan way overbuilt this engine for what it needed to do, and now that examples can be pulled out of junkyards for a few hundred per unit, people are waking up to the VK56DE as a low-buck V8 swap option.
Arguably the most famous VK56DE sits in Jon Rogers’ S14 240SX. Starting life as a junkyard motor, it received a rebuild including aftermarket pistons and connecting rods, beefier main studs and head studs, and a valvetrain package including cams, valve springs, and valves. Is this a lot of effort to spend on a 220,000-mile junkyard motor? Sure, but when force-fed by a 98 mm Precision turbocharger and fuelled by methanol, these measures make sense.
The result? A whopping 1,966 wheel horsepower. That’s an enormous figure, and one that’s especially impressive when you consider than Engine Labs reports that Rogers built the motor for just a little over ten grand. As the outlet wrote, “Most of the $10,500 spent on the long-block lives in the cylinders (rods and pistons), so this could be reproduced on a budget.” In a reasonably light 240SX, this combination makes for quarter-mile passes in less than seven seconds. Insane stuff.
But what if you don’t have $10,000 to spend? Well, you’ll probably like what left-field engine legend Calvin Nelson has been cooking up: a stock bottom end, 121,000-mile VK56DE out of a Nissan Titan boosted by a sub-$1,000 Forced Performance 7875 turbocharger and fuelled by Snake Eater injectors. The only engine hardware modification? Upgraded oil pump gears. We’re talking stock ring gap, stock bearings, and as Nelson said, “I didn’t even take a valve cover off this thing.” The transmission of choice is a GM Turbo 400, and the whole combination’s been stuffed in a Ford Fairmont.
The result is a healthy 670 wheel horsepower, but the limit here likely isn’t the engine itself. It might be the used, Facebook Marketplace-bought torque converter. According to Nelson, “when I contacted the guys over at Circle D, they were pretty adamant that it was way too loose for our combination.” Don’t be surprised if we see another run with a tighter converter and potentially a bigger turbo on Nelson’s YouTube channel soon. After all, the goal is for this low-buck build to run eights in the quarter-mile all day.
Of course, a great potential engine doesn’t mean a whole lot if it’s hard to mate up to a solid transmission, but builders of low-buck VK56DEs have options. The aftermarket’s churning out a variety of bellhousing adapters, whether you want to mate your VK56DE with a CD009 six-speed manual from a Nissan 350Z, a GM 4L80 four-speed automatic from a heavy-duty truck or van, or even a ZF 8HP eight-speed automatic from a modern BMW. Shoutout to the mad scientists at Domiworks for cooking up that last option. Mind you, turbo kits aren’t exactly off-the-shelf for these engines yet, so you’ll likely need to fabricate your own turbo manifolds.
While the Nissan VK56DE is often a forgotten V8, it has huge potential horsepower upside for not a ton of cash. Sure, it’s a fairly wide engine, but as a low-buck option that isn’t an LS and likes to rev, Nissan’s 5.6-liter V8 deserves to be on your shortlist. They’re everywhere in junkyards, they’re way cheaper than a Ford Coyote V8, and they have higher limits than a two-valve or three-valve Ford Modular V8.
Top graphic images: Nissan; Nivlac57/YouTube
Also dont sleep on its older but just as strong brother, the vh45.
Fully forged and counterweighted, used in lemans to infiniti q45
670 whp isn’t big power anymore.
The big draw of the LS is the aftermarket support. Somebody with average skills can buy $500 of Chinese junk from Amazon, bolt it a $100 junkyard engine and make 1000 whp. Yes that is exaggerating, but you get the point.
Aftermarket chases the most popular. Used iron block truck engines aren’t nearly as cheap as they once were now that everyone knows the LS swap meme. Hot rodders will keep looking for the cheapest power per dollar, which is always in flux. The VK56 is just the new kid on the block.
So the Lexus GS450h has a stout 3.5l V6 that’s rated for 350HP from the factory, mated to a RWD hybrid transmission that could add ~300HP and is quite hackable.
You might say “Toyota, V6, hybrid, boooring” but I might say “how much can that engine give, how much can that transmission take, and with high-output batteries how much can it give on top of that?”
They ran these in LMP3 cars in IMSA too. Interesting racing pedigree for a truck motor.
*VK56 cores go up 45% by next week*
As much as I love this workaround type of part sourcing, can we not put this out there? Everything is already too expensive
Outside of some issues with catalytic converter material backing into the engines, these were not often cited for any known maladies that I saw. I agree with others they sound good from the factory and better with an exhaust swap.
Quick! Someone get Tony Angelo on this!
Tony Angelo was drifting in the 00s and 10s, he is certainly aware of this lol. I know of at least one guy who was drifting a 240sx with a VH45 around 2010 area.
The rare 5.0-liter engine you mentioned was also in the production FX50/QX70 5.0.
Buy these in bulk now, and wait 6 months until the flatbill cap boys double or even triple your investment! A sound investment strategy!
I bought a new ’08 Pathfinder with this engine and it has been our workhorse for nearly 18 years. I can’t count the amount of times it has had a trailer on the back or the miles it has gone with a full load.
It also hauls ass in the *lighter* Pathfinder body and my brother has called it the Bullet Train. It’s deceptively fast for what it is. Also, reliable, and sounds good. I’ve toyed with the idea of putting an exhaust cutout on it with a straight pipe so I can open it up and “let it sing” every once in awhile, but just haven’t pulled the trigger yet.
It’s a great engine.
So how much does one of these weigh, and will it fit in a MGB?
Oh, they are quite bulky. Never mind.
Yeah. The big deal about American small block V8s is that these OHV engines are small and compact. A DOHC V8 is just too unwieldy to swap into most other cars.
Well the Jaguar aj-v8 engine dimensions are considerably smaller .
These engines are a great V8 and they sound amazing with a good exhaust
Some Geniuses is BACK! I’m here for it
I was talking with a friend who’s got an Xterra and was taking some Pathfinder suspension, and one thing lead to another before I realized that the Armada, Pathfinder, Titan, and NV all run the same 5.6. Some are even the only engine option.
(obviously this is a developing scene but) it’s like the Autopian is stealing thoughts from within my mind! get out!
No, but seriously, this is an awesome article and it’s really awesome to see others doing silly, hacky stuff for the love of the game. As @Eggsalad pointed out, it’s probably no match for the dirt cheap, widely supported LS, but big displacement and an interesting alternative is really cool.
For a V8 swap I’ve also got my eye on the 1UZ, the land-sea-air motor (certified for aircraft!), with a boat supercharger.
I believe a kit to do VK56s into Xterras/Frontiers exist and isn’t terribly complicated. As you noted, the front end suspension stuff from an Titan is a bolt on upgrade for Frontiers, so a lot of the swap stuff is bolt on/bolt off.
These engines have always been slept on.
Haven’t the Aussies been supercharging the Nissan Patrol’s VK56 V8 for years now?
Harrop, and Bullet come to mind for superchargers. Plus all the bolt-on turbo kits.
Yep, its a very popular mod here in aus. Our Patrols come with the VK56VD variant. Harrop has a bolt on supercharger kit for it.
As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one situation where this makes sense: If you want to make some other Nissan fast and you want to keep it all-Nissan. Shove it in a Datsun Z-car? Absolutely! Build an insane Hardbody pickup? You betcha!
But to put it in any other make of car makes absolutely no sense. There’s a reason that hot rodders used small-block Chevy and later, LS engines. The reason is that they are popular, and dirt cheap to build, with almost infinite aftermarket support. That’s the way it’s been since 1955, and it shall forever remain that way.
These things are quad OHC as opposed to pushrod. That has its own benefits and is certainly a reason to pick on over an LS.
The problem is cheap junkyard Gen 3/4 LS series engines are a finite resource, subject to supply and demand. A used pull out 6.0 regularly sells for over $1k. Gen 4 5.3’s are between $600-$800. A $300-$500 VK56 and the inclination to be different than everyone else is a rational business case.
You’ll still need the electronics to run this thing which would need a custom tune, that’ll add some dollars to this.
I was thinking the same thing. I know HP Tuners offers support for the factory ECU in the older Titans, Armadas, and NVs, but I don’t know how easy it would be to transplant all of that into a new vehicle.
True of most EFI engine swaps, unless you invest an equal amount of money converting them to Carby.
The go to was to use Megasquirt but there is still alot of time and money to get it up and going. It’s not like the old days of carb’d cars swap a motor in and hook up the fuel line, accelerator cable and power to the starter and distributor.
Yeah, but to carbi-fy an EFI motor (like an LS) requires buying an intake manifold, carb, and a complete ignition system. Which ends up being the same cost as just wiring a loom to an aftermarket controller.
People need to be less afraid of wires.
So will one of these fit anywhere a Q45 V8 was? Could be a cool upgrade for an old M45.
“Is this a lot of effort to spend on a 220,000-mile junkyard motor? Sure, but when force-fed by a 98 mm Precision turbocharger and fuelled by methanol, these measures make sense.”
It figures that a fast moving Nissan involves meth.
Damn.
That punched hard, fast, and true.
Well done, sir; well done indeed.
Thank you.
I may not always hit the target, but I try.
Certainly more interesting than yet another LS swap.