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Frontier VK swap

This is a cool setup, man. I'm still watching.

Years ago, I was going to drop a VK56 into my 1074 Datsun 620. Wish I still had all that stuff.
 
cool swap. Is It 6 speed or automatic? How quick is it?
 
Nice job!

My wife drives a 5.6 2009 Pathfinder, damn thing is a beast.

Can imagine in a lighter Frontier it is even more.

Thanks for giving all the wiring info, it is needed out there for sure.
 
It is an auto. There are some 6 speed trucks running around though. From what Ive read it is not easy in these trucks to swap auto\manuals. They adapter is a couple bucks also.

My woman drives this truck more than I do and while she can drive manual she prefers not to so I just kept it auto.

As for quickness, yea, she quick. If you can keep traction :laughing: I haven't timed it or anything though but she certainly is rowdy.

That said, I'd love to find an old Stillen supercharger for it :smokin:
 
I was wheeling at Harlan over the weekend with someone with a VK frontier. The thing is just ridiculous. Long tube headers, tuned. Sounds insane coming up hills on the rev limiter. :laughing:

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Here's a shot for an idea how to do your lower skid:
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It is an auto. There are some 6 speed trucks running around though. From what Ive read it is not easy in these trucks to swap auto\manuals. They adapter is a couple bucks also.
Not that hard, but the adapter kit is like $1k and I can't remember if you also need to tune.

I have dreams of putting a 6sp in an Armada or Pathfinder.
 
Had a few people message me about the wiring recently so here is the spreadsheet with the pinouts and another document with some notes. I have more to add to the second but just don't have the time right now (moving sucks fyi)

I just looked at the spreadsheet on my phone and it is a bit of a mess, probably best on a computer. Once I get my computer back up I'll reattach it.
 

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Clean install and good job getting it all together! Wiring is one thing I am not looking forward to with my swap and in comparison its easy since its just another LS swap lol. I really need to figure out what is emissions legal here in MD and go from there.
 
Try using spark plug defoulers on the O2 sensors? That's what we did on Sneezans back in the day with race cats/no cats... :flipoff2:
 
Nissan was kind enough to basically include both halves of a jumper harness if you have both trucks. I like the jumper method as you leave the engine harness and chassis harness unmodified so future trouble shooting should be easier in theory. So chop off the Frontier engine side connectors and the Titan side of the chassis harness out of the IPDM box then just match them up.

Ok its not that easy. I spent about 3 evenings combing through the FSM's and wiring diagrams I had for both trucks and figuring out what went were is definitely a chore. Ultimately I ended up cutting open the Frontier harness to verify a lot of it since the 2010 FSM and diagrams I had weren't the best at showing connector locations. Also the 2012 Titan FSM was missing entire sections, had to grab 2011 and 2014 manuals and cross check them to sort it out.

Once I make sure everything is correct I'll post up a spread sheet and a text document with notes for anybody else who wants to try it (VERIFY against your year trucks as someone else shared his info with me on an older truck and there are differences). Honestly having done the leg work on this that $350 to send it off doesn't seem so bad :flipoff2:

Fun fact about the Nissan FSM and the wiring diagrams I found. They will show a connector, say F14/E5 (plug to each other) and ONLY the wires to those connectors for the exact section you are in. In the engine control section? It only shows those wires. Trans section? Yup, just those wires. When you have a 24-pin connector with like 5 different systems running through it it makes for a lot of going around in circles trying to figure it out :flipoff:


Anyway, I currently have a few wires left to sort out to plug the engine/trans to the truck.

2 wires on the Frontier side are for the t-case and both of them are orange :shaking: I already clipped the connector before noticing so I'll have figure that out once I start plugging stuff back in :homer:

2 wires are for the t-case actuator. They are flip flopped from Titan to Frontier so need to see which way works correctly. Also one of those oranges goes here.

4 on the Titan side that don't match to anything on the Frontier. 2 are flex fuel, 2 are for what I believe is a heater core bypass valve . The FFV stuff I'll have to add since my Titan was equipped with it. I'll see if the bypass thingie is something that can be added or just cap/delete those wires.

1 ground wire on the Titan side that didn't match to the Frontier side.

1 wire for the oil pressure sensor on the Titan side. The Frontier wire was in the alt harness vs the engine harness so just need a short reroute.



Buy these things if you don't have a set and are stripping out a shit load of wires. Quick and uniform length on the stripped ends. Sometimes if the jacketing is old and stiff you might have to take a couple swipes at it.

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I chose to solder my stuff. You can do yours however you feel. I don't care. I've never had a solder joint fail for me personally so I'll keep doing it. That said, the cleanest way would have been to depin the connectors and repin to match but I'm not sure how easy it would be to get the correct pins. 2 of the 3 connectors are different and have different shaped pins entirely, so not just a quick swap either.

These connectors have a ring of solder inside the heat shrink, so just shrink and solder in one easy step :idea: Just make sure you got a good connection with a quick pull after. I found one after that the solder had melted but didn't flow in to both wires. I'll wrap everything nice and pretty once I make sure it all works as intended. I left them a little long in case I totally fucked it all up and have to redo it :laughing:

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What is the (h) meaning
 
Had a few people message me about the wiring recently so here is the spreadsheet with the pinouts and another document with some notes. I have more to add to the second but just don't have the time right now (moving sucks fyi)

I just looked at the spreadsheet on my phone and it is a bit of a mess, probably best on a computer. Once I get my computer back up I'll reattach it.
Hello! Hat to bother but I am having a little trouble reading this document. I am trying to find the section where you mapped out what wire goes to what wire. Is that page 5? Also, what does cross over mean as well as the red items in the item list starting on page 6? about to dive into this and feeling really lost.

Thank you!
 
I did what I could on my phone to get these realigned as my computer is still packed up.

You can ignore the pinouts on the bottom half of page 2, then pages 3 and 4, also the bottom of 6, then 7 and 8. Those are all ECM pin outs that aren't messed with. Red just highlights what was missing which is mostly the bits for having 2 more cylinders to run in the Titan. Those all plug to the ECM which gets swapped out anyway.


Frontier vs Titan. Each connector is called out at the top and each pin is in the left and middle columns in order. The right column is how the pin out needs to be crossed over to mate the Titan engine harness to the Frontier chassis harness.



Right side of this image is same as left on the next one.

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Right side of this image is same as left on the next one.



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Thank you so much. That clarifies it! You may have just saved my project from fading into my backyard.
 
I did what I could on my phone to get these realigned as my computer is still packed up.

You can ignore the pinouts on the bottom half of page 2, then pages 3 and 4, also the bottom of 6, then 7 and 8. Those are all ECM pin outs that aren't messed with. Red just highlights what was missing which is mostly the bits for having 2 more cylinders to run in the Titan. Those all plug to the ECM which gets swapped out anyway.


Frontier vs Titan. Each connector is called out at the top and each pin is in the left and middle columns in order. The right column is how the pin out needs to be crossed over to mate the Titan engine harness to the Frontier chassis harness.

Awesome work man! This was perfect timing for me running across your spreadsheets, thanks for putting these up 👍🏻 I'm guessing Brennan is pretty busy, I see Offroad Gorilla's harness service shows "Out of stock" Did you ever figure out an easier way to find pinouts on the FSM's? Man what a pain in the butt... I have an '05 VK going in an '06 Frontier and most of the wiring matches up, but there are a few differences, I just want to make sure I get it right. I have also have been following along with Ry the Car Guy's videos on VK rebuild and swap. Just found out my donor is a FFV also, so another thing to tackle eventually. Thanks again for sharing all your valuable insight!
 
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Thank you and really appreciate ur job. By this post I've got the same thing in my bullet truck with vk56. Drivetrain Armada 2WD. No check engine light or any problem, soo far soo good!!!! Borla exhaust with stock catalytic converters , sound great 👍

One more important thing about it , if u decide to do it u must buy and replace stock radiator to aftermarket aluminum one , otherwise u can mess with cooling system. The stock radiator is really weak and may get crack on the button part of radiator, and ur coolant will be mixed with ATF . Coolant will break transmission completely. Be careful with stock radiator
 

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I just finished up my swap as well, I have one issue though. The overdrive off / tow mode button on the frontier will only shift the trans into 4th if I hold it down and no OD off light.
Do you have any insight on how the tow mode and overdrive off works for your swap?

Im guessing my problem has to do with the motor being from a column shift truck so could have different wiring to the transmission than the floor shift. Everything else seems good though.
 
The Titan shifter has an on/off button while the Frontier is a momentary button.

I had read of someone replacing the switch before but he didn't give much detail on how he did it.

I never paid attention to if my OD light does anything when I hold down the button. Next time I drive it I'll try it out.
 
Does HP Tuners have any compatibility with your ECM or any other programmer? I've deleted a lot of secondary oxygen sensor codes for engine swapped trucks that have less then seller cats. "Off-road Use Only" of course.

Someone already mentioned it too, spark plug fowlers may work by dumbing then up a bit. I've also used 02 simulators with good luck if someone makes one for your truck.

Cool swap, awesome to see clean engine swaps that look factory.
 
Does HP Tuners have any compatibility with your ECM or any other programmer? I've deleted a lot of secondary oxygen sensor codes for engine swapped trucks that have less then seller cats. "Off-road Use Only" of course.

Someone already mentioned it too, spark plug fowlers may work by dumbing then up a bit. I've also used 02 simulators with good luck if someone makes one for your truck.

Cool swap, awesome to see clean engine swaps that look factory.



Hp tuners, Uprev and maybe Bullydog have options from a quick Google search. Just haven't taken the time to dive in to pros and cons of each.

I picked up some of the spark plug fouler things but have since lost them in a recent move :laughing:
 
Good news is they are like ten bucks at Vatozone 🤣
 
I just finished up my swap as well, I have one issue though. The overdrive off / tow mode button on the frontier will only shift the trans into 4th if I hold it down and no OD off light.
Do you have any insight on how the tow mode and overdrive off works for your swap?

Im guessing my problem has to do with the motor being from a column shift truck so could have different wiring to the transmission than the floor shift. Everything else seems good though.

I finally remembered to mess with the od button.

If I hold it in place while cruising it kicks it out 5th and the OD/off light comes on.
 
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