Owning any car comes with unknowns. Issues will arise, things will break, and hard decisions must be made. Many major problems in modern crop up well past the 100,000-mile mark, but one 2018 Nissan Titan XD owner is facing a big repair with just over 40,000 miles on the odometer. It's bad enough that the truck might require a new engine block.
This junk 5.0-liter V8 Cummins diesel engine engine reveals itself during a dissection at Dave’s Auto Center in Utah, which published a video documenting the motor's disassembly to YouTube. A short run reveals it is leaking a copious amount of oil out of the back with a potentially blown rear main seal.
According to the owner, the Titan’s engine grew louder before dying on the side of the road, but there weren’t any other signs of distress beforehand. It didn't display a check engine light, oil pressure light, or a high engine temperature.
Despite that, something went terribly wrong. Particles in the oil filter, oil, and oil pan point to a catastrophic failure, and further tearing down the engine reveals several spun main bearings and extensive damage throughout. The crank journals are scuffed, and the engine will need new caps.
Spun bearings are one of the worst types of failures, capable of killing an engine in seconds. They don't just happen out of nowhere. The phenomena usually occurs thanks to a drop in oil pressure, causing metal-on-metal contact between the bearings and journals, increasing friction and heat that leads to damage and engine failure.
Sadly, it looks like the Titan’s engine block is junk. Fixing it is possible, but a new block is likely the better starting point. Neither will be cheap, with a new block from Nissan costing $23,000. That doesn’t include the price of labor to put it back in the pickup, either.
