Different VH41s?

[AlvinA31]

Hi Guys,

Woohoo! My 1st post. Anyway, a short intro about me. The name is Alvin from Malaysia & I drive a Cefiro A31. Recently my RB25det motor decided to die on me. It was kinda my fault actually. Oil pump was faulty and I kept pushing the car without knowing the problem. Didn't have the right gauges to read the oil pressure too. Car was pushing at least 400 hp and the inevitable happened, bearings ate out and crank kapoot. Reading from the RB section, I could fix it with an extended crank collar and some machining work but I decided to put the RB motor down and go with the 'There's no replacement for Displacement' theory. The VH41.

I've done some reading on the VH motors but I still can't differentiate these VH41 motors. Most threads I've found has broken link for pictures.

So, I found 2 VH41 engine from the local chop shop. The 2 motors has different intake manifold and my question is, what's the difference between the 2? There's pictures below. Are these 2 engines the JDM and US versions or just newer and older versions?



and this



Please HELP! Would really appreciate the help. Once I've got the answer, I'm going to start my V8 journey.

Thanks!

[frapjap]

Welcome to NICO!
Sounds like you had a badass car!
Even more, the project sounds awesome.

As far as I know, there is only one style of VH41 (the one with the cool intake manifold), but we'll get some others in here to chime in since they may know better.
But, given that you're in a different country, maybe you got a different engine cover? Ours has the Infiniti logo, the best bet is yours just says "Nissan."

Looking forwards to the build!! Take plenty of photos for the thread and your progress!

[AlvinA31]

Thanks man. Really looking forward to the build.

By the way, both the engines are from Japan. In fact, most engines we get here are from Japan and occasionally from Aussie.

I didn't have the chance to remove the plastic engine cover to see how the intake manifold was but from some pics I've seen on the net, the manifold is different from the spider like manifold.

Like this maybe?

I might be wrong though.

I gave up asking the chop shop guys 'cause they know nuts about this engine other than its a V8.

Hope to get some inputs from you guys here.

[elwesso]

There are indeed 2 different VH41's. It's really a difference of Y32 versus Y33. The one from the Y32 looks more like the VH45 with the spider intake. In the US we didn't get the Y32 Cima, so we never got the VH41 with the spider intake. Sometimes you'll see people refer to them as JDM VH41 vs USDM VH41, but it's really a difference in the chassis. I think in most people's opinion the one from the Y32 is more desirable. The Y32 VH41 came with dual row timing chains (very beefy design), and I believe there were some other things that made them in some respects made them beefier than the VH45... Many believe the VH41 with a VH45 crankshaft and rods with the VH41 heads would be the ultimate.

[AlvinA31]

Dude, you just solved my problem. Haha.

Going for the Y22 VH and bringing the motor back tomorrow.

Thanks for the info guys. Will update once the project begins.

Cheers mate.

[AlvinA31]

Hey guys,

I've got some question on the VH41 again.

So I drove 300km to the chop shop to purchase the motor and to my disappointment, there was only 1 engine left and it was the one with the plastic valve cover with the NISSAN V8 on it. And the intake manifold was the log type one too. I was desperate for a motor so i went ahead and bought it.

My question here is, does all JDM VH41 come with the spider manifold and duplex chain? Or does the newer JDM VH41 engines come differently? (e.g: Log manifold, single timing chain.) Also, if the engine i bought comes with the log intake manifold, does it mean it doesn't have the crankshaft bearing girdle as mention in some threads? I've been through countless forums and threads and i still can't find my answer.

Appreciate some input here....

[budgetbeast]

Man, I have been wanting to know the answer to that too. I see these vh41de on ebay advertised as a jdm motor, though it looks exactly like my usdm 41, which does not have the girdle.... However. Is it really that important? I ask this because the bottom of these motors are still 6 bolt mains. Is it really going to come apart? I would imagine something else would fail way before the mains would. I mean I get wanting the girdle if you plan to build it to 1000hp. I plan to spin my hard as the cams will let me/make power once I get them from performance vh, I'll let you know... Ha.