Jared

Hood parts here:

Hood in primer:

Anytime

I haven't seen any upgrades other than those for the VK. I also haven't seen any oil pump failures in these engines. You don't always get the whole story on these failures over the internet, but my experience in seeing these engines every day, is the bearing failures that I've seen are in engines that were repeatedly allowed to run low on oil and/or were sludged from lack of regular oil changes. I reached out to techs I know from other dealers and only found one instance of a VK56 oil pump replacement. It was in a QX56 and due to a stuck pressure valve (not sold separately) causing too high oil pressure. My suspicion is the majority of cases you're seeing were from low oil levels, lack of maintenance, or oil pan modifications. I don't have a Facebook page or I would post there as well. Maybe I'll have the wife do it.

Some light throttle acceleration. Still no hood. Redneck style FTW. https://youtu.be/pHz-sgRJUXI

At idle, it sounds like any Titan with exhaust. https://youtu.be/Tw9sEAsM8Ow

Gauges work!

First real drive ever after getting some bugs worked out.

What precisely are you looking for?

It's the clip that snaps into the body and receives the clip from the bumper side pieces. OE number is 62078-P9100 I'm attaching a picture with the clip circled.

For the hood, I ended up going the route of modifying an OE hood. I cut out the cowled section and raised it about an inch. Right now I need to finish some welding. I will post some pics of it when it gets closer to looking like a hood again.

Two steps forward and one step back. I need a degree more negative camber in the RF.

Making it go straight.

I used a poly mount for some kind of BMW from Ireland Engineering, stock locations in the Z, and built mounts to connect all that to the VK56.

Here's an update. I know it's been a while, but life did get in the way of this build for a while. Anyway, I had to redo the cooling system because the engine sits higher than the radiator in the car. Also, haven't had time to fix the speedo yet. I am back on the hood. Trying to make the air cleaners fit under a hood of some sort.