Well I made up my mind. I am going to go though a quest to install a VG30dett into my 86 gxl.
I found an install kit from grannys speed shop. I could use some advice on what I may go though and some places I can contact for fabrications on the north east coast.
I guess it would be a good Idea to source a TII rear end for the added power of the beefy VG. I also need to find some one that could fab me a turbo manifold set for the 2 turbos to fit. They say on their sight that I need to have them lowered to clear the fire wall and the down pipe can smothly transsend out the back.


I found alot of sweet upgrades for the motor .It seems it is heavly suported by the aftermarket.
Some of my other conserns would be roughting the intercooler help on that would be great.
Has anyone also known of another swap like this being done?
My freinds are siked about the swap. Hopefully I can do this this summer.
What would also be a good spring rate for the front end?

 

I am doing a VG30DE no turbos and the engine fits nice and snug. I think the firewall or hood would have to be heavily modified to fit the stock turbo setup. drivers side is especially tight. A single turbo setup on the passenger side would fit with some heavy modifications to the firewall and passenger footwell. good luck and let me know how the install goes. I didn't use the granny's kit. I fabricated my own engine and trans mounts. much easier and less expensive.

 

Sweet. I get what your saying with clearance . The VG30ET has the turbo in an optimal setting but that motor is hard to score. I was also considering a VG30DE plus a supercharger. They say there is more than enough room. I tried to get info on the stillen Maxima supercharger but they no longer sell it. I will probably go with the VG30DE too. How did you go about fabbing the mounts and drive shaft?

 

Does anyone know if these mounts from Granny's would make it easier to swap in an SR or RB engine? I'm not too familiar with Nissan stuff. I do know that Nissan uses the same parts throughout their lineup.

 

There are a couple trucks that have the supecharger stock I believe. the driveshaft wa made by a local shop. I built a completely new unit with replaceable u-joints for $400. Could have spliced the mazda and nissan shaft together for about half.
I have seen the pics of the granny's parts on the internet so I don't know how well they work with the newer engines. they seem to have the engine higher and farther forward. the engine mounts for the inline four and six cylinder engine will likely been totally different. likley need to be custom made. I thought about the S15 motor but I didn't want the turbo, so I went with the V6. I would probably use the maxima engine that is all aluminum instead of the 300zx, but the DE was very inexpensive. good luck and don't be scared of a little fabrication work. even if you have someone else do the final welding.

 

I thought of the sr and rb too. but the oil pan needs to be fabricated. there was a Sr20det swap rx7 on here a couple of years ago. It was a sick drift car I forgot the members name .I know he lived in NJ. I also know he sold the car. Maybe he is still on here.
He did mention the swap was very dificult posibly because ofall the fabrication done to make it work. The VG swap is much easyer and fits better. As faras performance all the Nissan motors are heavy hitters and good choices no matter wich way you go. I do not sugest the maxia motor though. The Maxima VG30 came with less hp I think 190 tops. the later came with more but there are more parts needs to be sorced like the intake manifold. the maxi faces towards the firewall. If using the maxi motor you will need the pathfinder or 300z 1st gen intake and then clearance issues arise. I wiah I already had the motor from the 300z (90+) I would realy like to test fit and see were the turbos hit.
I was looking at some photos of the motor and the NA and turbo both have the manifolds pretty much tucked in at the same points. Here are some phots I checked last night.

 

the NA has about a 1/4" of clearance on the driver's side and the passenger side needed a couple hammer dimples. with the heat of a turbo literally under your right foot it would be a tough one to drive if it would fit. I don't know if the turbo sits farther back than the N/A OEM exhaust manifolds. there is room going down and the N/A exhaust could be redone for better clearance, but this is custom header work and not cheap. As far as the maxima engines, these can be had for less money and can make similair HP with a few mods. the engine would be lighter and even after the modifications it would be cheaper. this is a very popular sand rail setup and those guys even turbo charge them as well. good luck with your setup and let me know what you decide and how it goes.

 

Thanks
I was looking around and I found a pic of the JUN 300 z32. They have a sick single intake plenum for it but they do not sell it on their sight Japan or USA.
If I go with a sigle cam VG30 I would posibly search for a 300zx 1st gen for the intake plenum then procede with the maxima twin cam DE motor I also saw a turbo set up from a JDM VG30DET that looks like it would fit The pic I saw looks like the motor VG30 single cam has clearance on the passeger side. If I decide on the VG30DE ( Most likly choice) I will probably look futher it a super charger. Just have to sorce the spec off the maxima stillen kit for SC sizing. Then get a water injection kit larger turbo injectors extenal fuel presure regulator and a 255lp fuel pump. I also found a Y pipe to run to the dual TB's .I will probably rewire a 5.0 MAF unit . JWT has alot of good info on nissan motors.
I am goig today to see if I can get a T2 rear dif and axels. Hoe fully he still has them.

 

I'm currently in the process of swapping a VG30E into my FC. i used granny's kit and have had one hell of a time getting everything fitting right... i had to modify almost every part they sent. but the motor is in the bay and fits awesome everywhere except for hood clearence. grannys said there were supposed to be spacers to drop the subframe low enough to allow the hood to clear if you notch out some of the hood supports... but i never got those. i'm most likely going to have to get like a 3 inch cowl hood.. but oh well. gotta do what you can.

i decided to use the VG30E because i already had a z31 300zx that was running great, but got some right front frame damage. i needed another car to drive, and wanted to use my z31 engine. a friend of mine had an FC with a blown motor for about 450 bucks. i figured that if people can fit V8's in there, i'm sure i could fit my nissan V6. the VG30E is also really cheap, with easily available parts. the VG30E can easily be turbocharged as well, and make a good 350-400 horsepower reliably, with tons of good torque. all in all, it's coming up to cost about 2k for everything. all that's left to do is the wiring this weekend, and that's it.

 

Kai,
I thought the granny's kit would place the motor to high. that is why I built my own motor mounts. my DE fits well below the hood without any spacers or notching. sounds like a good deal for you though.

 

props to you guys running the Nissan motors, thats pretty cool.

 

Does the granny speed shop kit work with the VG30DETT, it says E, DE, ET, and i didn't know if the DETT would work, but nonetheless it would be a sweet swap

 

kit looks like it is built for older VG engines. Some of the motor mounts are different on the newer DOHC engines.

 

I am lookin into doing this swap over the summer, and had a quick question to someone who has done it, and been sucessful.

The VG30DETT uses a 3.692 gear ratio, what rear diff do you use?

Thanks for helpin the newbie

 

sir you are mistaken the v32 does not use a 3.692 it uses a 4.09 in the manual and in the auto they use a 3.93 and both vlsd, 5bolt axles

go look it up in nicoclub.com

 

Sorry about that, I looked it up through google, and that was the number I found, that goes to show you, you can't believe everything you read on Google.

So what differential can I use then? Will the 4.10 differential work? What year should I get one out of?

Thanks again.

 

yea a 4.10 will be good

all turdo2 diffs are 4.10 gearing can support anything you throw at it

and n/a diffs with a vg30dett it will blow the n/a diffs so they are a no no



*and i meant z32 i misspelled

 

So I looked it up on NICO club, and I found that the one person posted the rear differential gearing

forums.nicoclub.com/zerothread?id=199391
(Sorry no link I don't have 5 posts yet )

"But also something to consider...the TT differential has a 3.69 gear ratio while the NA differential has 4.08 gear ratio"

I am confused. I know people have done this swap, I just need to know which differential.

Sorry for being a pain, but I want to know everything before I jump into the project. And coming from a Subaru background, I know final drive and differential gear ratios need to match.

 

look for the fsm (factory service manual) for the z32 they have it just got to search for it or ask the members on there for it

 

Any photos of the swap?

 

the mounts would work on the newer engine both versions are from the same casting but the newer version has mount holes in a different place

 

yeah I am doing this swap to... I have been putting stuff back for the swap
I need manifolds and axles left to go

 

vg30dett is a pain to work on. If you're planning on using it, you should remove the EGR and block it off on the manifold and also remove the coolant line under the intake manifold. Motor need lots of cooling. Piston #6 usually gets fed up. My #6 was melted. If you can, remove all of the excess material from the coolant passage wall in the block. There is no aftermarket intake manifold, widely aviable, There's a guy thatt makes it for a single tb on 300zxclub. VG30DETT is a BITCH to work on if you have time to work on it and the patience go ahead. Also it's a big motor...take up lots of room. good luck I also got a manifold lying around if you want some pictures of it. The manifold is pretty small and compact, there are aftermarket manifold around for it. Mike Smith's manifold and AMS (copy of mike smith for cheaper price)

 

where abouts are you located? Im in southern pennsylvania and i too am trying to vg30dett swap my 84 gsl

 

I too would like to know. I just finished up my VG30DETT swapped FC and to my knowledge there's only ever been like 7 done. Mine is the only one in the Pacific Northwest that I know of.