Rare VG30 Race Parts (Pics)

[Mr.510]

I thought some of my fellow VG freaks might like to see these pics. I took them at my friend Ken's shop, Ultramotive. He is almost done building a VG30-powered, 240SX bodied road race car for himself. It's got some crazy IMSA body with huge flares and air vents over the front tires. It looks like it's eight feet wide! I'll try to get some pics with the bodywork on next time I'm out there.

 

 

These first pics are of a transmission that came to the USA with the factory Nissan rally team back in the '80s. It is in a modified VG case. It has never been run, probably because it currently has a 4:1 first gear! It appears to use 3.010 shaft-center Hewland gears but they are much wider than the ones typically seen in Formula Atlantics and such. This is a custom-built dog ring gearbox with all quick-change, straight cut gears and direct drive 5th. Word is this was a $15k transmission when built in the mid-'80s.

 

The guts:

 

 

Modified bell housing, note the input shaft & gear stay in there when you take it apart:

 

 

Modified tail housing:

 

 

 

 

I think everyone should like this pic, triple Webers on a VG30!

 

 

 

 

This last one is just the front of the car without the bodywork. The motor currently in the chassis is a junker for fitment only:

 

 

 

I'm going to build a one-off wet sump oil pan for the car. It will be tested and the chassis sorted with a stock VG30E long block. If the telemetry shows no oiling issues that pan will go on the 'real' motor. If there are any oiling issues the race motor will get a dry sump. He wants to keep it wet sump if possible to reduce parasitic losses. You don't even want to ask who's building the race motor! (I'm not even sure if I'm allowed to say?)

[Kennysgreen280zt]

We have mutual friends I see.... I cant wait to see the car done

[260DET]

Be interesting to see the lower plenum/manifold used to mount the Webers, the stock one is a messy design and hard to do anything with, looks like he made a new one. That could be a Holinger gearbox, I know they made Nissan rally ratio gearsets but have never seen one.

[hoov100]

Is that a vacuum advance i see on the dizzy?

[Mr.510]

Be interesting to see the lower plenum/manifold used to mount the Webers, the stock one is a messy design and hard to do anything with, looks like he made a new one. That could be a Holinger gearbox, I know they made Nissan rally ratio gearsets but have never seen one.

 

Holinger! I never thought of that possibility. I'll pass that along to Ken. He has to re-gear it for it to be useful. The intake is... interesting. It's a piece that Nissan Motorsports had but I don't know what they built it for and/or used it on. I'll try to get a pic of the portion below the plate. It appears to have been made out of a Z31 lower. It's been sliced, diced, and TIG welded like mad. There might be more weld than base material but it's pretty where it matters... on the inside.

 

 

Is that a vacuum advance i see on the dizzy?

 

Yes. That's the distributor a lot of us run with the carbureted VG30s in our old school 510s. Sadly it is now NLA. Nissan Motorsports called it a 'Euro Distributor' in their catalog but the original application was actually Saudi Arabian pickup trucks. They also sold the Saudi intake but it's really weird. The factory carbureted VGs used a down draft two barrel but the throttle shaft was parallel to the crank with one throttle plate in front of the other.

 

I modify the TBI intake to accept a Holley 350 or 500cfm two barrel. They work surprisingly well. A carbureted VG in a 510 is significantly quicker than a stock Z31 or S12 injected version with all else being equal.

 

The circle track racing series Pro-6 adopted my intake as a replacement for the Saudi one about two weeks ago. They've been running the Saudi intake with a Holley 500 turned sideways for years but it creates all sorts of problems. They used to run the Saudi distributor but they don't really need mechanical or vacuum advance. Now they run an MSD pickup in a Z31 distributor as it's much cheaper.

 

Here's an early version of my intake:

 

 

I bolt the billet adapter on now as there is too much crap in these castings for reliable welding.

 

Hey, where'd my avatar go??? Nevermind, I fixed it!

Edited March 19, 2010 by Mr.510

[hoov100]

Can you get me some pics of that vg dizzy? i might be able to put analog s130 guts in a spare vg dizzy I have.

[Mr.510]

Sure, no problem. I've got a couple of them stashed away plus the one in my VG510 Wagon. It would probably be much easier to just modify an L series distributor to fit into the VG head. That's what I was going to do for Ken before he found the distributor in those pics. A six cylinder Chevy distributor would probably be an even better choice as you can get a wide array of parts for them. Of course with anything but a VG distributor you'd lose the supercool flat cap and spark plug wire perfection that we all know and

[RedBeauty84ZX]

ITBs on a VG30...very cool!

 

How does that sound? What kind of power gains are expected on a SOHC VG30 with ITBs?

 

Is this a one off or are their kits for this?

[Mr.510]

ITBs on a VG30...very cool!

 

How does that sound? What kind of power gains are expected on a SOHC VG30 with ITBs?

 

Is this a one off or are their kits for this?

 

We haven't heard it yet but I'll bet it's awesome! That's a one-off hand built intake that Nissan Motorsports had laying around. Don't know what it was used for but it's clearly been used.

[Daeron]

Sure, no problem. I've got a couple of them stashed away plus the one in my VG510 Wagon. It would probably be much easier to just modify an L series distributor to fit into the VG head. That's what I was going to do for Ken before he found the distributor in those pics. A six cylinder Chevy distributor would probably be an even better choice as you can get a wide array of parts for them. Of course with anything but a VG distributor you'd lose the supercool flat cap and spark plug wire perfection that we all know and

Naw, there is an electronic 280ZX dizzy that goes in the L6. I tried to find out where it comes from this week at the races, but the guys didn't really know. I've only ever seen them in pictures before as far as I can remember, so I can't tell you which cars it may have come in, but there IS an L-series distributor with the sweet, smooth cap that has the lugs set back from the outer perimeter a little bit.

[hoov100]

I found a video of a carb'd vg30, sounds pretty sweet.

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/nkldime#p/a/u/2/dGLtSPwdu8g

[HowlerMonkey]

I think Harry Gershenson's burger king IMSA GTU nissan ran something similar but it might have been a jerico.

[Daeron]

I found a video of a carb'd vg30, sounds pretty sweet.

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/nkldime#p/a/u/2/dGLtSPwdu8g

That is so f%^*in metal its not even funny....

[260DET]

So, pics of the lower plenum coming up?

[Mr.510]

Ken's shop is an hour drive from mine and I don't get out that way very often. I should have the oil pan for his car done and will need to take it up there in the next week. Should be able to shoot some intake pics at that time. I'll post them here as soon as I do...

[benz-tech]

Even with it hiding under that adapter plate, I'd bet that there is a 89-94 Maxima VG30 intake manifold lurking below. The the port placement is very favorable for a 3x 2bbl carb arrangement. I thought of doing this on mine but I have neither the endmill, nor the skill to operate it, required to adapt the carbs to the lower intake. Really tempting now that I have the engine to justify straping 3 carbs to the top of it.

[Mr.510]

Here are some better pics of the triple Weber VG intake:

 

 

We found out some more information about this intake: It was built by Barrie Gerolamy of BC Gerolamy. He cut down a stock plenum lower and welded on horns from three air cooled VW intakes. The ports are very smooth, the reddish purple color you see is port putty. I'm told there is also a one-piece cast intake at the motor builders' but it is *much* taller and therefore not very useful except in a mid engine race car.

 

Here are a few pics of the custom oil pan I built for Ken's VG-powered GT2 240SX:

 

 

Note that I had to skive off the front lower corner for steering rack clearance. That really sucked! This pan has the same diamond trap with hinged trap doors that I use in my production oil pans. It's also only 6-1/4" deep so the bottom is approximately level with the bottom of the ring gear - the lowest point in the car.

[260DET]

Very nice sump err pan there Mr5 and thanks for the new pics. Like the idea of clearly separating each intake for EFI purposes too, a custom upper plenum like the one I got made for my VG30DET could be done as well.

[HS30-H]

Thought you guys might like to see this race engine in my friend's workshop:

[Mr.510]

I know what I want for Christmas!