GrayZee

Drax, I was wondering what you meant in that post that said "I've been down this road before.." What exactly were you swapping a Vg engine into? 510?

A friend of mine recently bought a 200sx with a CA20 engine. He is thinking of putting in a VG30et, after some research he learned that all you need to do is get a 300zx crossmember and the whole thing even the struts can be swapped into that chassis. So there are your engine mounts and everything all in a nice tidy package. Of course there is a world of aftermarket parts (struts, springs, ect.) available for the z31 chassis. Supposedly even the rear suspension is swappable. If we even get to the point where this is confirmed we will let you know. I'm sure a custom intake (and exhaust) manifold will be needed in that swap as well as the 200sx V6 has a special low profile intake.

Dammit man, sorry to hear that.. unfortunatly that is becoming a all too familiar story. I'm not married and I have no regrets, I may get married one day but I'm VERY cautious about the idea. Check out this website.. http://nomarriage.com/ Alot of people (women) say it is sexist, but I see alot of truth in what the guy writes.

http://www.datsunzparts.com/Summary.htm also, did you try Nissan? Sometimes it's surprising what you can get from them if you ask.

I haven't seen anybody post their turbocharged CR's yet.. Is there a formula somewhere that will tell you what your CR would be equivalent to given the PSI you are running? Oh wait, I found one.. http://www.autocomponenti.com/boosted_tech/boosted_tech.htm I guess that means I'm running somewhere around the neighborhood of 9:1 on 91 octane with no intercooler.. Looks like there's room for improvment.. LOL Maybe I should just turn up the boost a bit and run 94 octane.. Hmm...

I would like to see a picture of that.

You mention different DP's for different applications, I am not in need of one but if I were I would ask you.. Are you talking 45 or 90 degree bends? From the experience I have with Zcar DP's I will say the biggest/best flowing DP depends on the car/tranny. 280zx: you can only use 90 degree bends, but 3" is certainly possible. earlyZ with Nissan trans: 3" with 45 degree bends (VERY tight fit) earlyZ with T5 trans: the only way to go 3" is to use 90 degree bends, however 2.5" with 45 degree bends are possible IF you grind out one of the aluminum "fins" on the bell-housing. If you really wanted to go extreme I think it may be possible to use a 2.5" bend up top and after it clears the trans you could flare it out and use a 3" bend at the bottom. These are the physical clearance limitations as I know them, if anyone has experience contrary to what I have said then I am open to new ideas.

I have a question for you guys, but first I will give you some background info... I recently had some problems with my engine swap (VG30et into a Pathfinder) turns out that the turbo upper intake manifold rests too far back and would hit the firewall long before it could be bolted on. There are two solutions to this problem. One is to use a later model Pathfinder manifold. (mine a is a throttle-body injector) The other solution is to custom make a new manifold. I decided to go with the custom manifold because it will be cheaper and I can relocate the TB to the passenger side and simplify intercooler plumbing. Whenever people ask me how the swap is doing I tell them this latest development. Before I am able to explain how I will solve the problem, the response I get EVERYTIME is.. "so I guess that means that you are going to cut the firewall" It makes me feel like saying.. "no thanks, I lost my butcher's licence back in the 80's" I have never thought that cutting a firewall has EVER been a acceptable way of doing a engine swap. I like all of my dash components to work afterwards (especially the heater/defroster!) The only acception might be is if you are building a race car that has lots of re-inforcing and is not intended for use on a public road. Do you guys share the same opinion?

Even with a broken stud sticking out from the block the head should still slide up and out. Sounds to me like there is corrosion making the head stick to the bolt. Bugger of a problem, but I think in this case your friends would be heat and vibration. Could you try hoisting it up again thus putting alot of upward pressure on the head and start hitting the head with a rubber mallet? Do you have access to a torch? Try heating up the head in the area around the bolt. Stupid question I know, but are you sure you removed ALL of the bolts? I think there are 14?? of them, plus two small ones up front by the timing cover.

I think most people that do that swap change over to autometer style gauges but I don't see any reason why you couldn't get everything working properly. If the heater worked to begin with the only thing you would have to hook up is the RB heater hoses to the heater core on the Z body.

This is a interesting subject, what I have always wanted to see is some sort of "black box" that allows use a MAP sensor on a 280/300zx ecu. Basically the box would take the readings from the MAP and convert them into a language that the stock ecu can understand and feed it right back into the MAF/AFM plug. The reason I would like to go to a MAP is it is smaller and would simplify air intake routing especially when using a intercooler. Other than that I think the easiest thing for Indy to do would be a maf swap which would have to include.. 85-89 maxima ECU any Vg30 CAS Vg30 maf 82/83 280zx turbo wiring harness 260cc injectors Quite a list and unless you got a smokin deal somewhere it would add up to alot of $$ Of course with all that I'm sure you would notice a improvement in the car's drivabilty, response, and even mileage.

Ok, this may be a stupid question but.. Did you have anything apart on the engine itself? camshaft? timing chain? distributor? did you adjust valves? How's your engine compression? What about firing order? Assuming that's all good all I can suggest is to go through your wiring all over again and try to figure out where you went wrong. Check the wires going to the z31maf and make sure your z31 CAS is installed properly and not upside down or something. Also the z31maf has a proper direction, you can tell by looking at the back, there is a arrow and the word "flow" Sorry, I'm not trying to sound like a ass but I'm pointing out the obvious stuff in case the obvious was overlooked.

My buddy has one, he doesn't post on here much anymore but here is a link: http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/709284/2 He's actually thinking of selling it.. I think that's just crazy talk!

Yeah I would like the answer to that one as well.. I wanna figure out what gearing will be good for my turbo-pathfinder. Especially what the 5th gear ratio is. I was thinking of going from the stock gears (4.38/4.11???) to maybe a 3.54

Anything can be done I guess, but it does not sound like a very good idea to me. True, high compression can be good for performance but basically the lower your CR the higher the boost you can run. I think the RB26 has 9.6CR?? and that is VERY high for a turbo engine, but also consider that a RB26 has alot more modern design and no doubt Nissan learned a thing or two in 20+ years of engine building. To run 10.03CR on a turbo'd L engine that was designed back in the 60's you would likely need to run some crazy kind of high octane fuel mixture, a very good intercooler, water injection, have awesome fuel/spark tuning and still end up having to run fairly modest boost. I think you would get much better results from turbo-ing a low CR engine and running really high boost (probably alot more stable too!) That's my opinion, we shall see if others agree...

A mercury villager is the same as a nissan quest??? Wow, you learn something new everyday.. I found a pic of a engine bay from a van Looks like the TB faces the rear of the engine. So that won't work, I think I'll stick with the custom intake idea. We basically just need a "air box" with a TB port that also bolts to the lower part of the stock intake. Thanks for the idea though..

Congrats and good luck, I installed my turbo engine with the idea that I would be happy with the extra power, and I was... For a very short time! Caution, boost is addictive! 200hp to the wheels should be fairly easy to acheive. Of all my mods I think the biggest improvements came from three things... 3" mandrel exhaust z31 ecu re-chipping the ecu gave another good jump in power I never dyno'd it but judging from the weight vs. 1/4mile et times it is about 220hp at the wheels. That's at 9psi with no intercooler.

Here's my 2002 Yamaha Vstar 1100 Classic (with my Z in the background of course) Didn't ride it much this year.. damn high insurance costs!

Doesn't matter if you go turbo or SC, forced induction effects the engine the same. Do some research on turbo engines and go from there. A turbo L28 would be ideal (F54 block with a P90 head) Or if you want a little higher compression then go with the n/a F54 with flattop pistons. Of course you could use any engine but I think it is generally agreed that the P90/F54 are the best engine for forced induction. I also imagine that a turbo cam would work well as a wild n/a cam with alot of intake/exhaust valve overlap would just push air out the exhaust.

I don't really know how to answer that as I'm not really sure which "swap" you are talking about.. However I assume you are talking about a L28 turbo The wires are as follows: Plug 1= BR 12v power source. Positive G 12v power source. Positive Plug 2=Y start signal (+) GL ground for inhibitor switch YW speed sensor (not necessary) Y A/C signal (+) YW coil (-) (must use ignitor) B fuel pump ground if using modulator Plug 3=LR fuel pump relay G ignition .signal (+) for air regulator W not used Y not used BW ignition signal (+) There are 3 plugs on the ecu but those are not the ones being referred to.. if you were to lay the harness is out accordingly around the engine and through the firewall the #2 plug would be near the ecu plugs but a little further up the harness (between the ecu plugs and the firewall grommet) Plug # 1 and #3 would both be near the battery cross reference them with the color codes and you will know for sure.

Well if you have spark and fuel, and you have the engine even slightly trying to "kick" when you start it then I would bet that if you got the proper injectors that it would run. Are you still gonna go with a Haltech? Did you give any thought about re-chipping the z31 ecu? As for the lights being on, it does sound fishy.. I got the following from a Post that Drax made a while back:... The wires are as follows: Plug 1= BR 12v power source. Positive G 12v power source. Positive Plug 2=Y start signal (+) GL ground for inhibitor switch YW speed sensor (not necessary) Y A/C signal (+) YW coil (-) (must use ignitor) B fuel pump ground if using modulator Plug 3=LR fuel pump relay G ignition .signal (+) for air regulator W not used Y not used BW ignition signal (+) What did you do with the BW + ignition signal? I'm starting to think that maybe you ran straight battery power to it causing the lights to stay on?

Sounds to me that you adjusted them but didn't do it properly. Adjusting valves is not that easy, it is something that takes practice to get them just right.