Jehannum

Pretty interesting study on attitudes. Seems lots of people will take the short-sighted route of "what costs me the least" while either ignoring or not acknowledging the R&D that keeps a niche, low production car like the Z32 running around 10 years after the last one rolled off the line.

Just go to O'Reillys or Napa. It's on the shelf.

I have an E31 head on an early series II car. No 2400cc valve cover, though.

and you were doing this, why?

You realize you're supposed to check the valve clearance when the valve is closed, not open, right? Not sure what the clearance is on an L28, but it's .2mm intake/.25mm exhaust when cold and .25mm intake/.30mm exhaust when hot on an L24.

c'mon, a feeler guage is $6.00 at Sears. Pony up for the right tool for the job, 'cause Mk I eyeball isn't gonna cut it.

No, 5 is your vapor return - it vents fuel vapor from the tank into the air cleaner box.

Yeah, that's solved with the "flower pot" mod.

What's the vacuum and fuel pressure at idle? Does the tune for the car correct for the dual MAF kit? (the K value should be the same as for a 370cc/single pop setup) Also, does the car have the air deflector still in place in front of the filters? If not, search "flower pot" at twinturbo.net. What's the tune set for injector latency? I've got almost the same setup less the fancy cams and dual pop ('cept I've got GT2560R turbos instead of the GT2554Rs/530bbs). No idle issues here - dead solid at 750RPM. Is there any chance you've missed a vacuum leak?

Pfft, you've got nothing to worry about in Albuquerque. I keep all the rust from the premium pumps here in my gas tank.

With the stock bottom end, 740cc injectors, and careful tuning, there's a guy who's running GT28R turbos @13PSI on an NA motor. (search converTT on twinturbo.net)

Right now, it weighs about 18 pounds, because there's no engine in it. That, hopefully, will be rectified this weekend. I'll see what I can do for weighing it thereafter (and no, I wasn't in the car at the truck stop scale).

My mostly-stock '92 turbo coupe with about 3/4 tank of gas tipped the scales at 3600 (truck stop scale). Also, I'd like to see the 2+2 that can hold 4 grown men I think you might be overreacting a bit. I'm just pointing out the obvious. While doing something just to say you've done it is obviously a perfectly valid motivation (and I'm hard-pressed to care what happens to a ragged-out '90 NA) I also know that once you add "Z32" to the equation, things get complicated and expensive in a hurry.

I think you might be better off with a different starting platform. Not to put too fine a point on it, but there are many lighter, stiffer chassis out there that'll take an LS1 with less effort than a Z32. And that's just within the Nissan family of cars. You're free to rock on with your bad self, of course.

Wow, you're gonna cut 800 pounds from the car? Where were you planning on finding that, exactly?

Dunno why the ebay seller would include a distributor with the engine, seeing as the VG30 in the Z32 doesn't have one. 1. To swap in a DETT, you really want to have a front cut. Concept Z Performance is just a state away from us, and they sell twin turbo front cuts. That way, you get all the parts required. 2. You want Ford insulators, PN 2698 at autozone. They're for a 1989 Ford F150 I6 5.9 liter. They're 5-10mm taller overall, but that doesn't affect anything seriously enough to require modification. The only other thing you need are 4 7/16 nuts, some washers, and a little quality time on the mounts with a file (to get the insulators to fit). 3. exhaust is different between NA and TT, the NA doesn't come with any intake piping that you'll need, and the TT has a two-speed fuel pump controller that you'll need. 4. You probably will need to replace the engine harness, depending on the condition of the one you get. They're still available, fortunately. 5. Compression. Those JDM "deals" aren't exactly known for being the most babied engines on the planet. 6. It's generally accepted in more conservative Nissan forums (like twinturbo.net), that unless you have an inordinate amount of sentimental value in the car (like Jessica Alba gave it to you as a recognition of your sexual prowess), it's cheaper to just buy a TT than to swap. 7. a JDM engine is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you're gonna get. Probably a better bet to rebuild the motor and get a known good result.

1) For $1000, it's probably a deal. You can part it for at least as much as you paid. 2) Dunno about engine swaps. The VG30DETT is a stout motor, and the VG30DE isn't bad in its own right. 3) There's no such thing as "minor headwork" on a Z32. Head work means 1) remove engine, 2) remove heads. Having just done both of those, let me tell you that it's daunting, especially if you're a relative noob to the platform (scares the willies out of me, and I've owned mine for 5 years!). 4) That said, there's good support for 300ZXs in New Mexico. I've got one, and there are at least four other Z32 owners in the Albuquerque Z club.

No... As long as the drain is pointing down, it's in the right orientation.

He should be able to clock the CHRA so that the oil feed and drains are in the correct positions.

Not sure what you mean. You'll have to bridge the high and low pressure lines to the rear, but that's included with the kit, no? I've never heard of this "high pressure to low pressure" modification to the pump in eliminating HICAS before. Is it possible you misunderstood the direction? The ideal way to go about eliminating HICAS is to get the pump off an NA Z32 that doesn't have the secondary pump circuit at all, which allows you to eliminate the big HICAS valves in the engine bay.

If you're going to upgrade the VG30DETT, I think these guys have the right idea. You're going after the fruit at the very top of the tree, when there's stuff at eye level that's worthwhile.

The VG30DETT is a finicky beast. I would not "just" buy a swapper unless I was sure of the condition of the donor. As far as condition goes, get a leakdown test, a compression check, and be absolutely certain of its last timing belt change. Between the donor and the original engine, you should probably be able to find enough electronics to make the swap work. I just don't think it's worthwhile to pull that monster unless you're going to be putting a beast back together. They're fun in stock form (at least, if you bump the boost up to 12-14psi and richen it up), but even then you're dancing on a knife edge between the 100% duty cycle on the 370cc injectors and the edge of reliability of the stock teeny-weenie turbos.

I'm going through the bottom end of my Z32 right now, because of a bad turbo and low compression (how's compression read on yours?). Before considering buying, I'd check compression and figure out whether it's a rod bearing or a main bearing. Nissan's rods in the VG30DETT are quite stout, and I would probably pass if they needed to be replaced. Here's my list of parts: 1) new turbos: you really only want to get in there once, and swapping turbos is an engine pull event 2) new intercoolers: not strictly necessary, but mine were filled with oil and turbo parts 3) new fuel injectors: gotta feed those big honkin' turbos somehow, and swapping to new-style injectors is a big reliability mod 4) new pistons, wrist pins, and rings: I was down compression in cylinder 5. 5) 120K service kit: new timing belt, water pump, cam seals, crank seals, idler pulleys and studs, belt tensioner, drive belts, VTC springs, and VTC seals 6) about 5 billion pre-formed 4-ply silicone hoses, to replace all the crumbling ones I pulled out 7) turbo hardpipes: my rubber hardpipes were toast even before I pulled the motor. 8) new Howe 4-row aluminum radiator: when you pull the upper radiator hose, you will find that the neck has crumbled inside of it. Just avoid the hassle of trying to JB weld a neck on it and do it the right way. 9) Z1 "street max" clutch: gotta hold all that power somehow, plus my old one was toast. 10) ARP main, head, and rod bolt kit: cheap insurance, since the old head bolts are torque-to-yield, you don't want to reuse them. 11) Cometic head gasket: multi-layer steel. This is mostly because I'm (going to be) running significantly bigger turbos, and I saw a guy with the same setup blow his (stock) head gaskets the first time he opened up full boost. 12) valve seals: if I'm gonna have a 0 mile bottom end, I want to at least revisit the top end. 13) OEM main and rod bearings: probably the best option out there. Services Purchased: 1) valve job: turns out most of my compression in cylinder 5 was due to burned exhaust valves. 2) align-honed main bearings: new hardware requires at least a glance down the main bearing bores. 3) ceramic coating for the piston crown, and dry film lube for the skirt: not strictly necessary, but cheap insurance ($250 locally) to help in the case of detonation. 4) .020" bored cylinders: gotta accomodate those 0.5mm bigger pistons somehow... 5) polished crank journals: new bearings deserve new mating surfaces. This is all costing me a good bit more than $2900, so take it as you will. I would *not* recommend pulling the motor unless you're either willing to go the whole 9 yards, or swap something maintainable in, though. It is easy to get the "while you're at it" disease bad, too. Oh yeah, and the Z31 turbo shares nothing with the Z32 turbo.

Use the SR20 wiring harness?

I finally settled with State Farm, to the tune of a touch under $10k. I keep the car, no salvage title is issued, as long as I signed the property damage release form (releasing them from all further liability). To that end, I've 1) pulled the motor and transmission 2) taken the car down to my body shop of choice (Loid's Rides) The motor is out of the car because it needs a new head gasket (old one was weeping coolant down the side of the block), possibly a valve job, and definitely a new coat of Datsun blue. Pulling the L24 was a lot easier than pulling the VG30DETT out of my 300ZX (that took about 12 hours, vs. the L24's 2 hours). It's relatively young, at 119k miles, and compression was looking good all around the last time I checked (about 2500 miles ago). I've also got a 6 to 1 header to install, and an exhaust to fabricate. I thought about doing some sort of swap, but I'm just too attached to the car as it was before the accident. Lousy half-shaft geometry and all, I loved that roly-poly bastard. Besides, I'll have enough power in my rebuilt VG30 with big turbos to satisfy that itch. $10k is way more than enough to complete the repairs and, I hope, to repaint the whole car. I've decided to go with the MSA type 1 urethane front valance, instead of finding NOS or used replacements for my knackered components up front, with the MSA carbon fiber bumper. I'm going to go with either a shaved rear or the MSA carbon fiber rear bumper, whichever is less expensive. Either option is acceptable to me from an aesthetic perspective. The rear panel below the black finisher is getting replaced with the lower MSA replacement panel, and panel below the lift gate is also being replaced with the upper MSA replacement panel. I've got a line locally on a set of fenders from ahead of the doors to the end of the headlight bucket for much cheaper than the replacements from MSA, but they're off of a '73 out of Washington, which means 1) some cancer and 2) metal headlight buckets. Whether those go on depends on whether it's more cost effective to repair them vs. buying the replacements from MSA (along with the fiberglass headlight bucket replacements).