'91 S13 hatch SE -- my baby
'92 S13 coupe -- DD
'88 Isuzu Trooper -- winter beater

Quote, originally posted by Philipio »

Can we rename the "facepalm" emoticon to "nala?"

Alright so as far as a VG30E is concerned...its been done by a few people I believe (namely FoxFire). From what I know, there should be plenty of room in the s13 engine bay for the VG. Width and length is no concern of your's.

What is however is height.

The DOHC is higher which would cause you to have to fab up your own hood or buy a cowl if they make them for the s13.

As far as other major mods...I'd say motor mounts, maybe tranny mounts, and more than likely a custom driveshaft.

That should get you going at least.

Now... we know its actually been done in the past so width shouldn't be much of an issue.

One problem you'll likely run into is the KA24's had a front sump oil pan (if I remember correctly). The VG-DE has a rear sump pan stock which will likely cause problems. There might be a slightly chance you could use the front sump oil pan from a VG30E as I'm pretty sure the bolt pattern is the same but the pickup tube might not be able to swap from an E to a DE. I'm working on a project right now that might answer that question but it may be a little while before I'll know.

Like Cody said, the motor mounts will have to be custom as well as tranny mounts as you'll probably be using the Z32 transmission. Transmission wise you may actually contact Mazworx (www.mazworx.com) as they do have a kit to bolt a Z32 5-speed to an SR in a S13 and S14 chassis. They may be able to provide you with the parts needed simply for the 5-speed into the S13 chassis (driveshaft, shifter, shifter bracket, transmission mount/bracket, etc.) The only thing you'll need to worry about is engine placement due to where the tranny is... though it should still be closer to the middle of the car than the I4 would be, just depends how far the tranny sticks out.

From there you have to deal with the wiring. There should be a few wires in the VG harness that you'll have to splice into the 240 harness. The tach will need to be modified (I believe you can take it apart and adjust for the new RPM signal to read correctly for the V6).

That's all I can think of at the moment. I've still not seen any good documentation on how to do the swap so a lot of it is stuff you'll have to figure out along the way.

Ahhh...well thank you for that info. Apparently I need to actually work with a VG-DE before I claim to know lol.

It makes sense though, it would be so much higher as it would be wider because the block IS in a "V" shape being a V6 and all.

thanks
i wish i was done

anyways..

a vg30DE will be one hell of a ***** to fit. the heads are huge and there wont be much room to fit the headers. forget a side mounted turbo and think HUGE hood cowl

the vg30E fits with 22inches to spare from the back of the radiator to the front of the crank pully.(with engine 1 inch from firewall)
it has about 5 inchs from the side of head to strut tower on both sides.
the rear oil pan also fits but comes real close to the power steering rack lines where they go in the rack.

it will fit. do it.
but you should be prepared to do a ****LOAD of research, and you should have almost every tool known to man in your garage before your start.

just get drunk and test fit the engine. it will give you an idea on what needs to be done.

Do you have a build thread?

If you don't you should start one!!!

Are you running just a stock VG or did you mod it at all?? I can't remember.

Exactly! I'm doing the VG30DETT swap in mine. Just got the motor today. We already figured I'd need the xmember, so I got one.

http://www.myspace.com/importdragon240

:P

M@

M@

The Z tranny is mounted in with a modified Z tranny bracket to the stock 240 location. The new mounts or the VG are built off the s13 crossmember. Had to run a oil filter relocation kit due to clearance. Also a new bracket for the alternator had to be built.

M@

in in RI

M@

200sx cross mem bolts in2 the s13 i belive.

MICRoS13's VG30DETT S13 Build

Great project! VG power FTW! NA sucks though, but surely it's better in the lighter chassis...