360bhp nissan van project

[nisvanman]

Will a vg30dett engine fit into my 1995 nissan gt cruise caravan? Has factory vg30 in it already..could this be an easy bolt together job or something alot more sinister??

[Rev_D21]

Pics or ban.

[breadbox]

guessing your motor is facing the other direction than the VG30dettt usually sits.

Probably take somewhat similair effort to try to fanagle what you can of the dett setup into your bay as much as it would take you to just build your motor for boost and do a single turbo setup. Either way its gonna take some thought and trial and error to get either of those to work.

Also what trans do you plan on using if you do get the twin turbo to fit?

CLIFFS:Do something else not involving a van or just turbo your current motor. Putting the VG30dett isn't gonna happen, doubt you'd be able to close the hood if you did.

[nisvanman]

The dett motor sits the same way as the one in it now..was going to use a z32 300zx auto trans

[WDRacing]

I don't think it will fit. It would definitely be easier to extract power by turbocharging the factory VG30. The VG30 can make 400whp all day on factory internals with some boost. If you're worried about room for turbo's, just do a remote or semi remote mount setup. Something like a 2870 turbo would not be too laggy and still get you to your power goals.

Just my .02

[yodawill2000]

Just curious, But Ive heard many peeps say that the compression ratio in the N/A VG30DE is too high ?
And that it wouldn't take long to thrash the engine with any decent boost.
Not So ?

[WDRacing]

Not so. But it depends greatly on what you consider a "decent amount of boost". It also depends on the tune and how much timing is retarded for each lb of boost. Then you can consider things like water/alcohol injection. A decent alcohol injection kit only runs about $350. Run some basic windshield washer fluid, $3.00 for something that is for -30F, and you can run as much boost as you want. I say use the -30F fluid because it contains the most methanol sold in stores. About 35%. If you add a bottle of Heet it will ramp up the mix to 50/50 methanol/water. That's about as much as you'll want to run because most pumps don't like that much methanol.

The key is eliminating detonation, aka knock. Without alcohol injection you could run 6-8psi with the proper tune without any troubles. That will net you about 80whp give or take a bit. 80 extra ponies makes your vehicle an entirely different animal. I always recommend running some sort of water or alcohol injection just for safeties sake, especially on a motor that has a high compression. I think the VG30DE has 10.5:1 static compression, not sure about the VG30E.

Point is, it can be done pretty easily and for not to much $$. I would boost a J30 in a second if I owned one.

[yodawill2000]

Good to know. I deleted the resonator on mine awhile back and there is Plenty of room for a rear mount.
But pushing 230K mileage I think I would wait for a "Fresh" engine. Thanks for the Info bud.

[WDRacing]

But pushing 230K mileage I think I would wait for a "Fresh" engine.

Here's my opinion on mileage. Do you feel like your motor is about to let go? Have you changed your fluids in the motor and trans or a regular basis? If you've taken care of the drivetrain then adding a little boost isn't going to cause a premature failure. I'm not suggesting you go crazy, but you could easily run 4-5 lbs of boost in the interim time period between engine replacement and now. It wouldn't even be very expensive. Probably $2500 for a basic low boost setup.

Check your compression, if it's decent, I say boost away!

[breadbox]

Figures, I've never seen a passenger Nissan caravan. I was thinking of a different vehicle.

[Dattebayo]

Rumor has it that those VG30E engines in the vans are W-head non-interference. Not sure if this was another make or not, but those engines had a lower compression because of that (obviously). I wouldn't suggest that you take people's advice on anything VG related since so many different types of VGs were made.

[WDRacing]

Just do a compression check. Regardless of type, it would be easier to boost the current motor than it would be to swap in a VG30DETT.

[float_6969]

As the others have said, boot what you have. WAY easier and will get you to where you want to be, unless you're looking for >400hp. A single rear/mid-mount with water injection an low boost and you'll be grinning all day.

[Dattebayo]

Most of the guys who have converted a non turbo VG to a turbo one have simply bought another turbo VG and swapped over all the parts they needed.

The only real difference is that you'll need to decide where to draw the oil from for your turbo. Everything else bolts on! The compression difference wasn't that big anyway.

[MinisterofDOOM]

But pushing 230K mileage I think I would wait for a "Fresh" engine.

Here's my opinion on mileage. Do you feel like your motor is about to let go? Have you changed your fluids in the motor and trans or a regular basis? If you've taken care of the drivetrain then adding a little boost isn't going to cause a premature failure. I'm not suggesting you go crazy, but you could easily run 4-5 lbs of boost in the interim time period between engine replacement and now. It wouldn't even be very expensive. Probably $2500 for a basic low boost setup.

Check your compression, if it's decent, I say boost away!

My old VG-e had 280k miles on it and I wouldn't have hesitated to throw some boost at it. Hell, I'd trust that motor with boost before a lot of newer low-mile engines. The VG is like the V6 version of the FJ: if you try to kill it by feeding it engine parts, it just rewards you with little origami birds in the exhaust.

[Rager]

interesting that everyone here says just boost the NA motor, when you got over to the 300zx forum and that same question is asked if you can TT an NA, everyone says that its easier to do a DETT swap then to try to boost the high compression NA. im just a little curious about that. So why not just get a TT motor and run with it?

[Dattebayo]

Because he has a VG30E, not a DE. Big difference.

[float_6969]

Exactly. This isn't a Z32 we're talking about here. It's also in a van, so now we're talking about a cross chassis swap.

[Dattebayo]

The two engine blocks have the same bore/stroke and configuration, but that's it for comparisons. The single slammer is a million times easier to work on and there is a ton of awesome little upgrades you can get for practically free for it from other Nissans in the junkyard.