95 j30t major surgery.....

[95-J30tt]

i have finally found an affordable, complete set "engine, transmission, ecu and wiring etc.." of a VG30DETT, i'm taking a friend and going to see it tomorrow, the price is cheaper for the auto transmission.... i'm going to attempt the swap once i approve of the quality of the sellers engines, i'm debating between the manual and the auto, not only the auto is cheaper, i also heard that it is easier to install too, although i really want to drive a manual Ji'd really appreciate any help from this forum, my questions are:

1) for those people who have removed thier engine and transmission from the car, how hard it is to fit a manual transmission in there, does it bolt into place "mounts and shifter wise"?, and what kind of modification am i looking at? in terms of installing a clutch cylinder, fitting the clutch pedal in, and and fitting the shifter and linkage in..... i'd appreciate any input

2) i heard that the battery has to be relocated, where does it go, any ideas?

3) can the stock engine and transmission be removed as one? 4) anyone knows if the stock cluster would work with the 300zx ecu, if not, any ideas if the 300zx cluster fits in to the J housing with minimal mods?

5) i do not own a shop, however, i have "what i think is" suffecient tools, is there any special tools needed for this swap ??

6) i also read that an oil filter transfer kit has to be bought, i dont seem to find it, where should i look ?

7) finally, for fitting the turbo engine in, do i have to grind off metal from the manafold, if so, how much ?

i would really appreciate all your feedback, pictures would really help......, i'll be posting photos of the engine and transmission one i see it...... thank you again

[elwesso]

Sounds like an interesting project, quite an undertaking. Your gonna be going into sorta uncharted territory... Ill try and answer with what I know, but take it with grain of salt...

Personally I would get the auto to work first.... Note that your gonna have to save your J30 auto trans and bolt it to the VG30DETT. The trans are different from a twin turbo motor.... So really you dont need to get a trans... If you got the twin turbo trans (the RE4R03A) youd have to change the front half of the driveshaft, as the splines on the 03A are bigger than the 01A as in the J..

I would get the motor running in the car first... beat the crap out of the auto, worry about the MT later!

Relocate the battery to the trunk.

You can remove the motor and trans as one from the top...

Im not sure if your going to have to splice anything to make the stock cluster but you can make it work , it may just not be plug and play.. cetainly would be harder to get the Z cluster in there and working...

As far as tools, i have no idea but your probably gonna have to change a bit of stuff to get it to work, especially the intercooler piping...

Youll need an oil filter relocation kit, they can be bought on most Z sites.

Im gonna keep this in the back of my mind and see if I can think of aynthing else

[95-J30tt]

thank you for your reply and suggestions, it's good to know about the drive shaft, but would the 300zx tt (automatic or manual transmission) fit into the J mounts and size wise?,

what about the AC compressor, do i need to disconnect it, i heard that there is a way around it, but not sure exactly how.... help is appreciated

[elwesso]

the trans mounts should line up, i dont know if the J30/Z mounts are going to be compatible... From how it looks, your going to have to use the J30 mounts on the VG... The Z mounts and J30 mounts are different....

I would have to assume though tat the J30 mounts on the twin turbo motor would be fine though... I cant confirm this.

the trans mounts ar ethe same, youll probably have ot use the J30 mount.

just remove the AC compressor.

[Defiant]

2) i heard that the battery has to be relocated, where does it go, any ideas?

Trunkmount, I'd suppose.

Quote »3) can the stock engine and transmission be removed as one?[/quote]Yup. Quote »4) anyone knows if the stock cluster would work with the 300zx ecu, if not, any ideas if the 300zx cluster fits in to the J housing with minimal mods? [/quote]No idea.

Quote »5) i do not own a shop, however, i have "what i think is" suffecient tools, is there any special tools needed for this swap ?? [/quote]Cherry picker, and a balance bar for it would help. Prybars, and many words you do not now realize you use, nor in that particular combination. Band-aids, and a helper who's dumb enough to try something you suggest while you stand well-back, out of the way. Oh, and more beer.

Quote »6) i also read that an oil filter transfer kit has to be bought, i dont seem to find it, where should i look ?[/quote]I've seen them on eBay for $40. It mounts where the oil filter does, and you pipe out to a remote filter or filters.

Quote »7) finally, for fitting the turbo engine in, do i have to grind off metal from the manafold, if so, how much ?[/quote]All I've heard is talk to that effect. I'd found a pretty good thread about this, I'm not sure if it was here or FreshAlloy, which showed a good pic of the difference in how the motor is situated in the bays- the Z has the engine sitting three or four inches further back into the cowl. I've only seen photos of one conversion on this continent, and that was a shop I think in Washington who had it for sale. Unfinished <-hidden clue.There must be a lot more of a hangup to the job than we think of, or surely there'd be a scad of them around. Especially with how cheap Js are getting, as well as the powerplants.I wonder about the Japanese Leopard with the V-8, where's some of them, hmm?

Quote »i would really appreciate all your feedback, pictures would really help......, i'll be posting photos of the engine and transmission one i see it...... thank you again[/quote]Hopefully this post will be riddled with enough errors to draw-out those who really know what's involved, if only so they can point out what a drillhead I am, in that heartwarming internaweb way.

[95-J30tt]

i saw the engine and the transmission etc..., it looks very clean, so i bought the kit, i took some pics of the engine and the wearhouse that i bought from..... i also reserved a garage bay to work in, nothing is available untill 2 weekends from now, so i guess i'll do as much research as possible, and get the clutch components that i will need, i would really appreciate your input with any information regarding the procedure, i'm attempting to complete a full VG30DETT engine and a manual transmission swap in 2 weeks

thank you

[95-J30tt]

the picture above is of a similar engine to the one that i'll be getting, ofcourse no spark plug wires..... and the balance pipe will be in working order.....

i also took a very interesting picture, i have never seen that many skylines in one place....

[95-J30tt]

the skylines....

[95-J30tt]

there was 12 of them....

[95-J30tt]

sorry about the bad quality pictures, i took them using a camera phone

[95-J30tt]

does anyone know if the ignitor chip is the same for the J and the TT motor ?

also is the MAF usable on a TT motor

[elwesso]

your ognna want to run the Z32 MAF, ECU and all that stuff.

[95-J30tt]

i just compared the part numbers for the MAF and they are the same..... but from an unofficial website....any help is appreciated

what about the ignitor chip.... anyone has a part number for it??

thank you for all your input

[95-J30tt]

very good information, thank you Defiant, i will take everything said into consideration and i guess i'll only find out once i get to these steps, i have set a date to attempt the swap, it will be on the first weekend of november, wish me luck, i would appreciate any more suggestions and advice

[DominickJ30]

Good luck.

Please have plently of pics and everything if you could.

This is an inspiration to us all. And if I can see the step by step of a succesful swap that will make me want to pursue this more and more some day.

I would try to get time on a dyno, after everythign is said and done, first for fun and second for some major tuning. I would even see about getting your ECU reflashed with a better fuel map etc.

[elwesso]

Unfortunately those linkson FA werent TERRIBLY useful...

zerothread?id=160238

Theres another thread on here somewhere.... ill see if i canfind it later.