Blew up my engine

[Rastadori]

So I blew up the engine on my NA 90 Z32 today and I always thought of doing an engine swap. I thought about it hard and knew 100% wanted to keep it in the nissan family. My goal is to RB25 swap. It seems to be reasonably price and my car is in the garage and I am willing to put it away for a year or however time it needs to get done right. I have my own daily to get around so this is a serious project I'd like to take on

http://www.jdmquality.com/nissan-infini ... on-93.html

my question is

For those of you who did it, what recommendations you have? what were costs of build if you did it yourself? how much fabrication/custom work had to be done?

Any tips? Before anyone says you can do vg30dett, I know I can but I feel like I may as well swap an engine I love into a car I truly love. Why not combine two loves into one?

Transmission? Will the NA work with an adapter? or TT? or just do the full transmission and engine swap? I want to get as much knowledge as possible. Would greatly appreciate it

[NolimitZ32]

IIRC and this is from research and reading not experience, you will need to mate the bell housing off the RB trans to the VG rear half (if you want to keep the VG unit) as far as gearing I have no idea. Also I know that this is the case with the RB26, not so sure about the 25. In the end though if the engine comes with a trans there really is no reason to reinvent the wheel, it would be much easier and cheaper to just have a new or modded trans cross-member and driveshaft fabbed. Concerning power, you should be able to get away with splicing or re-landing a few (meaning 20-30) wires and you should be good to go. The majority of the work will be in rearranging the rad, condenser, and other stuff at the core support to make the longer engine fit.

[z.Leinbach]

As far as i know the RB20DE/TT share the same internals for the trans. But the bigger RBs will have defferent internals built to handle the boost hits and power..
Look up transmision compairison rb25det vs vg30dett

[Rastadori]

Thanks for the replies. It's definitely something I feel will be difficult but im really determine to put the time into it. I know it will be worth the build, at least for me. I always wanted an RB in a 300zx and even though everywhere I read people say not worth it for the money, its more about the want, I know I can make good power out of this engine. I know my main goal would be like 350whp but slow steps. First is getting a list of things I need to get together for this.

[z.Leinbach]

I feel ya bud, a tried and true Z has a straight 6 in her, as far as ive read the r32 and z32 share the same trans, even into the r33 and jspec z32s which us spec Zs never saw the updated trans internals

[NolimitZ32]

As far as i know the RB20DE/TT share the same internals for the trans. But the bigger RBs will have defferent internals built to handle the boost hits and power..
Look up transmision compairison rb25det vs vg30dett

The Z32 trans in stock form (both TT and NA internals are identical through 1998) can handle 900+ hp so the Z32 trans is plenty stout to handle anything a stock or even built RB25/26 can throw at it. Like I said in my previous post, If you are going the RB path and already have an RB with a RWD trans, just use it.

[Rastadori]

Thanks for the replies, as of right now, the Z is sitting in my garage waiting for a decision. My thing is, what route to take. Seeing how my goal is 400hp to the wheels I've done countless research

VG30DETT
RB25
VH45

any other engines that you guys recommend that will be easier to install than others? I know these will all have some work to do in order to drop it in my 2+2 but what will get me the most bang for buck for the goal I need? VH45/q45 tend to go really cheap here in California. But i'm sure there is heavy work to fit in. More than the vg30dett? I wonder.

[NolimitZ32]

Installing the VG30DETT would certainly be the easiest thing as there is less custom work involved, getting 400 hp out of a completely stock VG30DETT is also very possible on stock turbos with supporting mods and a proper tune.

[itsa300zx]

Installing the VG30DETT would certainly be the easiest thing as there is less custom work involved, getting 400 hp out of a completely stock VG30DETT is also very possible on stock turbos with supporting mods and a proper tune.

Agreed 200%, unless you want the "unique" factor, stick with a VG swap. Will be far cheaper than any other engine swap into a Z32. No custom fabrication needed as all parts are available retail.

[DCaff300ZX]

All truth above, swaps always will cost more unless the owner both has experience with custom fab, has the materials necessary to do so, and experience making a foreign motor(s) work in a new chassis. Only two real reasons for a swap- can't get what you need normally, or to be different.
All swap builds leave out the details of making everything work together, which is actually about 80-90% of the actual work necessary- doing mechanical work takes specific amounts of time while working out bugs and glitches does not, not to mention hunting down obscure info and parts from far away sources and dealing with all of those hassles and uncertainty, and costs. You are experiencing that here, having to ask questions and do research instead of just doing the work.
Pretty much a no-brainer to go with established and easily-available tech over the opposite, especially when it meets your needs.