Need help with vg30dett please

[brendanl96]

So I found a vg30dett engine for sale on Craigslist, the guy told me it probably needs new bearings, piston rings, an oil pump,a turbo rebuilt, and a timing belt.He's asking 300 with the engine stand. Can someone give me some advice if I should go for it? Please help! I've been trying to get my hands on a TT z, I'm so tired of my na.

[RubyRed300ZX]

It would all depend upon what you intend to do with the engine after you buy it. Rebuild the motor yourself? Have an engine rebuilder do it for you? Try to put it into your N/A? Buy another Z32, a TT, and replace that motor with this one? Just use the block for a coffee table in the garage? Give us a little more to work with here.

[300ZXttZMAN]

+1 you need to give us a little more info.

[brendanl96]

Oh sorry about that. I would plan on rebuilding it with a buddy of mine and try to get around 400whp.I was thinking of building it up and wait until I find a good na body with a blown motor and has a manual transmission.my z I have now has 35,000 original miles and don't really wanna devalue it.

[bartZ32tt]

Sounds like it's a complete longblock that he's including? $300 is a pretty good deal, assuming that the crankshaft is good (which is basically impossible to determine with the engine fully assembled). If you plan to rebuild, then a new/completely rebuilt set of turbos are a given anyways and so is a new oil pump and timing belt kit.

Here's my advice - if you're looking for sub-550 whp and willing to wait, I'd just look for a good running USDM motor. I bought mine for $950 IIRC and it came with ALL accessories, new timing belt kit, underdriven crank and overdrive waterpump pulley, new fan and clutch, all new seals, turbos, plenum/throttlebodies, oil cooler, the whole 9 yards. It took me over 6 months to find. but it's a hell of a lot cheaper than rebuilding an engine.

If you're not willing to wait that long or you want to have a motor built beyond stock specs, then go for it. Manually turn the engine over to make sure it's not seized. make sure the heads are 40P. and ideally look for an engine that didn't have any knocks (excessive bearing wear) which could cause damage to the crankshaft. Just know there are a lot of things that can go wrong with a motor build if you do it yourself and/or cheap out. Especially depending on who does the machine work for you.

[brendanl96]

Yeah its the whole motor.He told me that he had just taken off the plenum and polished it.I'm going Friday to go and look at it and see how it is in person.