Poject Q-Ship Progress

[95-J30tt]

So i'm almost done with collecting the parts needed for the TT swap, it was a little more costy than i thought, but it is worth it, i opened this topic to keep you guys updated on the progress. up to now, i'm waiting for shipment of, boost controller, and JWT upgrade chip for the ECU, also bought two cold air intakes, and shopping for a driver side control arm to replace the ball joint, water pump, and thermostat, i'm going OEM so hopefully i wont have problems later........

I'll be taking high quality pictures and videos of the entire swap

work will start on November 3rd if there are no complications, wish me luck

[elwesso]

[95-J30tt]

some pictures....

[95-J30tt]

ok i've been working on this since friday morning, this is very far from over, there is nothing direct about this swap, i've done too many modifications to mension, now the drive shaft wont fit (diameter), power steering pump wont fit, oil filter has proven to be a disaster, it keeps hitting the rack assembly, the steering linkage is very close to the tubo intake.......

i'm working to take parts out of my engine and install it into here.....including transmission so the drive shaft would fit, oh and by the way, the wiring is completely different........

[Defiant]

Keep a list, and lots and lots of digital photos. Pity you're so far away, or I'd have to come up with some pretty creative excuses about why I couldn't come help.

We are rooting for you, if that counts for anything.

[DominickJ30]

Haha, sounds you you are having alot of fun tho.

I know you need an oil filter relocation kit, thats for sure.

The turbo manifold needs to be ground away to allow for the steering linkage.

[95-J30tt]

ok i used the J's transmission, now the drive shaft hooks up......, some good news and some bad news

good news........ the power steering pump didnt fit last night, i got the power steering bracket from the vg30de and installed it and it bolts right upthe transmission took most of the day, i had to replace the flywheel, and torque converter to fit the transmission inwiring seems to be promising, i used the j's wiring (including engine wiring), the fuel injector connections had to be spliced as well to fit the tt injectorsthe AC is not hitting the turbo piping anymore (well i took the turbo piping out to cut and fabricate...)

the bad news......i got some pictures, not alot but some, i'll be posting them once the engine is running and my hands clean........i'm typing this and working on the engine (the car is behind me), so you can imagine how dirty everything is by now.....the engine sits too high, it needs the mount brackets from the vg30de..... i'll be working on that tomorrow morningthe oil lines are not complete yet, specially for the turbo.... the oil filter is in a very wierd position right now.... it is sitting right above the passanger side rack and pinion brackets.....the turbo is too close to the steering linkage regardless of grinding down the bolt..... on another note.... i'll try to get the engine running (fire up test) by sunrize, which is in 2 hours by the way.....

any input regarding the bad news is much appreciated........ advice, ideas, or even comments, it would be very helpfull....

[elwesso]

Yeah I didnt know if we made it clear or not that you had to use the J30 trans not the TT trans... Guess you found that out anyway!

I will host the pictures for you on NICO with full size clickable thumbnails. just email them to me (preferrably in a zip file) and ill throw em right into this thread!

Maybe the pictures would help others.

[Defiant]

Maybe the pictures would help others.

[warn][/edit]

[95-J30tt]

will be posting pictures as soon as i can , i promise everyone that..... that is the least i can do to not make someone else get stuck as i did....

[DominickJ30]

Man, good luck.

Hope you have a nice running J30TT after this tho...

[95-J30tt]

i'm going to a garage first thing in the morning (in an hour or so....) with a list of final things to do (i hope), i have no idea how long that will take.... but hope that i can drive back my j home by next week.....

[95-J30tt]

the car is at the garage now, being worked on....... the list of things to do is

exhaust piping, the connection needs to be fabricated from the turbo manafolds side to fit the J30 exhaust system the engine mounts just dont fit.... they need to be fabricated, both engines have different bolt pattern oil filter relocation kit has to be installed.... for now, i just fabricated a very very short oil filter (that doesnt have a filter) out of some sheet metal and 3 inch exhaust piping..... the steering linkage issue was resolved by lifting the engine up by about an inch, and since the mounts have to be fabicated out of 1/2 inch sheet metal with spacers and rubber, then i can control the hight of the engine.... the transmission mount bolts broke (2 out of 4) they need to be threaded out and redone i think i have to loose the AC temporarely to make this beast work..... it is interfering with the turbo inlet pipe.... to be exact, the driver side AC compressor has a throttling valve, you can see it clearly from the driver side engine compartment, it is a bigger section of metal piping that is going into the compressor.... that sits right where the turbo inlet piping should be, i'm trying my best to come up with an idea to save both power and AC, i hope i wont have to loose the AC some hoses for the turbo return lines had to be welded into the oil pan, correct size and shape hoses has to go in..... the heater core piping, there is a valve that is located in the firewall that stops the flow of coolant to the heater core in some cases, that has to be bypassed by a straight pipe..... i'm sure i'm forgetting some other issues, and assuming that the engine will run with the current wiring.... pictures are in progress...... that is already costing me a fortune... i hope that the outcome will be worth it, wish me luck, as i had no luck with most of the swap up to this point.....

[Defiant]

Sounds like you had lots of luck, mostly bad. But here's hoping some good starts your way.

At least we'll finally have a real link for everyone else asking "Why not? It looks like it'll fit right in".

[95-J30tt]

well the swap is not as easy as it looked, the car is still not done, i wont have it untill probably mid next week, and i'm sure it will need a lot of tuning to make it work good even after it is drivable.... i've done about 90% of the work untill i towed it to a garage, and there is absolutely nothing direct about this swap, it has been a nightmare up to now, it is extremely time consuming, and mostly a financial drain........ i dont mean to discorage anyone attempting such a swap as i have not driven the car yet to have a final conclusion, but i'm saying to everyone to be sure to save up a good amount of money and do a lot of research before going for it, and be sure to not attempt this while a busy time, this work has been going for 2 weeks going on a third, investing all awake time into the project, i'll be more than glad to help anyone with information, as i said, i'll be sending the pictures as soon as this is done..... up to now, the car is not finished, and has not been even tested if it runs or not, but hopefully by mid next week....... i'll sure be updating everyone here on the progress and performance of the new engine..... and keep in mind, it's not just because they look the same they should fit the same, there are so many things that looked the same but were slightly bigger or smaller, which caused a lot of avoidable work....

[elwesso]

you should definitely write some things down, and possibly make an extra set of mounts...

[95-J30tt]

just thought i'll show you the pic of the engine bay before the new engine went in, as you can see, i found out that one of the engine mounts had a broken rubber before i removed the engine (the passanger side mount)

[95-J30tt]

a better pic of the engine bay.....

[elwesso]

Looks like your making headway... once your all done, id really appreciate it if you sent me all your pictures so i can put them into my iServe gallery..

[95-J30tt]

will do elwesso, once i'm done with running around, i finally found a place that sells 2inch and 2.5inch hose by the foot, i will need about 10 feet of that stuff to clamp up the turbo piping.... although it seems like i'm not going to have the car for another week.....
Modified by 95-j30t at 1:58 AM 11/17/2006

[95-J30tt]

got the overpriced (but it seems like the best deal in the city) turbo hose... i'll be going to the garage that my car is in tomorrow and see what they have gotten done up to now, it seems like i have the worst luck when it comes to swaps, so wish my car good luck instead i guess.......

[95-J30tt]

cross section view

[95-J30tt]

the garage didnt do anything, actually they didnt even touch the car for the week that they had it, so i towed it back and worked on it myself, and after more than 50 hours of continous work, i got the engine to start, it started up but shaking..... the transmission works and is responding (didnt take it for a spin yet)......

the engine keeps shaking, it seems to stop shaking over 3500 rpm, if i let go of the gas, the engine stalls, i need a vacume line diagram for the tt engine, and suggestions on what else i should check for, i already changed the spark plugs, and the coils seem fine... your help is appreciated

[elwesso]

Is that the only thing your experiencing? are all your injectors firing??? I will call one of my Z friends and see if he can come up with anything.

[95-J30tt]

thank you elwesso, i'd appreciate your help.......yes that seems to be the only thing, the engine is shaking, it could be a list of things to check, an experianced Z owner's advice on what to check would really help

all warnings light up when i turn the ignition to the ON position normally as if i have my VG30DE engine, but transmission had a problem (light was flickiring) and i fixed it (it was a transmission plug that was not hooked up properly)

now the next thing is the vacuum lines, there are atleast 7-10 lines that i have blocked (the lines are still there, i just corked the endings) and i think that this is a major factor in making the engine vibrate.... but i could be wrong, i mean there are a lot of things to check, and i'd appreciate any help on what to check for

[elwesso]

im going to call my Z guy tonite and see if I can come up with anything... Once i get home, ill get you a vacuum diagram (next week). If I forget please email me.

[95-J30tt]

this is the list of things that i found that i have to check untill now:

1) vacuum lines, places where they connect, the problem here is that there are too many (7-10) that i didnt find places for, so i just sealed them, although that might not work with all of them, some need to go somewhere for the engine to work correctly, i need to know the crutial vacuum lines for the engine to work right, a list of them is much appreciated

2) checking the fuel injectors with a multimeter, what voltage and wattage should i look for (numbers)

3) check spark plug signal, again voltage and wattage is what i dont know

4) pcv valves, how to get to them and inspect them

5) engine oil is slightly leaking from the present oil filter (fabricated to fit), got an oil filter relocation kit but with the wrong thread (needs to be rethreaded) to fit, working on that

6) connecting the boost controller, where should it be tapped to (not a priority yet)

7) fule temp sensor, the plug is missing, i have to work that out

8) i filled up the coolant reservoir and the rad, and once i started the car, it overheated, so i shut it down and checked the levels, they were both ampty, the reservoir for sure, but the rad not sure, there was nothing when i opened the the rad ( guessing that it needs more coolant added to fill the engine lines too, otherwise i will have a major issue), the engine lines didnt have a drop of coolant when i installed it

9) adjusting throttle, i heard that it is also possible to adjust from the air idle valve, is that true?, the only why i can keep the engine running (shaking also) is to adjust the throttle to about 1100 rpm

10) cleaning all coil and injector connections, (the injectors had a green powder on the inside of the wire connections, spark plug connections are clean though, but will clean them again anyway)

any advice on the above would really be helpful

[elwesso]

1. For the vacuum lines, ill get you a diagram on monday. otherwise, download the ZX FSM from http://www.phatg20.net . Let me know if you have problems getting it extracted and stuff.

2. You will want 10-14 ohms from the injectors. Id check them directly and through the subharness to make sure the connectors arent bad.... its known the injector connectors go bad on the twin turbo motors.

3. im not sure, best way I could think of to check for spark is just to do it the old fashioned way. take the plug out and ground it against the plenum and see if its sparking... be sure to ground it against the intake manifold and not the valve cover, as it wont ground on the valve cover!

4. All in the FSM, but the PCV valves should be the same as on the regular VG, but im not sure

7. Fuel temp sensor?

8. if no coolant came out anywhere im going to say your probably OK and just refill it again.

9.

[elan]

Damn, that project looks awesome. I wish I had a garage to do things like this.

[95-J30tt]

about checking the injectors, the service manual mensions removing the crank angle sensor (but leaving the plug connected) and turning the sensor shaft, it says that i should hear clicks from the injectors.... but i'll do it both ways, i'll check with a multimeter too, but should i check each injector plug saperately?, and how to go about the procedure?, i'd appreciate your help by the way, thank you elwesso, i got the vacuum diagram for the TT engine from the website you mensioned, however, it is not very clear, so if you have one that is more detailed, it would be very helpful, thank you again for your time man

i live Montreal and the car is in Ottawa Canada (long story), i'll be going tomorrow to work more on it and hopefully drive it back by sunday, so any information before hand is much appreciated, thank you for all of your help

there is a picture of the car once i brought it back from the garage on saturday, you can see that the engine sits too high compared to the pictures above which were taken after i removed the engine and fixed the mounts issue on sunday and monday, the car is due is due for a paint job from the front