VG30DETT Swap Build

[Pablo808]

Hey, I'm planning on doing a TT swap for my N/A Z32.
I'm thinking of getting the motor and trans from jdmenginezone (Link underneath)
https://jdmenginezone.com/products/nissan-vg30dett
I'm waiting on a quote to get it shipped to me since I live in Hawaii and shipping is pricey since it has to be on a plane or a boat.
I'm going to start this build some time around next year maybe beginning of the year after March when I come back from vacation.
I don't have 5k+ to waste on building the block so I'd want to try and achieve hitting below 500hp to play safe on stock internals.
I heard stock internals are good for 600hp but I don't want to throw a huge chunk of money out the window for this build.

Question: What does everyone think on what should I spend on to make 500hp on stock block?


When I get the motor, I know for a fact that I'll be putting a new timing kit, gaskets .etc
Also wanted to know if I should go with OEM Nissan timing kit or if I should go with aftermarket.
I was also thinking of getting new head gaskets to play on the safe side, but what does everyone think so far?

What's everyone's thoughts?

Like I said above, I don't have a huge budget but I'd want to keep my budget to 2 maybe 2.5k for performance parts.

[NolimitZ32]

Are you talking 600crank or 600 wheel because 600 crank is possible but not recommended on stock internals, 600 wheel is for conversation's sake impossible. At 600hp you're on the verge of blowing things up. Building internals is NOT a waste and in a 600hp build would be a small portion of the total ( considering just the turbos run in the $3k range). The stock pistons are a ticking time-bomb at those power levels its almost a guaranteed BOOM.

[Pablo808]

Are you talking 600crank or 600 wheel because 600 crank is possible but not recommended on stock internals, 600 wheel is for conversation's sake impossible. At 600hp you're on the verge of blowing things up. Building internals is NOT a waste and in a 600hp build would be a small portion of the total ( considering just the turbos run in the $3k range). The stock pistons are a ticking time-bomb at those power levels its almost a guaranteed BOOM.

All I heard from other threads were that stock block was good up to 600hp to crank. My goal is to reach 400-500hp crank.
My budget on performance parts is 2-2.5k max because I'm gonna spend a lot just to get the motor here. I'm asking on everyone's opinion on what I should buy with that budget in hopes of increasing 400+
Thanks.

[NolimitZ32]

Stock block and crank are good for 1000hp, stock rods and pistons are not. sorry to dash your dreams but if you want to do this right $2.5k is not going to cut it even if you do all the work yourself. You can hit 400ish on stock engine and turbos (assuming they are in good shape) you'll need all breather mods, an EBC, a good tune and new injectors which all together is around $3k. A set of 500bb turbos is $2k by itself and then you still need the injectors, and tune, and breather mods or at least upgraded ICs if you want to make the most of the bigger units. Realistically if you want to play with anything over 400chp you need $5k to do it comfortably.

[Pablo808]

Stock block and crank are good for 1000hp, stock rods and pistons are not. sorry to dash your dreams but if you want to do this right $2.5k is not going to cut it even if you do all the work yourself. You can hit 400ish on stock engine and turbos (assuming they are in good shape) you'll need all breather mods, an EBC, a good tune and new injectors which all together is around $3k. A set of 500bb turbos is $2k by itself and then you still need the injectors, and tune, and breather mods or at least upgraded ICs if you want to make the most of the bigger units. Realistically if you want to play with anything over 400chp you need $5k to do it comfortably.

Thanks for the feeeback.
I’ll see how far I get into the build once I get the motor.
All I’m thinking for now are headers, manifold, injectors, EGR delete and protune on 92 octane. Then for basics, I’m going to do a new timing kit, gaskets .etc
I’m not aiming for a total StreetOutlaws build, but would be nice to at least hit 400+.

[DCaff300ZX]

Stock block and crank are good for 1000hp, stock rods and pistons are not. sorry to dash your dreams but if you want to do this right $2.5k is not going to cut it even if you do all the work yourself. You can hit 400ish on stock engine and turbos (assuming they are in good shape) you'll need all breather mods, an EBC, a good tune and new injectors which all together is around $3k. A set of 500bb turbos is $2k by itself and then you still need the injectors, and tune, and breather mods or at least upgraded ICs if you want to make the most of the bigger units. Realistically if you want to play with anything over 400chp you need $5k to do it comfortably.

Thanks for the feeeback.
I’ll see how far I get into the build once I get the motor.
All I’m thinking for now are headers, manifold, injectors, EGR delete and protune on 92 octane. Then for basics, I’m going to do a new timing kit, gaskets .etc
I’m not aiming for a total StreetOutlaws build, but would be nice to at least hit 400+.

As NoLimit suggests reaching the 400+ HP plateau you speak of is going to cost over $5K easily, and personally I spent north of $10K on mine although I did buy the best stuff possible (but, also bought most parts during major sales such as Black Friday, and found a pair of JWT 530bb turbos+DP's used for $1.1K), and rebuilt my trans and more as well...but that's the point, there is a LOT to consider and purchase to make everything work correctly and most importantly, last a long time. 120K service alone is around $1.5K unless you do it yourself, turbos are easily $2K plus the DP's and installation kit, upgrade smics are $500 range, and injectors/harness/connectors get you to around the $5K mark already and there's still a lot more to buy and consider such as a new ECU and management and all of the service bits and pieces, and more possible such as fixing the VTC's or any other age-related issue.
It all adds up FAST.

[NolimitZ32]

Stock block and crank are good for 1000hp, stock rods and pistons are not. sorry to dash your dreams but if you want to do this right $2.5k is not going to cut it even if you do all the work yourself. You can hit 400ish on stock engine and turbos (assuming they are in good shape) you'll need all breather mods, an EBC, a good tune and new injectors which all together is around $3k. A set of 500bb turbos is $2k by itself and then you still need the injectors, and tune, and breather mods or at least upgraded ICs if you want to make the most of the bigger units. Realistically if you want to play with anything over 400chp you need $5k to do it comfortably.

Thanks for the feeeback.
I’ll see how far I get into the build once I get the motor.
All I’m thinking for now are headers, manifold, injectors, EGR delete and protune on 92 octane. Then for basics, I’m going to do a new timing kit, gaskets .etc
I’m not aiming for a total StreetOutlaws build, but would be nice to at least hit 400+.

Headers are referencing NAs, Manifolds is usually the word used referencing Turbo applications (this is the quick and dirty explanation and just an FYI, not busting your balls)
If you are going to replace the manifolds DO NOT buy stainless, they all warp, I trashed 3 sets before biting the bullet and spending on the aftermarket cast pieces.
When you say manifolds I think you mean down-pipes, if you go down-pipes you'll need new cats or testpipes as well because I believe the USDM exhaust doesn't bolt up.
A dyno tune is best but definitely much more expensive, but OTS EPROM is probably the way to go if you are going mild, all the renowned tuners have maps for any mods you may do.
Overall, you have your list backwards, maintenance especially the timing belt should be FIRST, then all the other aftermarket stuff. Trust us, we've learned the hard way.

[Pablo808]

Thanks for the feeeback.
I’ll see how far I get into the build once I get the motor.
All I’m thinking for now are headers, manifold, injectors, EGR delete and protune on 92 octane. Then for basics, I’m going to do a new timing kit, gaskets .etc
I’m not aiming for a total StreetOutlaws build, but would be nice to at least hit 400+.

Headers are referencing NAs, Manifolds is usually the word used referencing Turbo applications (this is the quick and dirty explanation and just an FYI, not busting your balls)
If you are going to replace the manifolds DO NOT buy stainless, they all warp, I trashed 3 sets before biting the bullet and spending on the aftermarket cast pieces.
When you say manifolds I think you mean down-pipes, if you go down-pipes you'll need new cats or testpipes as well because I believe the USDM exhaust doesn't bolt up.
A dyno tune is best but definitely much more expensive, but OTS EPROM is probably the way to go if you are going mild, all the renowned tuners have maps for any mods you may do.
Overall, you have your list backwards, maintenance especially the timing belt should be FIRST, then all the other aftermarket stuff. Trust us, we've learned the hard way.

I haven't had a set of stainless headers warp on me before. I usually stay away from cast iron because the stock ones on any car always crack. Don't know what the quality is on aftermarket cast.
Maintenance is always going to be first while building this motor since these engines are hard enough to get your hand in the different places when it's in the car and yes I do know these are interference motors so timing is the absolute first thing I'm doing when I get the motor.
II'll change the exhaust too on the car from the headers down to the muffler.
Thanks, that's some good info to know. I'd rather ask people who know more about these cars rather than pulling a risky mistake myself. Last motor that I rebuilt was a 400 CID Ford V8 and that was just an overhaul project for a pickup truck in 2014.
So I guess you can say that this is my first motor I'm rebuilding that's newer than 1978 lol.

[Pablo808]

Thanks for the feeeback.
I’ll see how far I get into the build once I get the motor.
All I’m thinking for now are headers, manifold, injectors, EGR delete and protune on 92 octane. Then for basics, I’m going to do a new timing kit, gaskets .etc
I’m not aiming for a total StreetOutlaws build, but would be nice to at least hit 400+.

As NoLimit suggests reaching the 400+ HP plateau you speak of is going to cost over $5K easily, and personally I spent north of $10K on mine although I did buy the best stuff possible (but, also bought most parts during major sales such as Black Friday, and found a pair of JWT 530bb turbos+DP's used for $1.1K), and rebuilt my trans and more as well...but that's the point, there is a LOT to consider and purchase to make everything work correctly and most importantly, last a long time. 120K service alone is around $1.5K unless you do it yourself, turbos are easily $2K plus the DP's and installation kit, upgrade smics are $500 range, and injectors/harness/connectors get you to around the $5K mark already and there's still a lot more to buy and consider such as a new ECU and management and all of the service bits and pieces, and more possible such as fixing the VTC's or any other age-related issue.
It all adds up FAST.

When I first get the motor, maintenance is always first before I go overboard on performance parts. I want to work on getting aftermarket parts on the actual car too since I know for a fact that a stronger engine is going to make a weak spot somewhere in the car.
400hp is my goal. I'll try put out a bigger budget later.

[NolimitZ32]

There are NO high quality aftermarket SS manifolds available for these cars unless you can score a set of some trust units ( I think that's who used to make them). Its not the fact that they are stainless but the fact that ALL of the ones readily available are cheap Chinese POSs. That and the fact that the manifold is actually the only thing supporting the weight of the turbo and a portion of the exhaust creates a condition where they warp and crack. The cast units, both OEM and aftermarket are all quality enough and thick enough to resist cracking and actually offer better performance.

[Pablo808]

There are NO high quality aftermarket SS manifolds available for these cars unless you can score a set of some trust units ( I think that's who used to make them). Its not the fact that they are stainless but the fact that ALL of the ones readily available are cheap Chinese POSs. That and the fact that the manifold is actually the only thing supporting the weight of the turbo and a portion of the exhaust creates a condition where they warp and crack. The cast units, both OEM and aftermarket are all quality enough and thick enough to resist cracking and actually offer better performance.

I'll stiffen my budget eventually when I first purchase the motor and grab everything that's needed for the conversion w/ working a/c.
I was looking at those power packages on z1motorsport. The 400hp TT Power Package was at $1200 and comes with intake, ecu upgrade, boost jets(Have never used those before. If you could fill me on some info of those that'll be great) gauge&pod pillar, exhaust, plugs and K&N filter charger kit.
I also looked at the 600hp package that was 5gs and figured if I was spending that much money, I'd spend money on building the bottom end too and just go all out on this build.
I'm still enthusiastic on learning more about this build. I'll try to learn as much as I can every step of the way!