Hey guys,

I found a 94-95 JDM motor in very good condition for my 92Q. Can anyone give me some insight as to obstacles I will face in swapping this motor?

From what I understand it's not a plug-n-play swap due to come connections on the crank angle sensor being different. There may be other electrical harness differences as well. I have head of some people being able to overcome this by cutting and splicing the wiring harness, but I don't know much more than that. It would be an exercise in reading the service manual and figuring out what pulse or signal goes where and hooking up things accordingly - so if you're good at that kind of thing, then it might be worth a try.

Heath

Thanks,

The mechanic who is working on the car had found that the CAS sensor plug did not match. I was searching through older posts and found one by Q45tech that suggested splicing the original connector (from the newer model engine) into the old so that it would match.
I don't know how hard this will be nor am I aware of other connection issues yet. Another problem I am having is identifying exactly what year the new engine is (94 or 95). Is there a sure fire way to determine this?

Thanks in advance for your reply...

I'm not sure if you can refrence the number stamped on the engine somehow? I'm pretty sure '94 and '95 are the same - but I'm pretty sure they are.

Heath

Thanks,

I've got the number from the engine and have found some online resources for decoding VIN numbers but not engine ID numbers yet...

I can't find anything either. I have some pictures of a new long block that was on ebay several years ago, labeled "1990 Q45 Long Block" and I see a code on it that says 125090 right under the VH45 Stamp. This is facing the other direction from the actual engine serial number of 221122312. I have no idea if this was actually a long block from 1990, or if the code of 125090 is a date stamp, but if you saw something like 1xxx94 or 1xxx95 then it might tell you something. I also noticed that the piston heads have a "90" stamped on them.

Either way, the engine in a 1995 Model year could have a date code built in 1994. I would review both service manuals to see if there are any differences as you splice in electrical connections... but I bet they are the same.

Heath

Here are the pictures I mentioned... I thought I might as well post them. Kind of like car p0rn

DON'T DO IT !!

Swapping between 90-93 and 94-96 is expensive, confusing, and is not a clean conversion. Fuel pump, ignitors plus the CAS are all problems. And you will spend so much more time and money that you ever imagined.

I'm pretty good at wrenching, and I attempted a conversion between model years - worst automotive mistake I've ever made in my life.

If you have a 94 to 95 short block or long block, find a 94-95 car with a really clean body, paint color & the options package you want, then use this new engine. Otherwise, as Monty Python said "Run Away."

Sell the clean engine to a NICO member and never look back.

The engine you have in the pics is some nice eye candy, but by time you finish the conversion, which will never work as well as an original, you will loathe that engine and be tempted to never touch a Q45 again.

Trust me, been there, done that.

Thanks!