Oh joy, motor swappies for old gold

[Paddy]

Faced with the need to drop a few hundred bucks on carbs and parts for the z24 dual spark engine on "old gold" I decided instead to swap it out for a more modern engine. The newer ka24 is the obvious choice, but when a v6 pathfinder fell in my lap I decided that would be a good direction to go. Hopefully it was the right choice. This engine purrs like a kitten, has zero blow by and seems like a good donor.

Now, getting the engine out was a *****. lots of hidden bolts and the weird oil sump made it a real trick to remove, but I finally got it. Now to get the enormous transmission out and start fitting to the old 720.

Can anyone suggest any parts to slap on the vg30e before it goes under the hood? I was thinking maybe main seals and oil pan gaskets, valve cover gaskets, water pump and timing belts. Anything else?

I think I will require a new clutch as well, the existing one seems to have suffered some sort of failure and there's friction material strewn all over the bell housing.

 

[veilside180sx]

Your plan on gaskets covers all the main leakage issues. Make sure there aren't any cracks in the exhaust manifolds as well.

 

[Delloro]

dunno if yours will have this, but the vg33e in my xterra has a heater pipe under the intake manifold that can leak, and is difficult to replace in situ. I would check that pipe thoroughly, and replace all water outlet and t-stat gaskets when it is out. there are some small heater hoses in the rear, those too.

careful with plug#6, mine is a severe PITA.

get the cam seals too while the timing belt is off.

I was told the balancer on my model can go bad, so take a good look at yours while it is out.

the vg motors are very good, if not hotrods.

 

[mattsavage]

I was always under the impression that a VG30 wouldn't fit...? At least that was the rumor on an old datsun forum.

 

[Paddy]

Well the vg30 would've fit, but the enormous transmission was way too large to fit so I bailed on the project and fixed up the old z24 instead. Well after driving around with it for a while I'm not super happy with it. It's gutless of course, but also runs like crap. Maybe my fault as I put a Webber carb on it and I can't seem to get it in happy tune. But I'm curious about a different engine option at some point. Would really like a small diesel but I ge out to a bigger pickup instead as this is a pretty light duty rig for what I'm doing.
Sure wish I could find a good Weber guy to tune it out a little better than I can.

 

[mattsavage]

Yeah, not many have had success squeezing th VG and VQ motors into a 720. Most just do a KA24D swap. Ive seen some of those mercedes 3.0L turbo diesels dropped in, as well as the Nissan SD25. All are super gutless, but reliable and torquey.

This is kind of a cool swap... http://steverr.tripod.com/Index.html

 

[justcuz]

Too bad about the V6 swap.
Would the intake and fuel injection system from a later model 4 cylinder bolt on and give any extra power and torque?

 

[kootenay]

I have always liked how K24 turbos sound