chrgdRapa

'88 (i think) 300zx VG30E USD engine with a broken water pipe and a missing starter, 40K and excellent running condition. Should i put it in, replacing missing started and pipe parts and replacing my weak 150K VG30E? im just not sure if the piping for 300zx is any different from the piping of a '90 maxima that i have. what do you think, should i buy the engine and do the swap? would it be possible since the cars are different?

thanks

Cliff Clavin

iTrader: (11)

you have a vg30de

not a direct swap

KLoWnPR109

iTrader: (9)

what is this piping of which you are referring to?

maximagxe90

Hi,

the engine that is chrgdRapa car is a vg30e not a vg30de because that engine is to big to fit in a max so nissan never use the engine and created a different engine and that is vg30e,

the earlier max had the VG30E engine and the 92-94 gxe had the same engine as the earlier max but the 92-94 se got the special and that was the VE30DE engine,
so this is the only two engine that was put in for the 3gen max and not for the 5 or 6gen.

Maxpwer

iTrader: (7)

The engine is the same but you will need to swap on the A/C compressor, crank pully and alternator from the maxima engine to the 300ZX engine. Be aware the the injectors on the 300zx engine were recalled for leaking and causing fires.

chrgdRapa

indeed, plus, it says VG30E on at the engine bay, lol. so the piping i was talking about is everything from air filter piping to exhaust, would they fit? its the same engine so i think it should but i got doubts since its from a diff car

chrgdRapa

really? the guy mentioned the alternator of my own i would have to use in order to swap 300zx engine into my max. my max engine's injectors are messed up, and replacing them all would cost about the same as me buying that new engine.

so the 300zx is 40K miles on it, would i really have to replace injectors cause theyre bad? how often were cases of fire reported? cause honestly, that scares the $#!T out of me

MrGone

iTrader: (30)

I'm not sure if the exhaust manifolds are the same or different, I bet they are different. mtcookson would know Just reuse the maxima's parts.

Maxpwer

iTrader: (7)

The engine fires were very common. Do a search on car-parts.com and over half the 300zx engines list "burn on top" in the comments section. I think the problem was the O-rings for the injectors went bad over time. I would check to see if this engine has had the recall done on it. Of course the exhaust manifolds are different, the Maximas VG is transversly mounted and the Zs obviously isnt.

chrgdRapa

i dont know who else to ask, my engine is weak, dont have the money for a 92SE, and the swap im thinking of might be one huge mistake. is there anyone else who knows someone whos done the swap? i know mtcookson did but his is turbocharged JDM

mtcookson

iTrader: (2)

You got pm.

I can't remember exactly what they replaced for the injector recall but that wouldn't matter when swapping the engine to the Maxima. The 300ZX engine uses top feed injectors and since you'd have to swap the intake manifold from the Maxima engine to the 300ZX engine you'll need to swap the injectors to for it to fit.

The things that you need to change are:

crank pulley
alternator and the a/c and their bracket
intake manifold (upper and lower)
exhaust manifolds
power steering pump (I'm not sure if its different on the Z motor or not but I'd swap it over since it seems to be easier to leave the pump connected to the car when dropping the engine)
fuel injectors
coolant piping (under intake manifold)
water pump

Things I recommend:
valve covers and distributor - the Z engine has the oil cap right on the cover whereas the Maxima engine has a tube that brings it level with the intake manifold. This makes putting oil in the engine easier with our fwd setup.

You don't necessarily have to change the front valve cover but if you want to retain the Maxima's distributor you will have to. The Z's dist. is smaller but I don't believe there would be any problems using it. If you want to stay on the safe side to keep from doing extra work if the Z dist. doesn't work, I'd just swap the front valve cover as well and the distributor.

You definitely want to use the 87-89 300ZX engine because it has the longer crank snout. The 84-86 Z's used a sort of v-belt crank pulley whereas the 87-89 Z and our Maximas used a ribbed belt crank pulley. I haven't found out for sure yet if our crank pulleys can be bolted to the shorter snout but I'd just keep the setup safe and go with the longer snout.